Masamune Date (1567-1636) was a feudal lord who lived in Sendai, north-east Japan. From his tomb a <i>makie</i> box was excavated in 1974. The size of the box is 225mm x 63mm x 47mm. On the surface of the lid, is found <ime-makie</i>. The wooden part of the lid had degraded and was missing; only the <irushi</i> layer remained on the top of the box. The body of the box had deteriorated slightly but retained its original shape to a great extent. However, all the <irushi</i> layer separated from the body. In order to preserve this layer of <irushi* 1, a wooden box of the same size was made and the pieces of <irushi* 1 layer were adhered to it. Thixotropic acrylic emulsion was used as an adhesive for the lid, but * 2mugi-urushi</i> (mixture of flour and * 2urushi</i>) was used to adhere the original <irushi</i> layer to the body of the box. The reason is that when the lid was restored by applying <irushi shitaji</i> (ground coating) to the missing parts of the original layer of <irushi</i>, the acrylic resin swelled, making the restoration of the missing parts difficult. -- AATA