megata 雌型

A type of mould used in metal casting and ceramics. Megata refers to a hollow mould into which molten metal, for example, could be poured. This then hardened taking the desired shape, and was removed from the mould. In methods such as lost-wax casting *rōgata 蝋型, the megata was often used together with an inner core known as *nakago 中型 or *ogata 雄型. The inner core was fixed in position using pieces of metal *katamochi 型持 or metal pins *kōgai 笄. The melted metal was then poured in to fill the space between the two moulds. In this case, megata referred to the outer mould sotogata 外型 and ogata to the inner one. Megata and ogata literally mean "female" and "male" mould respectively.