The religious vessels are very often elaborately decorated. Incense jars have figures of the gods; the turtle, symbolical of longevity; and medallions of flowers surrounded by borders of green, crimson, and gold; or we may find the gods Shiou-ro and Tossi-toku, of longevity and wisdom, in a landscape; or combats between gods and demons; or a mixed assemblage of priests and gods. When the figures of the gods are painted on the inside, the value of the piece may be estimated by the delicacy of the figure-painting. Hotei, the god of contentment, and Yebis, are thus figured on the inside of bowls; and sometimes there are priests and women; or gods and dragons may be seen on the inside and priests on the outside. Satsuma ware is also found in round, oval, or leaf-like plaques, on which are religious and other subjects.

More frequently in Kaga or Kutani porcelain, but sometimes also in Satsuma ware, will be found what are called “Saki” cups. Saki, or Sake, is the chief alcoholic drink of Japan, and is made from rice. It is drunk hot at meals from the cups known by its name. The size of these pieces precludes excessive decoration, and the artist concentrates his efforts upon fineness of execution and finish.

Satsuma ware is imitated at Kioto, Yokohama, and elsewhere; and there is little doubt that pieces from these and other centres make their appearance in America under the adopted and better known name. There are no safeguards against deception but the character of the dealer and the good taste and judgment of the collector.{171}

The Kioto pottery is scarcely inferior to the Satsuma. In the specimen given below (Fig. 122) the creamy ground is covered with a kaleidoscopic mingling of colors—yellow and purple chrysanthemums and cloudy masses of gold—and in the foreground is a cock with brilliant plumage. Other specimens are seen in Figs. 121 and 123.

Awata ware is made at Kioto, and is of more recent origin than the Satsuma, from which it differs chiefly in the more pronounced tint of its prevailing yellow color. From the latter characteristic it has been called “egg pottery.” In the older pieces the style of decoration is entirely different from the Satsuma. The colors used were few in number and neutral in tone. More recently the artists of Kioto have resorted to imitations of Satsuma and porcelain decorations, and of European styles.

Awadji, an island lying between Shikoku and Hiogo on the main-land, produces a ware closely allied to the Satsuma. The glaze is similar, and the kaolinic paste is made from ground granite found on the island. The body-tint is an extremely soft yellow, the cracks are usually fine, and the painting, outlined in black, is decided in character. From the same place comes a strong stone-ware, either with a glaze containing oxide of copper or covered with a slip. The cracks are few in number, and the prevailing colors are green and russet.

The above names, it will be observed, are taken from the places of manufacture. The Banko-yaki is so called from the inventor,{172} and is made in the province of Ise. The paste is a strong, tough brown clay, on the unglazed surface of which enamel painting is laid. Very curious tea-sets, wonderfully light and thin, considering the quality of the paste, are made of this material. They are finished by hand, and the marks of the potter’s fingers are distinctly visible on the clay. These sets are favorites with the tea-drinkers of Japan. The white clay of Ise is also used for pieces which come in biscuit. When mingled with brown clay, the result is a peculiar mottled ware which has been extensively made within the past few years. The Banko tea-sets are sometimes moulded into imitations of the lotus leaf.

The ware called “Kiusiu” takes its name from the island already mentioned, but the exact place of its manufacture is not more specifically stated. The illustration (Fig. 124) exemplifies a large division of this pottery, which has designs more or less intricate graved in the paste, and painted purple or plum and turquoise blue. Some of the finer pieces have floral and emblematic incisions, and upon the mingled blue and plum are chrysanthemums and vines in lacquer.

Karatsu is a town in the province of Hizen, and gives its name to a buff ware, somewhat resembling in appearance the darker qualities of Satsuma. It is finely crackled, and the designs are exceedingly varied. The tenacity of the fine paste is exemplified in the reticulated vase (Fig. 125), in which frequent changes in the pattern lighten, by variety, the sombre character of the piece. It will be observed that the inner surface is also decorated, and we are thus{173} furnished with another of the frequently recurring evidences of inexhaustible Oriental patience. All the examples of this ware that we have seen are covered with very minute cracks like those overspreading the Satsuma. The paintings on tea-jars and incense-pots consist usually of flowers, insects, vines, or bamboos sometimes arranged in panels or medallions.

It is unnecessary to do more than enumerate the wares of Suma, or Soma, Nara, Ota, Idsumi, and Kaga, or Kutani, some of which approach translucent porcelain so nearly as to be entitled to be classed with it. The specimen (Fig. 126) is chosen for illustration for a very simple reason. The body is a common coarse earthen-ware, manipulated with very moderate skill, and the color is in no respect remarkable. But in the disposal of the grape-vine decoration, and the drawing and attitude of the bird, there is nothing more simple and tasteful to be seen on the finest Hizen porcelain. In spite of the humble material, the artist compels our admiration. It is the same wherever we turn. Art is for all, the lowly as well as the rich, and embellishes every object, the humble as well as the most costly.

There are simple vessels, teapots, and cups of clay, thin as Banko ware, and left unglazed, which for very oddity and perfection of workmanship are worthy of a place in any collection. Mr. Sutton has two pieces of this character. One is a{174} teapot shaped like a partially folded leaf, having its sides drawn together to form the spout. The lid is like an elongated shell, and is thin and light as a leaf. The other is also a teapot, and resembles a transverse section of the trunk of a tree. In such cases the artist is lost sight of in the workman. The pieces have neither grace of form nor beauty of color, but they attract us by the evidences they present of human skill contending with difficulty for the mere satisfaction of overcoming it. They are triumphs of dexterity and curiosities of design, and, though rare, are thoroughly representative of a large section of Japanese ceramic art. In its simplest as well as its most beautiful forms, nature is the promptress of the Japanese artist (Fig. 127). We see it in such works as those last described equally with the gorgeous flowers and drooping vine, and in it have the key to the infinite variety of the art of Japan.

PORCELAIN.

In porcelain, even to a more marked degree than in pottery, the peculiarities of Japanese art are noticeable. It brings before us, in their greatest perfection, the careful attention to finish, the harmonizing of the most minute detail with the general design, the boundless variety of form, and the general tendency to subordinate the latter to ornamentation and color. The porcelain is less capable of resisting heat than that of the Chinese.

enlarge-image
Fig. 128.—Japanese Porcelain Plaque. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)
Fig. 128.—Japanese Porcelain Plaque. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)

The leading differences between the porcelains of the two countries are that the Japanese is of a purer white and finer quality, that{175} its glaze has a bluish tint, that the Japanese forms are usually better, and that the extravagancies of Chinese decoration are toned down. The chief kinds of porcelain are the Hizen (also called Imari and Arita), the Owari, Kioto, Mino, and Kaga. That made at all these places, except Kaga, belongs chiefly to the kind called Blue Sometsuki, in which the body is decorated before glazing with painting in blue derived from cobalt. This is the leading ware for home consumption. Two of the largest and finest specimens that ever reached America were the immense vases and basins sent to the Centennial Exhibition. Reference has been made, under China, to the difference between the blue-and-white of Nankin and that of Japan, viz., that the white of the latter is purer and the blue less transparent. This may be accounted for in part by the inferiority of the cobaltiferous ore of Japan, a circumstance which has led to the importation of Chinese material, and in part by the preparation of the paste. After{176} being thrown or moulded, dried and turned, the piece is covered with pure white clay, and then fired. The blue is afterward laid upon the clay coating, and the piece is then glazed and fired a second time. By the use of the engobe, the brilliancy of the blue is thought to be enhanced, and the purity of the white must certainly be heightened. The glaze is always felspathic, and is said to be less vitreous than that of China. Like the Chinese, who made a specific ware for the “Sea-devils”—a euphonious title under which all Europeans were classed—the Japanese export from Hizen the same kind of porcelain as that above described, but decorated with bright enamel colors on the glaze, and specially designed for the foreign trade. The preparation and application of the enamels have been described elsewhere. Paintings in relief are produced by first laying on the parts to be colored a white enamel of powdered glass and stone, and white-lead. This ware, once called “Gosai,” and now “Nishikide,” is made at Arita, and was taken to Nagasaki, and thence to the island of Desima, at the time when the old Dutch traders had their settlement there. It is, therefore, this porcelain that the Dutch first carried to Europe. That we may have a clear view of the early condition of the industry, we must bear in mind that it was in Hizen Shonsui put in practice the knowledge he had acquired in China. It may, therefore, be expected that the older specimens will show signs of Chinese teaching. That such is the case may be inferred from the grouping usually resorted to in dividing Japanese porcelain into Chrysanthemo-Pæonian and Rose families.

The place of manufacture of many of the pieces belonging to the first of these families is authenticated by the peculiar Japanese symbols, such as the Imperial bird, the guikmon, the Imperial three-clawed dragon, the crane, bamboo, and other emblems of longevity; and also occasionally by the pieces being decorated with legendary subjects. One of the latter is decorated in part with a water-fall, and a carp leaping upward. The latter is a symbol borrowed from China. Mr. Griffis says of it: “The koi (carp) leaping the water-fall is a symbol of aspiration and ambition, and an augury of renown. The origin of the symbol is Chinese. In an old book it is said that the sturgeon of the Yellow River make an ascent of the stream in the third moon of each year, when those which succeed in passing above the rapids{177} of the Lung Men become transformed into (white) dragons.” The same writer relates that when Kiyomori was on his way to view Kumano water-fall, a carp leaped out of the river upon the deck of his state barge, and gave rise to much rejoicing as an auspicious omen.

The paste and glaze of the older examples of Hizen are inferior to the Chinese, the former being thick and comparatively coarse, as we find it in the accompanying specimen (Fig. 129). Such are the early vases of the Chrysanthemo-Pæonian family. They represent, apparently, the struggles of workmen attempting to apply recently acquired knowledge to native material: a further proof that when the Dutch opened their trade with Japan the porcelain industry was still in its infancy. That the manufacture improved with great rapidity is evident from such examples as the dish (Fig. 130), an admirable specimen of early Gosai, or Nishikide. Only five colors were employed in its decoration: black for the outlines; red, green, gold, and blue, as we find them on Mr. Pruyn’s dish, where the design in green and gold is laid upon a ground of red and blue.

In modern times the porcelain of Hizen includes some of the best coming from Japan. To it we owe those exquisite specimens of a double art, trays and vessels of porcelain, decorated with flowers and birds in raised enamels, encased in a cover of bamboo wicker-work.

The rich beauty of the coloring of Hizen porcelain is indescribable. One vase has birds and flowers freely disposed over its surface; another has reserved panels with birds and chrysanthemums in relief, and a third has birds and flowers on a ground of gold, and set in an open border. The desire to imitate{178} objects in shape as well as color animates the porcelain makers of Hizen equally with the potters of Satsuma. We find bowls in the form of chrysanthemums, with the turtle, emblem of longevity, on the cover. One of these is decorated with stripes of blue, red, green, and yellow, and the favorite flowers and insects in enamel colors. The rare and very handsome example of the striped style of decoration here given (Fig. 131) was obtained at the Lyons sale, and is presumed to be Hizen. The ground is a rich, clear blue, and the cranes, foam of the sea, and stripes on the neck are in white relief. One is anxious to find the sentiment embodied in such admirable work; and it is possible that the piece may originally have been meant to convey a wish for long life—by its symbol, the crane—amidst the mutations of life, symbolized by the foam of the ever-changing sea.

Another piece, about which nothing certain is known, is the vase (Fig. 132) from Mr. Gibson’s collection. It is a marvel of patient and skilful labor, and tells its story, no doubt, if the means of reading it were only within reach. The lattice of gold hangs as fine as gossamer over the figures, with sufficient transparency to leave the inside scene distinctly visible.

To return to the modern pieces known to be Hizen, the bowls above mentioned are supplemented by others shaped like pomegranates, and profusely decorated, sometimes both inside and outside, with flowers, insignia, and the imperial bird, or with vines and flowers in gold and crimson. All{179} family relationship is forgotten in the boundless variety of the designs. A charming illustration of the refined taste of the porcelain manufacturers of Arita was shown at the Centennial Exhibition. It consisted of a set of three small oviform vases of a very delicate blue tint, and having white dragons for handles.

The ware called Seidji is the Japanese céladon, and is decorated after the style seen in China, i. e., with designs graved in the paste. It has been made in Hizen ever since Shonsui settled in that province (A.D. 1580).

Leaving Arita, in the mean time, there are several other centres demanding notice. The blue Sometsuki is also made in Owari and Kioto. With the latter is associated a distinctive ware called Eraku, from its inventor, in which gold decoration is laid upon a red ground. When Indian-ink and the colors of the Nishikide are found on Kioto porcelain, it resembles very closely that of Hizen. Green, blue, and gold are frequently mingled. As in other Japanese centres, the tendency to seek nature, either for suggestion or imitation, manifests itself at Kioto. Vases with crabs and shells, moulded and painted from nature, remind us of the “Palissy pottery, with raised fishes and fruit,” of which Sir R. Alcock speaks.

Somewhat similar to Eraku is the porcelain of Kaga. One quality (Fig. 133) of the latter has gold decorations on red or black grounds, mingled with flowers or birds traced either in red or black, according to the ground. On another quality the painting outlined in black is executed in enamel colors, resembling those already described as in use at Arita. The result is exceedingly rich. One specimen is described by Mr. Jarves (“Art of Japan”), and is in the possession of Mr. Sutton, of New York. On the outside are two men holding a{180} conversation on the bank of a stream. In the inside, in Chinese characters—adopted by the Japanese in the third century—of the minutest size, is the following explanatory legend: “Kutzen had already taken his leave, and was wandering by the side of the river, in a sorrowful and dejected manner, when he met a fisherman, who said, ‘Why do you come here? You are the chief retainer of King Sâ.’ Then Kutzen replied, ‘The men of the world are all alike, and as impure water, but I am pure; they are all drunk, but I am sober; therefore I come here.’ Then the fisherman said, ‘An ancient sage has said, that if we mix and associate with the men of the world, we shall become as impure as they are; if they are all drunk, we shall be drunk also, and drink the sediment of their drink; if they are dirty, we shall be dirty also, and stir up the mud.’ Then Kutzen replied, ‘It is an ancient saying, that when we dress our hair, we necessarily rub the dust off our cap; when we bathe in hot water, we necessarily shake the dust off our clothes; thus, when our hearts become pure, we shake off all defilement. I would rather throw myself into the river, and become food for the fishes, than to be defiled by thee!’ Then the fisherman went away smiling, and, striking the gunwale of his boat, sang: ‘So, when the waters of Soro are clean, I will wash my cap-strings; when the waters of Soro are dirty, I will wash my feet.’”

Another cup, also in Mr. Sutton’s collection, of a somewhat similar shape, i. e., narrow and high, has the inside almost entirely covered with these minute characters. It is well-nigh impossible to trace with the eye those near the bottom, and an estimate can thus be made of the difficulty of forming them with the brush.

The decoration particularly characteristic of Kaga porcelain is the multiplication of portraits. Occasionally we find medallions of flowers set in colored borders, or fishes on the inside of both vessel and cover, and vines and flowers on the outside; but the style most intimately associated with Kaga is the marvellously minute and highly finished painting of a crowd of faces. We have seen whole tea-sets thus covered with what were said to be portraits of the poets of the Mikado’s empire, executed with the most perfect finish upon a ground of pure gold. On the inside of one shallow dish there were no fewer than sixty-five portraits, on a ground of gold, and on the outside was a landscape set in flowers. A plaque of the same ware had eighty{181} figures, on a gold ground, surrounding a medallion with flying birds. The porcelain chosen for these curious and wonderful works is generally thick and of inferior quality, but the effect of the red and gold grounds, occasionally alternated with blue, is unquestionably rich.

At Owari, the favorite colors would appear to be deep-blue and white, the former being generally used as a ground, the latter for ornamentation. The seat of the manufacture is Seto, a village near Nagoya, the chief town of the province of Owari. Many of the heavy vessels now manufactured at Seto have no artistic quality to recommend them, but smaller specimens of great beauty may occasionally be met with. A small vase, for example, has the base of deep blue, the body of a paler shade, and the upper part deepening into a purplish tint. In some cases the white decoration is in relief.

The porcelain and pottery reaching us from Yeddo (Fig. 134), or Tokio, is largely composed of the different provincial products. They are taken to that city to be decorated, and it is almost impossible in the great majority of cases to specify the place of manufacture.

Two remarkable methods of decorating porcelain bring us to lacquer-work and cloisonné enamel. Lacquer is a sap or gum drawn by tapping from the Rhus vernicifera, a tree cultivated for this special purpose throughout the entire southern half of Japan. After settling, the lacquer is mixed with certain coloring and hardening powders, and strained. The black quality is made by exposing the viscous gum for a few days to the open air, and then diluting it with water which has been for some time mixed with iron filings. The greater part of the water is then allowed to evaporate, and the process having been completed, the lacquer is ready for use. The ornamentation consists either of mother-of-pearl, ivory, or metal{182} sunk into the lacquer before it hardens, or of painting. A pair of tall Arita vases (Fig. 135) which were exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition are examples of this work. Cloisonné enamel on porcelain (Figs. 136 and 137) is to be regarded chiefly as a curiosity of workmanship, and as an example of the irresistible tendency discoverable in Japanese artists to cope with mechanical difficulty, since the very same effects are produced with greater ease upon a metal base. Fine metallic lines divide the surface into spaces or cells shaped according to the details of the design, and are fixed to the biscuit by means of a fusible glass. The compartments are then filled with vitrifiable enamels. These adhere after firing, and help in keeping the cells in position. The chief places of manufacture are Owari, Kioto, Osaka, and Tokio.

The system of classification which has hitherto been followed has been adopted mainly in view of the modern manufactures of Japan. In looking at its more ancient wares, the place of manufacture being, us a rule, unknown, the method of assortment usually adopted is that based upon general characteristics and marked features of resemblance.

Following the Chinese parallel, there are, as we have said, Chrysanthemo-Pæonian and Rose families, but no Green. The symbols, whether consisting of flowers or animals, are the best and safest indications of the origin of the piece. Many of the finest specimens belong to the Rose family, and it may as well be stated at the outset that, in spite of the most careful examination, it is sometimes impossible to ascribe its representatives to a certain{183} origin, and to discriminate between the works belonging to China and those of Japan. It follows, that the finer pieces are at least equal to anything China has produced. The Japanese used to say that human bones formed one of the ingredients of the paste, and a meaning can easily be found for the phrase in the vast amount of labor demanded by its preparation. Specimens of the best qualities are as plentiful in Europe as in Japan: perhaps they may become more so, should the revival now expected not fulfil the hopes entertained regarding it.

Jacquemart classes all the fine porcelain of Japan under the Rose family, to which would, therefore, belong the vase (Fig. 138) with white enamel decoration in relief. The subdivision of the family into vitreous and artistic porcelain, leads us to examine the grounds upon which it is made. The distinction between the two classes is based upon the styles of decoration. In both qualities the paste is very translucent, and the colors are pure and clear. The decoration of the vitreous is sparing, and of most careful execution, as though the artist were desirous of giving full effect to the natural beauty of the ware in its unadorned purity. Decorations of this kind gradually merge into more elaborate designs, in which flowers are strewn in careless grace over the opalescent paste, or animals are represented in gold and red. In the artistic porcelain the decoration partakes more of the Chinese intricacy and richness of color. Red, blue, green, yellow, and black mingle in scenes in which appear birds, figures, and flowers surrounded by deep and delicately shaded borders. It is inferred, from the gradually increasing elaboration of{184} the designs, that the vitreous preceded the artistic, and that the latter, while tolerably distinct from the Chinese Rose, is the result of Chinese influence.

By reason of his faulty chronology, M. Jacquemart’s inference is open to question, although in the present case he appears to have reached a partial truth. The condition of both China and Japan, as it can be gleaned from history, detracts somewhat from the probability of the assumptions of the author mentioned. Europeans first landed in Japan in 1542—almost contemporaneously with the earliest manufacture of porcelain—and, in 1549, the first missionaries followed. In about thirty years (1581) one hundred and fifty thousand converts had been made, and, in 1583, an embassy was sent to the Pope by the daimios of Kiusiu. This is the Japanese embassy referred to by Mr. Marryat, as having taken place in 1584, on which occasion statuettes of the Virgin and Child, made by the Chinese for the Japanese Christians, were sent to Europe. But foreign intrigue and sectarianism soon culminated, and, in 1587, Hideyoshi banished all foreign missionaries. The work of proselytism was still carried on in private by the Jesuits, and, in 1596, a number of missionaries and converts were crucified at Nagasaki, in Hizen. The history of the next forty years is a narrative of desperate contention between the missionaries and converts on the one side, and the government on the other. The drama may be said to close with the massacre already referred to, which took place in 1637, when thousands of Christians were put to the sword, and thousands more were drowned in the harbor of Nagasaki.

Mr. Marryat says that the interference of the missionaries with the decoration of porcelain, by substituting scriptural subjects for the “ancient orthodox native patterns which had existed from time immemorial,” is supposed to have contributed to the massacre. In connection with this subject the same author quotes from D’Entrecolles, who states that a plate with a biblical subject was brought to him, and that he was told this porcelain was formerly carried to Japan, but that none had been made for sixteen or seventeen years; that apparently the Christians of Japan had made use of this manufacture during the persecution, but that discovery led to a stoppage of the traffic, and that, in consequence, these works had been discontinued at King-tehchin.{185} Mr. Marryat then refers to the Chinese pieces sent with the Japanese embassy to Europe. Assuming the statements in these passages to be correct, it is well to bear in mind that they refer to three distinct fabrics. To arrange them chronologically, the last mentioned is the porcelain made by China for Japan, before its own porcelain industry was well established, or before it had, at least, been fully developed. This supports the statement that porcelain was not made in Japan until shortly before the middle of the sixteenth century. Otherwise, the question will at once occur, Why, if porcelain had been made in Japan since the thirteenth century, should China be supplying it with religious figures before any steps had been taken in Japan against the new religion? The first of these measures, as we have seen, was the decree of Hideyoshi, passed in 1587. The porcelain first referred to by Mr. Marryat comes second in point of time, and is the porcelain assumed to have been made in Japan, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, for the Christian converts. The second is, chronologically, the last, and is the porcelain made in China, about 1755, for the same people, secretly adhering to their religion one hundred and twenty years after the supposed extirpation of Christianity in Japan. Père d’Entrecolles was attached to the King-teh-chin mission, about 1770.

While the religious troubles above detailed were keeping Japan in a continual ferment, China was disturbed by the incursion of the Tartars and the usurpation of the Tai-thsing Dynasty.

In Japan we have, therefore, an undisturbed period of not more than fifty years (1540-1587) favorable to the development of that originality which, according to Jacquemart, preceded the imitations of Chinese work. Some singular evidence, which may be read, in one sense, to the same general effect, has been brought together by Mr. B. Phillips, in the Art Journal, in an article devoted to the Medicean porcelain in the Castellani collection. He says that two Japanese experts examined the specimen engraved (Fig. 223), and pronounced the decoration Japanese. The style they attributed to Shonsui, and said that it was in use toward the middle and close of the sixteenth century. A piece made by Shonsui bore out the statement, it having similar decorations, even to the flutings, which had been shaded after the same method. If the Medicean bowl be examined,{186} simplicity will be found to be the most marked characteristic of the decoration; and it is clear that it must have been copied from some Japanese porcelain made not later than 1580.

It may, therefore, be accepted as an incontestable fact, that there was an essentially Japanese style of decoration, in the sixteenth century, applied to the blue Sometsuki, the porcelain destined for the home market. This leaves the question of precedence between the vitreous and artistic porcelains of the Rose family practically unaffected. The probabilities are all against M. Jacquemart’s, or any other unqualified, theory of chronological sequence. The natural course is to proceed from copying to originality. Japan had acquired the ceramic art from China. Was it not likely to occupy its attention first with copying the simpler styles of its experienced neighbor, while feeling after an equally simple originality, such as the Italians copied in their turn? From the first it may have had foreign taste to contend with, although very little is said of a Portuguese trade in porcelain. Then came religious troubles to delay the development of a national art, and, before they were over, the dynastic war in China, causing a suspension of production in that country, offered an inducement to supply a new market, and thus again delayed the national development. One historical fact remains to be added: In the “Ambassades Mémorables,” published at Amsterdam in 1680, we find allusion made to porcelain sent from the Dutch trading-post at Deshima, which did not sell well, because it had not flowers enough upon it. This clearly cannot refer to the “artistic” porcelain of Jacquemart, with its rich borders and crowded flowers. The only inference from all that can be said and legitimately assumed is, that the Hizen porcelain of the beginning of the seventeenth century is that which most nearly resembles the Chinese. To that period, therefore, may chiefly be assigned those rich pieces of Japanese Rose which have been confounded with the Chinese. When, afterward, the native taste for simplicity was striving to reassert itself, it was again obstructed by the demands of Dutch trade, and the requirements of such connoisseurs as Wagenaar, who objected to a paucity of flowers. It follows that many specimens of the vitreous class must have been subsequent to the artistic. From the beginning of the history of Japanese porcelain external influences were at war with native taste, and, in determining{187} the sequence of styles, the only data open to consultation are the events ostensibly giving rise to them—the demand creating the supply—and the probable condition of the skill required to meet that demand.

The porcelain long called “Indian” belongs to the same period of Japanese art, and was taken home in ship-loads by the Dutch monopolists of the seventeenth century. The foreigners, not content with compelling, by the influence of trade, a bending of Japanese styles to their taste, supplied special designs. These were reproduced by the Japanese artists with the most exact and faithful precision.

A story is told by Captain French, of New York, that when in China some years ago, he saw fit to increase his wardrobe to the extent of a new coat. He had some difficulty with the native artist of the shears, and ultimately decided to send him an old coat as a pattern. In due time the new garment was finished, and so closely had the pattern been followed, that the sleeves were adorned with a couple of patches which had been applied to the old coat to prolong its natural term of service to the end of a protracted voyage. The Japanese artists were equally unreasoning in their adherence to designs supplied from Holland. They laid them upon the porcelain in all their crudity and roughness, and treated imperfections as the tailor did the patches—reproduced them with the most serious and unwavering fidelity to their model. Contact with foreign nations has never had any other than a bad effect upon Japanese art, excepting, of course, its early intercourse with China. The genius of the people has been diverted from its natural channel. Art has been in a manner subjugated by commerce. Hence came gloomy forebodings and threatened ruin. Whenever it had an opportunity of seeking free expression it changed its character. Instead, therefore, of classifying Japanese porcelain according to the families above mentioned, a better method might be to divide it into two great groups, the national and the commercial. A great part of the so-called artistic porcelain of the Rose family will belong to the latter class. It can only be distinguished from the Chinese by observing the points already noticed: the paste, the glaze, the greater purity of the enamel colors, the insignia, symbols, and flowers. Even these will fail at times, as the Chinese, led away by the improvements effected by the Japanese in imitating{188} their styles, did not hesitate to appropriate those of Japan; while Japan, we are told, imports Chinese egg-shell for decoration.

Apart from these doubtful pieces, we can see, in both the old and modern porcelain of Japan, national characteristics struggling with many difficulties to reach artistic expression. We find technical skill handling the finest material, shaping it into graceful form, and decorating it with carefully compounded colors of the greatest beauty. The true history of Japanese art is the history of the art we have called national; all else is but the prostitution of individual genius to commerce. In the former we find simplicity and piety mingled with a humor often quaintly clothed in clay. There is abundant material for research, for study and close examination. The art of Japan has many peculiarities, and will give an observer ideas of artistic beauty and æsthetic taste which an American or European education would never suggest. In it we find, above all things, a deep love and admiration of nature. All this is contained in the lines of the Laureate of the Potter, which are charged with the very essence of Japanese art:

{189}

CHAPTER VIII.

PERSIA.