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INTRODUCTION

Historical Outline - Glaze - Design - Colour

Classification and Identification

Potters' Marks and Seals

How can one distinguish Japanese porcelains from Chinese, and how can one recognise modern reproductions of genuine old wares are questions on the lips of many visitors to Japan who have neither time nor inclination to go deeply into the study of Oriental ceramics but who would like to take home with them representative pieces of authentic Japanese ceramic art. This little volume is an attempt to answer these and similar questions. In the field of ceramics, as in so many other cultural activities, Japan is at a great disadvantage through lack of available information in any European language. The facts set forth here, inadequate as the author knows them to be, are the result of long years of study and painstaking research.

The new-comer to Japan is confronted with a bewildering array of porcelains all very much alike to his unpractised eye and he has nothing in his own experience or culture on which to base his judgements. Familiar with European porcelain and its traditional decoration influenced by the classical arts of Greece and Rome, he searches in vain for similar motives or colours in the decoration of Japanese wares. Japanese pottery and porcelain decoration is Oriental in origin and as yet there are very few traces of European influence.

Any discussion of Japanese ceramics must take into consideration the fact that true Japanese wares are practically unknown outside of Japan. This statement is startling and perhaps needs some explanation, but it is fundamentally true.

Although political history is out of place in a book on ceramics it is impossible to substantiate the above statement without a quick review of pertinent events of the last four hundred years. Sometime about the year 1549 St. Francis Xavier found his way to Japan. He was in the vanguard of the first wave of European civilization. For about eighty years Japan allowed free entry to all Europeans. It must be remembered that these were eventful years in Europe. Spanish ships roamed the high seas, then Portuguese, then Dutch and finally English ships followed. It was in the same order that these countries' ships came to Japan bringing news of the religious wars in Europe and of the establishment of colonies in North and South America. Requests for trading privileges in Japan were followed by vain and unwise boastings and threats by undiplomatic ship captains. Thoroughly alarmed, the Japanese government closed its doors to all comers and Japan entered a period of seclusion which lasted two centuries and a half. The laws against the entry of Europeans were vigorously enforced; Dutch traders, the only licensed traders, were confined to the tiny artificial island of Deshima at Nagasaki and the number of trading ships, fixed at first at from seven to ten each year, in 1790 was reduced to one. Trading with Korean and Chinese merchants though not encouraged was not prohibited and ceramic wares from those countries continued to trickle into Japan through the ports of Kyushu, especially those of Karatsu and Nagasaki.

In 1598 Hideyoshi, the Shogun or Supreme Commander of the Army of Japan (there was no navy), set out to conquer China by way of Korea. The only result of this invasion was a great influx of Korean potters into Japan, as a military expedition it was a flop. It was at this time that the craze for pottery utensils for cha no yu was at its height, and every Japanese general brought back with him at least one expert potter to teach the native Japanese potters. It is said that one powerful and rich feudal lord brought thousands of potters to Japan. Excellent clay materials were discovered in Kyushu and by the beginning of the eighteenth century the Kyushu kilns were producing a good grade of porcelain. Meanwhile, the people of Europe had discovered Chinese porcelains, "China ware" they called them. But even in China the production of porcelain was in its infancy and enterprising Chinese merchants came to Nagasaki, Karatsu and Imari (ports in Kyushu) to buy porcelain for re-sale in Europe.

Thus it came about that Japanese porcelains were sold in the markets of Europe. These wares had been produced for that purpose, following Chinese models. Any divergence from Chinese originals was through ignorance or carelessness, not intentional, until Kakiyemon developed his own individual style. Kakiyemon's designs were well liked in Europe and it must be admitted that they are representative Japanese. In Japan, however, even Kakiyemon's wares have not been considered of any great importance because he worked in porcelain and the Japanese have always preferred pottery to porcelain. The porcelains sold abroad, and known as "Old Japan" in Europe, were called Brocade Imari (nishikide imari) in this country and have received but scant notice here. It is doubtful if there is a private collection of such wares in all Japan. Their over-crowded surface decoration runs counter to all Japanese art canons and their shapes unmistakably distinguish them from articles made for use of the Japanese in Japan-A pair of vases should warn the purchaser against the dealer who offers them as valuable old Japanese art, because for their own use the Japanese never make anything in pairs and vases are not used in a Japanese house. An exception to this statement must be made with regard to articles for Buddhist religious ritual which requires flower vases and candle sticks in pairs but these are never decorated in colour. Likewise six plates or cups exactly alike must have been made for export, for the Japanese make things for their own use in sets of five; and there is always some slight variation in design or shape.

The first attempts to make true porcelain in Japan were made at the beginning of the seventeenth century at a time that the laws prohibiting trade with Europeans were most vigorously enforced. Porcelains were smuggled out of the country through the agency of Chinese traders, some few were also sold to licensed Dutch traders for sale in the Dutch East Indies and India. In the year 1664 one Dutch ship cargo of 45,000 pieces of Imari porcelain was consigned to Holland directly. Under such circumstances, it is but natural to find strong traces of non-Japanese taste in these export wares.

To understand Japanese ceramics consideration must also be given to the history of the development of this art and the influences upon it of the close cultural contact of China and Korea. It is a fact that the potter's wheel was known in Japan since prehistoric times and that glazed tiles were made as early as the sixth century. Japanese history makes repeated mention of Korean potters coming to Japan and there are several towns and villages where tradition says the descendants of those potters still live. It must be admitted that it is little more than tradition for the villages and their inhabitants are today indistinguishable from their neighbours. It is believed that Jingu Kogo, the Japanese Empress who conquered Korea in the third century, brought back with her a number of potters.

The middle of the sixth century is the date officially assigned to the introduction of Buddhism into Japan. The immediate and lasting effect of this was the development of the arts of architecture, sculpture, bronze casting, weaving, painting, etc. but no mention is ever made of any form of ceramic art at that period. Buddhist ritual requires metal ceremonial utensils and the humble art of pottery had nothing to contribute. But pottery articles are essential to the simple ritual of the indigenous religion of Japan, Shintoism. Unglazed earthenware (suyaki) is, to this day, used for the daily offering of rice and sake, alike in humble homes and before imposing shrines.

Although, as we shall endeavour to show elsewhere in this book, the art of pottery and porcelain was known to some degree from very ancient times in the West, it came to flower in China along with so many other arts in that great country. China in the T'ang and Sung dynasties reached a pinacle in art that has never been surpassed and seldom equalled elsewhere in the world and Japan was an eager pupil of those master artists. Actually there were two ways in which Japan received Chinese art and culture, one, perhaps the first, through Korea and Korean teachers; and the other through Chinese teachers who came to Japan direct from China and through Japanese who went to China to study.

Japanese ceramic art has felt the influence of four great waves of culture from outside the narrow borders of the country.

First:—That of the T'ang dynasty (618 to 907) and the Sung dynasty (960 to 1126). This brought with it the beautiful old celadons which are known as seiji in Japan, and three colour pottery (sansai). In their attempt to reproduce the Chinese celadon wares the Japanese happened upon Yellow Seto (ki seto yaki) in the sixteenth century and this ware has been accepted by them as meeting their aesthetic needs.

Second:—From Korea in the sixteenth century came a crude form of porcelain, white wares (kakuji) and under-glaze blue wares (sometsuke). Koreans built kilns in North Kyushu at Karatsu and in South Kyushu at Satsuma and elsewhere.

Third:—About the middle of the seventeenth century the Chinese art of overglaze decoration on pottery came to Japan and on the foundation laid by the labours of Korean and Japanese potters that art was developed in Japan. This was the art of the Ming dynasty (1368-1643) and the early part of the Ching dynasty (1644-1910) which from small beginnings in the island of Kyushu spread all over Japan by the eighteenth century.

Fourth:—An influence undoubtedly cultural but of doubtful artistic value exerted by the demand for wares pleasing to the people of other countries. This was first felt early in the seventeenth century, spearheaded then by Dutch traders and now in the twentieth century spearheaded by American merchants. Although this influence is directed on wares for export it did not fail to affect the purely local art.

It is not the intention of the author of this book to sit in judgement on the ceramic art of Japan in this the year of our Lord 1951 (the 26th year of Showa in Japan) for we feel that is best left to the discretion of our readers. Our effort is to enable them to recognize what is essentially Japanese and what is due to outside influences. We believe that Japan has contributed to the ceramic art of the world through her love for simplicity and naturalness. We acknowledge Japan's great debt to older cultures but we also think that she has something of value to offer in return. Of all the forms of art in Japan that of pottery is perhaps the best illustration of the Japanese sense of individuality. Japanese porcelains do not show this as pottery does, porcelains are more apt to follow stereotyped shapes and patterns; but in the making of pottery wares the Japanese artist allows his individual fancy full sway.

The seclusion policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate has placed Japan in the position of being the least understood country in the Orient, culturally. When, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Japan burst forth from this seclusion, her people's admiration of foreign things knew no bounds and, alas, also no discrimination. Japanese taste and Japanese art went into abeyance and ceramic productions in their attempt to appeal to European taste (of which Japanese artisans had not the faintest conception) reached unbelievably low levels. Thus, to judge Japanese ceramic art by things that have gone abroad is obviously unfair. The attitude towards wares for export taken by the Japanese in general is one of total indifference, they simply ignore them, and it is doubtful if there is in existence any writing in Japanese on this subject.

Of course some of the productions intended for export must have remained in Japan and these have a certain value to Japanese collectors as marking successive steps in the development of Japanese ceramic art, or are treasured as family possessions because of the circumstances under which they came into the possession of the owners. With the early wares of Imari as with the once scorned woodblock prints (ukiyo ye) the passage of time has brought about a change in the thinking of some Japanese. And dealers in antiques for the tourist trade and manufacturers are obligingly reproducing these old wares for sale to the tourist of today.

Historical Outline of the Development of

Oriental Ceramic Wares

The history of the development of decorated ceramic wares runs parallel with the history of many other forms of culture and civilization, from West to East. Cultural influences originating in such ancient civilizations as Egypt, Persia, and Greece traveled eastward by camel caravans over the deserts and by ships over the seas. This fact must not be forgotten in any attempt to understand the cultural products of Asia, and cannot be ignored when trying to judge and appreciate today's ceramic art of Japan. Okakura Tenshin wrote in his Book of Tea "Asia is one" and by this he meant one in cultural forms, for the great cultural current from the West in its surge to the East influenced all countries of Asia.

Group known as rokkasen, or The Six Poets; one, sometimes two, of them are women. This group has five men and one woman.

Glazes

The history of industrial art objects made of clay begins with the sunbaked tiles of Egypt and Mesopotamia and the development of glazes in those countries.

The secret of the preparation of glazes was known only to the potters of Babylonia and Assyria for many years and the current of that form of culture flowed eastward through Persia and Gandra before it entered China. In the ruins of Han dynasty settlements (202 B.C. to 220 A.D.) green glazed pottery is still being brought to light and fragments of glazed articles of the Shang dynasty (1766 to 1123 B.C.) are found.

Historically it must be considered that the art of glaze of the Han dynasty was the result of the amalgamation of two arts, that which came from the West and that which sprang up in China independently. From this fusion of native and imported arts the Chinese potters developed other colour glazes and the three colour (sansai) pottery of the T'ang dynasty (618 to 907) came into existence. Among the many arts which came to Japan from China was that of pottery glaze, and so the ancient art of Egypt in the West came to Japan in the East. The Shoso-in at Nara, the Imperial Repository, has many articles of pottery closely resembling the Tang three colour wares and from them we can get an idea of the condition of the Japanese ceramic art of that period.

Pottery and the art of glazing made steady progress in Japan, especially in what is known as the Momoyama Period (approximately 1574 to 1602). This period can be called the renaissance in Japan when the cult of cha no yu was at its height and under its influence and encouragement pottery making rose to a high level and in the subsequent half century the manufacture of porcelain was begun.

It was during this period that Japan received from China the arts of under-the-glaze decoration in blue (sometsuke or gosu) and of over glaze enamel colours (akaye or gosu-akaye), which completely revolutionized the native ceramics. The perfection of the art of porcelain decoration was a slow development in China from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century when it flamed suddenly into a beauty that has never since been equalled: and it burst upon Japan with an impact that is still felt.

At first only a small part of Japan was affected because all contact with the outside world was confined to a few ports in Kyushu but by the beginning of the nineteenth century this cultural wave had swept all over Japan. Japanese ceramic artists, all unknown to themselves, were following the tradition of centuries, the aesthetic tradition and the accumulated experiences of the potters of the world, and they in their turn produced things of beauty and of individuality.

With the removal of the veil of mystery from the manipulation of ceramic glazes and the mastery of their use, a new element entered and a great modern industry was under way.

Like the knowledge of glazing, pottery design, indeed all art, followed an eastward course. Greece was the home of many arts and its god Keramos, who watched over its potters and clay workers, gave not only the name by which wares made of clay are known today but also many beautiful patterns to the potters of the world. Geometrical patterns which the Egyptian potters used in pre-Sumerian days three thousand years ago reappear in today's small decorative patterns. The Phoenicians gave us the first band decoration, the anchor chain, and conventionalized palm trees. The honeysuckle meander and lotus-rosette of the Proto-Corinthians and Ionians are found all over the world and in the modern designs of Japan today are motives of most varied national origin.

Designs from Greece, Persia and China, cultural relics of those countries, abide side by side in utmost harmony here in Japan, the cultural melting pot of the Orient. Grecian ceramic art has died out, that of Persia is a thing of the past, China where the ceramic art came to such glorious perfection has fallen on evil days and has nothing to teach us now. Only in Japan can be found traces of that cultural stream still pursuing its eastward course.

The migrations of the art of glazing and of design have been discussed at some length, we come now to the consideration of how to determine whether an article is of Chinese or Japanese origin. For this purpose it is absolutely necessary to touch and handle the thing in question for the sense of touch is more to be relied upon than that of sight in this case. Ceramic-connoisseurs have allowed themselves to be blindfolded and through their sense of touch alone have correctly determined the age of an article and the kiln at which it was made.

To be able to intelligently differentiate between Chinese and Japanese ceramics by design only really requires a considerable knowledge of Chinese art. But an easier approach to the subject, and sufficient for the average person, is to familiarize oneself with what is essentially Japanese and to use this knowledge as a foundation from which to progress. Most of the designs or Japanese ceramics came from China via Korea. Korea seems to have passed designs on practically unaltered and to have been very little affected by this operation; for Korean ceramic designs remain even more distinctly Korean than those of Japan are Japanese, while Japan continues to use and to adopt Chinese designs side by side with purely Japanese designs.

Korean influences are discernible in some Japanese wares, namely the mishima wares, although even here it is the method of developing the design rather than the design motive. It was through Korean potters' skill and ability rather than through Korean artists' designs that Korea played so great a role in facilitating the passage of Chinese ceramic art to Japan This may also be due to the fact that after the introduction of Chinese things by Korea the Japanese very quickly looked to China directly and sent students to study the arts there as well as invited Chinese teachers to Japan.

About the only purely Korean design that can be found on Japanese ceramics is that known as "unkaku" cloud and bird design-thin attenuated cranes flying among equally attenuated cloud forms.

Left to right—The three leaf design in a circle is the mon or crest of the Tokugawa family and is found on porcelain designed for them and on many export wares.

The mitsu tomoye, purely Japanese development. The Koreans have a similar design but with no spaces between the three comma-like objects). Its exact meaning is not known, it is of very ancient origin; it may express the universal idea of trinity. It is found painted or carved on objects used in both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples as well as on roof tiles of private store-houses.

The strange looking object with cord and tassel is a store-house key, used to symbolize wishes for great wealth.

The two circular figures of the crane and the tortoise are found on all types of ceramics.

The last is one form of noshi, the dried flesh of the abalone (awabi in Japanese) used on all presents. It is symbolic of food and a reminder to all Japanese that their forefathers were dependant on the bounty of the sea for their food. This form of noshi is found on the oldest Imari ware designed for use in Japan.

Designs that are purely Japanese in origin and development include the Ship of Good Fortune (takara bune) and the treasures it carries (takara mono); various modifications of the Japanese symbol used on gifts (noshi); the flaming pearl (hoshu) sometimes single, frequently three together; the three comma shapes in a circle (mitsu tomoye); certain popular food fishes (tat, katsuo) and shell fish (ebi, hamaguri); designs based on the markings on a snake's skin, fish scales and the carapace of the tortoise; the tortoise as pictured with a long tail (mino game); vegetables such as egg plants (nasu) turnip (kabu), red pepper pods (togarashi); the crests (mon) of many well known Japanese families, including the chrysanthemum crest of the Emperor (kiku no mon) and the paulownia-flower-and-leaves crest of the Empress (kiri no mon)', small pine seedings with the roots attached (waka matsu); the Seven Gods of Good Fortune together or separately (shichi fukujin); the six poets of old, one of them a woman (rokkasen); court ladies (tsubone); historical figures of warriors in armour; and bugaku and gagaku dancing figures.

Three court dancers; the male figures are bugaku dancers, the female is a gosechi mat dancer.

Chinese designs are drawn with a strength and verve that is seldom equalled by Japanese designs which tend to be more elegant and refined. Chinese ceramic designs were executed by master craftsmen, often dozens of men worked on one piece like the assembly line of modern motor-car manufacturing. Japanese designs are more often the result of the carefully, even lovingly, detailed work of a single potter (although Japanese potters since earliest times have been accustomed to specializing in a certain design or colour in endless repetition). There is practically no Chinese ceramic design that has not at sometime been copied by the Japanese potters. In general it may be said that the Chinese are more prone to use human figures than the Japanese; especially the eighteen arhats (rakan), gaunt old men seated in various attitudes of meditation; the eight sages, old men each carrying a symbolic object, frequently pictured in a bamboo grove (sen nin); Chinese children at play; or the beautiful ladies known to Europeans as "Lange Eleizen". Besides the numerous flower and bird combinations, the curly-haired lion-dog (kara shishi), the one horned kirin and the dragon (ryu), fabulous animals of Chinese lore, are frequently to be found on Japanese porcelains. A kind of bird of Paradise, purely a creature of Oriental imagination, known as hoo in Japan (which is sometimes mistakenly translated Phoenix); meander or arabesque patterns based on the honeysuckle, lotus or chrysanthemum; stylized mountain and wave designs known in Europe as the "Rock of Ages pattern"; a quite distinctive design called the cloud pattern; the scepter head (jui or jooi) pattern; the figure of the Buddhist teacher Daruma who in Japan becomes the subject of jokes and is drawn in most un-dignified positions and situations; representations of the peach, pomegranate and Citron, usually as repeat patterns in borders; are common to both China and Japan. The Chinese frequently incorporate the characters for good fortune, longevity, riches, etc. in the pattern as a type of decoration while the Japanese artist delights in distorting characters into a semblance of the thing itself. The eight sacred objects of Buddhism are found more often on Chinese wares, as also the symbolic objects of the eight sages. Houses and other architectural features so often found in Chinese porcelain designs are practically never found on Japanese wares. Here it may be well to mention that the "Willow Pattern" design so well known in Europe and America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries seems to have been totally unknown in Japan until within the last few years.

Stylized flame forms used on Chinese ceramics and more or less faithfully copied by Japanese potters. Solid colours within strong outlines, or just indicated by brush strokes.

Upper line; various picture-graphs of kame or tortoise. Lower line; picture-graphs of the word sakana or fish.

Stylized Chinese cloud forms, sometimes found on Japanese ceramics. Solid enamel colours within strong outlines.

The most striking difference in designs on Chinese and Japanese ceramic wares is to be found in the use of borders and repeated panel designs. The Chinese potter delights in covering the surface glaze of any article with a mass of intricate designs, he seems to have a horror of undecorated surfaces; the beautiful sea-green celadons have incised or moulded designs under the glaze; the three-colour and five-colour porcelains have conventionalized cloud or fire designs as a sort of diaper pattern on those parts of the surface of an article that is not covered by the main design.

Japanese rendition of the Chinese cloud forms as developed by the celebrated artist Ninsei 300 years ago. Ninsei simplified the shapes of the clouds, presenting a cloud mass rather than groups of clouds. Ninsei used gold dust and gold foil freely.

Cloud forms found on all types of Japanese ceramics, an adaptation of Ninsei's clouds. These may be merely outlined, shaded in gold or colour, or solid masses of colour or gold.

There is a vast difference between the art designs used by the Chinese potter and those used by the Chinese painter. This is not so in Japan, for although at first the Japanese potters faithfully copied the technic both of making pure white porcelain glaze and of over-glaze enamel decoration they soon began to treat the article to be decorated as the pictorial artist treats his canvas, that is, merely as a surface on which to paint a picture. The artists of no other country have ever reached the heights achieved by the Chinese pictorial artist in his handling of empty spaces in a picture, but it was left to the Japanese potters to apply this technic to ceramic wares.

Family crets often found on ceramic wares. Top, left to right; the Imperial crest kiku no man much used on early Imari export wares; crest of the House of Satsuma found on wares made at kilns in Satsqma. Bottom, left to right; tethered horse crest of the House of Soma; crest used by the Empresses of Japan kiri no mon usually found in association with the hoo-bird, and crest of the Kusunoki family, kikusui, used as a ceramic design or frequently developed into a box for holding incense.

An explanation of this may be found in the working conditions of the potters of these two countries. In China, potters were workmen, patient, artistic and skillful, it is true, but still workmen, employed by the hundreds at great government-owned kilns, turning out thousands of articles according to official orders. The designs were furnished them by the Imperial Court and each piece went through many hands. So strict was the oversight and control of the workmen that even the amount of colouring material necessary for the design was carefully measured out and each workman was required to turn in a fixed number of decorated articles. When there were orders from the Court the kilns were operated, when the needs of the Court had been met the kilns were shut down and the workmen turned away. Of course it must have been that there were small private kilns and artist-potters working alone but we have no historical record of them. But in Japan porcelain and decorated pottery developed under quite different conditions. The influence of the Imperial Court of Japan was indirect, not direct. Japanese potters worked as individuals, designing, making and decorating each article. Each potter worked at home assisted by his own immediate family, or by a few student apprentices and fired his productions at a community kiln. Almost every feudal lord, and there were more than three hundred of them, operated a kiln at which wares were made for his personal use. Instead of a fixed quota of production being required, the production of the different kilns was often limited. Under the feudal system artisans received their usual stipend whether they worked or not. Pottery making was an art not a trade and under the influence of famous cha jin (tea masters) individuality was encouraged in the potters. Not as workmen but as master craftsmen the Japanese potters were encouraged to strive after perfection and their reward was the admiration of their fellow potters and the recognition of their feudal lord. Also decorative design for porcelains developed differently in the two countries, in China the goal sought was perfection and detail of design while in Japan it was perfection of general appearance with design a subordinate requirement

As tea is served in modest households.

Colour is of course closely associated with design and here again we find national characteristics an aid in determining the origin of a piece of porcelain or pottery. Certain colours and certain ways of using colours are found on Chinese wares and not on Japanese wares. With the single exception of seiji, or celadon, one colour porcelains are practically unknown in Japan (disregarding for the moment the imitations of Chinese wares made in Japan). The Japanese prefer a white or neutral colour background for their ceramic designs. Under-glaze blue and under-glaze red are common to both countries, as are the so-called gosai or five colour wares. Only long experience can teach one how to distinguish these wares by colour alone. Imari red and Kutani purple, green and yellow, are unmistakably Japanese. The Chinese colours of cerise-red, rose-red, pea-green, egg-yellow, turquoise-blue, all soft beautiful colours have never found favour in Japan and the reason is not far to seek. The Chinese household furnishings, even the houses themselves, are made of dark polished wood of a beautiful brown colour, against such a background these brilliant colours show to perfection, but they would be lost and insignificant against the Japanese neutral tints of unpolished wood and straw matting. Likewise the Japanese scale of colours, more especially the type of pottery the Japanese prefer, does not look well on polished wood.

The Japanese at one period, about the first part of the eighteenth century, in the early days of Imari wares, used a black enamel as decoration on porcelain but it was not a common practice. However, black glaze is used very much on pottery articles, especially on raku yaki. Perhaps because of the difficulty of obtaining a purple-black or a pure white colour glaze, such glazes are in high favour with the Japanese potters and public alike. The Japanese call any shade of light tan, or tannish-grey or blue-grey, "white" on pottery; and the cream white of Chinese all-white wares never stirred them to emulation. A milk or snow white enamel glaze is used in the decorative designs on some pottery wares; but, other than an impure and greyish white on certain ritual wares, such as the large incense burners (koro) used in Buddhist temples, all-white wares are seldom found in Japan. The white glaze used for decorated rice bowls is deliberately given a bluish or greenish cast in order to enhance the creamy white of the boiled rice.

The beautiful heavy thick glazes known as "Flambe" (or transmutation glazes) with their many shades of blue, red and purple, or the red shading off to green and yellow glazes of "Peach Bloom" were never popular in Japan, except as collector's items.

Cake bowls. The Japanese place only a few cakes in a good sized dish.

More certain than design or colour as a clue to the origin of a piece of porcelain is the quality of the porcelain, its glaze and its purpose. It must always be kept in mind that at one time or another every possible Chinese article, every Color glaze and every Style of decoration has been exactly reproduced by Japanese potters. Many individual potters have become famous for their ability to exactly duplicate certain Chinese wares. These are not imitations made to deceive (though it may be supposed that such has occurred) and they are frequently signed by the maker. However, such wares do make difficulties for the student of either country's ceramics.

As an aid to the student of Japanese ceramics we give the following hints in the order of their importance:

1. Purpose for which the article was made.

2. Traces of methods of making and firing.

3. Paste (or biscuit) and glaze.

4. Design or pattern of decoration.

5. Colours used.

6. Identification marks or seals.

Purpose for which the article was made:—

At the very beginning we encounter a difficulty which the author has resolved quite simply by ignoring; namely, the fact that in Japan there are two primary classes of ceramic wares, those made for sale and export abroad and those made for the use and pleasure of the Japanese themselves. Wares made for export consist of matched sets of table china, decorated flower vases in pairs and true Japanese things modified to meet the demand of foreign buyers. It is a strange fact that while many progressive Japanese buy and use such articles they are accepted without comment or criticism just as are the modern marvels of electricity, automobiles and aeroplanes. For the purpose of this book we shall follow this lead and turn our attention to primarily Japanese wares.

Here we find first a multitude of bowls, with and without covers, of many sizes and shapes, used for individual servings of soup, rice or boiled vegetables; handleless tea cups, simply smaller sized bowls; and, still smaller in size, sake (the Japanese rice wine) cups. Then come small saucer-like dishes in odd and irregular shapes used for serving fish or vegetables, or for fruit and sweets; sets of one large dish with matching small deep dish, sometimes quite flat and fan or boat or leaf shaped, again deep round tub-shaped bowls, are used for serving the Japanese delicacy of raw fish; medium and large round dishes in bright blues and reds with green, yellow or purple and often much gold used by fish mongers and restaurants; equally large round deep dishes or flat bowls very carefully decorated, usually with designs or symbols of good omen, used in some districts for festive or formal gatherings. The foregoing comprise about all the dishes used for eating from, to which must be added bottles and covered utensils for storing food. The Japanese way of living admits of only the useful, trivial ornamental objects find no place in a room where custom decrees that a long narrow hanging picture, a stylized arrangement of the season's flowers and an appropriate ornament are sufficient.

Individual serving at a formal meal, showing the use of zen (trays) and the many different sizes and shapes of the dishes. Note the soup bowl of lacquer and rice bowl of porcelain.

So little is known of Japan and the way its people live that it may be well here to rapidly sketch in the surroundings to which Japanese ceramic wares are native. Picture to yourself a room whose prevailing colour is the creamy brown of unfinished wood, one or more whole side open to a garden, floor completely covered with thick soft straw mats and with no sign of furniture of any sort except a couple of golden brown, flat, square cushions. In such surroundings the Japanese love of irregularly shaped pottery dishes is understandable, as also the soft dark glazes and bold designs of cups and dishes which contrast so beautifully with the fine straw of the mats. When a meal is to be served small black lacquer trays are set before each guest, these serve as tables. On every tray will be five small dishes, no two alike, each differing from the others in size, shape and colouring. As the meal progresses the emptied dishes are replaced by others, each one an artistic achievement in which the food served and the design and colour on the dish are in perfect harmony, a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. It will be noted that food is always served in individual servings carefully prepared in the kitchen, general serving dishes or platters are seldom used. A round plate about the size of an American lunch plate with the edge upturned was fashionable for the serving of fried fish during the Meiji Period (1868 to 1912). These are on sale everywhere and range from crudely drawn designs on commonplace ware to exquisitely designed and executed wares worthy of being placed in a museum.

The Chinese on the contrary furnish their houses with tables and chairs as the Europeans do and serve their food in great central serving dishes from which both host and guests make their own selections with their own eating tools. At a Chinese feast two quite small round dishes are set before each guest, one to hold the food transferred from the central serving dish and one for the food rejected from the mouth during the course of the meal, these are usually made of pewter or silver. Both Chinese and Japanese use chopsticks instead of knives and forks. And it should not be overlooked that neither Chinese nor Japanese make use of the traditional European dinner plate. Such plates, although they may be seen on sale everywhere and certainly are decorated in Oriental style, still are not fundamentally Chinese or Japanese but were made for export and sale to the peoples of countries whose eating habits are quite different. These plates are found in two styles: one, a rather deep dish with the edge fluted or scalloped and more or less sharply upturned, these were sometimes made for the use of the Japanese in Japan: another, plates with a wide flange or brim somewhat like our old-fashioned soup plates, these were made for export only.

Three forms of the very popular sho chiku bai, pine plum and bamboo combination.

Top left; A very common form found as center design on Old Imari sometsuke (under-the-glaze blue and white; of poor quality porcelain.

Top right; Another development of pine plum and bamboo, part of the design on a sometsuke bowl of good quality porcelain at out a hundred years ago.

Bottom; So-called Kakiyemon development of this design, in colours enan eled on the surface in combination with under-the-glaze blue.

Biscuit and Glaze:—

However, a more certain way of determining the country or origin of a piece is the consideration of the paste or biscuit from which it is made, together with the glaze and the manner in which it is applied. To the feel, there is a very perceptible difference between Japanese and Chinese porcelains. Chinese porcelain wares are light and thin and the glaze is hard and smooth, the edges of a bowl or plate are thin, almost sharp. Japanese wares are thicker and heavier, the glaze is somehow different from the Chinese, almost soft and the edges are thick and rounded. Chinese wares, especially old pieces, show signs of wear on the edges where the enamel (or glaze) chips off in a very characteristic manner, giving the edges a moth-eaten appearance called in Japanese mushi kui. Frequently it can be seen by the difference in colour that the glaze at the edge of a bowl is thinner than on the body of the bowl, as though the glaze had pulled away from the edge. This is not to be confused with certain old Chinese wares which have unglazed rims due to the practice of firing the articles upside-down. The glaze on Japanese wares, perhaps because of the more rounded edges, breaks rather than chips off, that is, the glaze seems more incorporated into the paste and a part of it

On Chinese porcelains the footrim is often beveled rather than square cut having been ground into shape after firing; or shows signs of the sand or gravel on which it was placed in the kiln for firing. Japanese porcelains have a square cut footrim, fully covered with the glaze as clean and perfect as the bowl edge itself. In the kiln the Japanese wares are placed on several small cones or pyramids for firing and the marks of these supports can frequently be seen inside the footrim. Often small radial lines inside the footrim, converging toward the center are found on Chinese wares. But these lines are not an infallible guide because they were reproduced in Japanese wares also.

The glaze on Chinese pottery frequently stops short of the bottom of the object, but a small dab of glaze is put inside the footrim; often there are evidences of the sandy floor of the kiln. An outstanding feature of Japanese pottery is the very considerable amount of unglazed surface exposed, it is part of the decorative scheme and neither the footrim nor inside the rim are glazed and there are no signs of kiln sand or grit.

While the Japanese prefer the thicker and more rugged forms of porcelain wares they have produced and are today producing articles of egg-shell thinness, hard and fine and so translucent as to be almost transparent

There is one class of Japanese ceramics that is so essentially Japanese that there is little question as to their origin—the wares known as raku yaki. These are discussed in detail elsewhere.

Potters' marks and Seals:—

In China centuries ago these marks may have been reliable and have furnished information as to when and where or by whom a thing was made but they are useful now only as showing that the article could not have been made before the time indicated. In China as in Japan certain potters achieved fame because of their ability to exactly reproduce famous old pieces and they in their turn were reproduced (or counterfeited). The game has been going on for centuries in China. About 1664 Chinese merchants shipped to Europe a boat-load of porcelain wares all marked with the seal mark of Cheng Hua, an emperor who reigned from 1465 to 1487. Later when Japanese potters began making porcelains they copied the kiln marks exactly as they copied the designs. But just as the Japanese potter imparted an elusive something to the Chinese designs that distinguish them from the originals so in copying the Chinese characters making up the seal marks they gave them an unmistakable Japanese flavour, and this sometimes furnishes the first clue to a falsification which might otherwise have defied detection.

More modern Japanese pieces may be identified by individual seal marks but here again trouble enters for the student because of certain practices such as follows: a master potter sometimes put his personal seal on all articles made in his kiln; or a potter signed his productions with any number of different names or with the name of an artist whom he admired; frequently the successors of a famous potter have used that potter's seal for generations; most baffling of all is the accepted custom of signing the original artist's name to a reproduction of his work made perhaps many years after his death.

Nevertheless, the potter's marks and seals on the various wares are most interesting and as Ming dynasty marks are found on Japanese wares and indeed are still being reproduced daily it is well to learn a little about them, if only to relieve the harrassed Japanese whose American friends demand that he read and explain the marks. Read them any literate Japanese can, but to explain them is a different matter. Briefly, marks may be (1) Date marks, that is, giving the name of the dynasty and the name of the ruler during whose reign the article was made. (2) Hall marks, that is, inscriptions giving the name of a hall or building which may be the studio name of the potter; the family hall for which the ritual ware was made; the name of one of the buildings of the Imperial palace for which it was made or even of the store or workshop from which it was ordered; as for example, "Beautiful vessel of (or for) the Jade hall" or "Antique made in (or for) the Shen te Hall." (3) Potters' names, in China these are rare but in Japan they are legion. (4) Marks of commendation or expressions of good wishes and dedications such as "A myriad happinesses embrace all your affairs" or "Virtue, culture and enduring spring" or "Great peace throughout the empire."

Inscriptions found on Chinese wares and copied on

Japanese wares:—

Yung pao wan shou:—Ever protecting for a myriad ages.

Yung pao fu Ch'i fien:—Ever ensuring abundant happiness reaching to heaven.

Fu ju tung tai:—Rich as the Eastern Ocean.

Feng fiao yu shun, fien hsia t'ai p'ing:—May the winds be propitious, the rain fall favourable and peace prevail throughout the world.

Yung Pao ch'ang ch'un:—Ever preserving lasting spring.

Ch'ien k'ung ch'ing t'ai:—Heaven and earth be fair and fruitful.

Wang ku ch'un Ssu hat lai ch'ao:—Through an everlasting spring of a myriad ages may tribute come from the four seas.

T'ien hsia t'ai p'ing:—Peace throughout the world.

Shing shou:—Wisdom and long life.

Yung pao ch'ien K'un:—Ever protecting heaven and earth.

Japanese Classifications:—

The Japanese system of classifying their ceramic wares according to type (densetsu) of decoration or thing produced leads to overlapping categories and one small article may be designated by the name of the kiln at which it was made, by the name of the first potter to use that style of decoration and by a name indicating the method by which the thing was potted. The most flagrant example is that of Oribe wares.

Oribe, whose real name was Furuta Oribe no Sho, died just three hundred and thirty-five years ago but wares produced in many different kilns in Japan today are still called oribe yaki that is, Oribe wares (See Page 34). Of course an American parallel can be found in the Bell telephone or the Edison lamps, but in the world of art it is an unusual phenomenon. And Oribe was neither artist nor potter, he was a teacher of, and authority on, all matters relating to the ceremonial serving of tea, cha no yu. Among the many cha jin (tea teachers), whose influence was strong on Japanese ceramics and who have given their names to certain types of wares are So ami, Shin o, Jo o, Rikyu, Sotan, Enshu, Shimbei, Kuchu, Ninsei and a host of others.

Japanese ceramic connoisseurs are apt to name a piece of pottery by the style or type of decoration, as Oribe yaki, Kakiyemon yaki, Ninsei yaki and usually disregard the actual maker of the article or the kiln at which it was made.

Names:—

It is practically impossible to identify a piece of Japanese ceramics by the name stamped, inscribed or written on it because a potter sometimes used two or more names on his wares, and sometimes several generations of potters used the same name and further, it has always been the custom of Japanese amateur potters to use the name of a famous master potter whose works they admire and copy.

The potters of old Japan, as indeed all people below the rank of samurai, had no family names. It is only since the establishment of modern Japan that artisans have felt the need of reconciling the name they were born to and used by other members of their family with their artist name. This custom and the practice of legal adoption causes difficulties in correctly recording the various generations of a line of potters. In many cases it is impossible to ascertain the birth and death dates of an individual potter, the best we can do is to give the period of years within which the potter worked using the name of the potter family of which he is an official "generation" (dai).

Seals and Signatures:—

The signatures found on Japanese ceramics, as indeed on all forms of art or artcraft, are usually "nom de plumes" or artist names; or names in some way connected with the artists productions, either the thing produced or the place at which they were made.

Early Imari wares had no potters' seals or marks; the marks found on early Imari wares are copies of Chinese marks.

Early Seto wares have no potters' identification marks—later the Kyoto artist-potters who worked at these kilns used their own seals.

Kyoto potters almost always sealed or signed their wares.

Kutani wares, except the very earliest, have identifying marks easily recognizable.

In general it may be said that the productions of the very earliest kilns have no marks of identification.

Since 1818 many potters have marked their wares with their personal names and it has also become the practice of some kilns to use a seal.

Japanese system of dates:—

In Japan dates are recorded firstly by the reigns of the various Emperors secondly by reference to the various Shogunates.

In speaking of ceramics prior to 1600 the imperial reign names are used but after that dates are established by the very loose classification of Early Tokugawa, Middle Tokugawa, Later Tokugawa, then the Meiji Period, Taisho Period and the present imperial reign, Showa Period.

The Tokugawa Shogunate lasted from 1603 to 1867—this is sometimes referred to as the Edo Period. This was the time of national seclusion when all the Japanese arts and crafts showed great native development.

The Meiji Period (1868 to 1912) is known also as the "Restoration." Actually it was the time of development of modern Japan and a time when European arts, sciences and all forms of civilization were adopted to the exclusion of native arts.

The Taisho Period (1912 to 1926) was a period of assimilation of European mores and a time of quiescence for Japanese things.

The Showa Period (1926 to)

Modern Kutani Plate

Kutani potters are still using traditional Japanese and Chinese designs. Note the pine, plum and bamboo motive; two of the floral panels have blossoming plum trees with bamboo, the other two feature the pine tree. The center design is a simplification of the Chinese peony growing from rocks. The strange little animal in the dark panels has the head of a bird with the tail of a dragon.

Modern interpretation of the hoo bird with the traditional Chinese peony flower modified to suggest the European rose motive.