Satsuma.
No phrase is commoner in the mouths of Western collectors than "Old
Satsuma"; no ware is rarer in Western collections. Nine hundred and
ninety-nine pieces out of every thousand that do duty as genuine
examples of this prince of faiences are simply examples of the skill
of modern forgers. In point of fact, the production of faience
decorated with gold and coloured enamels may be said to have commenced
at the beginning of the eighth century in Satsuma. Some writers maintain
that it did actually commence then, and that nothing of the kind had
existed there previously. Setting aside, however, the strong
improbability that a style of decoration so widely practised and so
highly esteemed could have remained unknown during a century and a
half to experts working for one of the most puissant chieftains in
Japan, we have the evidence of trustworthy traditions and written
records that enamelled faience was made by the potters at
Tatsumonji--the principal factory of Satsuma-ware in early days--as
far back as the year 1676. Mitsuhisa, then feudal lord of Satsuma, was
a munificent patron of art. He summoned to his fief the painter
Tangen--a pupil of the renowned Tanyu, who died in 1674--and employed
him to paint faience or to furnish designs for the ceramists of
Tatsumonji. The ware produced under these circumstances is still known
by the name of Satsuma Tangen. But the number of specimens was small.
Destined chiefly for private use or for presents, their decoration was
delicate rather than rich, the colour chiefly employed being brown, or
reddish brown, under the glaze, and the decoration over the glaze
being sparse and chaste. Not until the close of the l8th century or
the beginning of the 19th did the more profuse fashion of enamelled
decoration come to be largely employed. It was introduced by two
potters who had visited Kioto, and there observed the ornate methods
so well illustrated in the wares of Awata and Kiyomizu. At the same
time a strong impetus was given to the production of faience at
Tadeno--then the chief factory in Satsuma--owing to the patronage of
Shimazu Tamanobu, lord of the province. To this increase in production
and to the more elaborate application of verifiable enamels may be
attributed the erroneous idea that Satsuma faience decorated with gold
and coloured enamels had its origin at the close of the 18th century.
For all the purposes of the ordinary collector it may be said to have
commenced then, and to have come to an end about 1860; but for the
purposes of the historian we must look farther back.
The ceramic art in Satsuma owed much to the aid of a number of Korean
experts who settled there after the return of the Japanese forces from
Korea. One of these men, Boku Heii, discovered (1603) clay fitted for
the manufacture of white _craquelé_ faience. This was the subsequently
celebrated _Satsuma-yaki_. But in Boku's time, and indeed as long as
the factories flourished, many other kinds of faience were produced,
the principal having rich black or _flambé_ glazes, while a few were
green or yellow monochromes. One curious variety, called _same-yaki_,
had glaze chagrined like the skin of a shark. Most of the finest
pieces of enamelled faience were the work of artists at the Tadeno
factory, while the best specimens of other kinds were by the artists
of Tatsumonji.
Kutani.
The porcelain of Kutani is among those best known to Western
collectors, though good specimens ofthe old ware have always been
scarce. Its manufacture dates from the close of the 17th century, when
the feudal chief of Kaga took the industry under his patronage. There
were two principal varieties of the ware: _ao-Kutani_, so called
because of a green (_ao_) enamel of great brilliancy and beauty which
was largely used in its decoration, and Kutani with painted and
enamelled _pâte_ varying from hard porcelain to pottery. Many of the
pieces are distinguished by a peculiar creamy whiteness of glaze,
suggesting the idea that they were intended to imitate the soft-paste
wares of China. The enamels are used to delineate decorative subjects
and are applied in masses, the principal colours being green, yellow
and soft Prussian blue, all brilliant and transparent, with the
exception of the last which is nearly opaque. In many cases we find
large portions of the surface completely covered with green or yellow
enamel overlying black diapers or scroll patterns. The second variety
of Kutani ware may often be mistaken for "old Japan" (i.e. Imari
porcelain). The most characteristic examples of it are
distinguishable, however, by the preponderating presence of a peculiar
russet red, differing essentially from the full-bodied and
comparatively brilliant colour of the Arita pottery. Moreover, the
workmen of Kaga did not follow the Arita precedent of massing blue
under the glaze. In the great majority of cases they did not use blue
at all in this position, and when they did, its place was essentially
subordinate. They also employed silver freely for decorative purposes,
whereas we rarely find it thus used on "old Japan" porcelain.
About the time (1843) of the ao-Kutani revival, a potter called lida
Hachiroemon introduced a style of decoration which subsequently came
to be regarded as typical of all Kaga procelains. Taking the Eiraku
porcelains of Kioto as models, Hachiroemon employed red grounds with
designs traced on them in gold. The style was not absolutely new in
Kaga. We find similar decoration on old and choice examples of
Kutani-yaki. But the character of the old red differs essentially from
that of the modern manufacture--the former being a soft, subdued
colour, more like a bloom than an enamel; the latter a glossy and
comparatively crude pigment. In Hachiroemon's time and during the
twenty years following the date of his innovation, many beautiful
examples of elaborately decorated Kutani porcelain were produced. The
richness, profusion and microscopic accuracy of their decoration could
scarcely have been surpassed; but, with very rare exceptions, their
lack of delicacy of technique disqualifies them to rank as fine
porcelains.
Owari.
It was at the little village of Seto, some five miles from Nagoya, the
chief town of the province of Owari, or Bishu, that the celebrated
Kato Shirozaemon made the first Japanese faience worthy to be
considered a technical success. Shirozaemon produced dainty little
tea-jars, ewers and other _cha-no-yu_ utensils. These, being no longer
stoved in an inverted position, as had been the habit before
Shirozaemon's time, were not disfigured by the bare, blistered lips of
their predecessors. Their _pâte_ was close and well-manufactured
pottery, varying in colour from dark brown to russet, and covered with
thick, lustrous glazes--black, amber-brown, chocolate and yellowish
grey. These glazes were not monochromatic: they showed differences of
tint, and sometimes marked varieties of colour; as when
chocolate-brown passed into amber, or black was relieved by streaks
and clouds of grey and dead-leaf red. This ware came to be known as
_Toshiro-yaki_, a term obtained by combining the second syllable of
Kato with the two first of Shirozaemon. A genuine example of it is at
present worth many times its weight in gold to Japanese dilettanti,
though in foreign eyes it is little more than interesting. Shirozaemon
was succeeded at the kiln by three generations of his family, each
representative retaining the name of Toshiro, and each distinguishing
himself by the excellence of his work. Thenceforth Seto became the
headquarters of the manufacture of _cha-no-yu_ utensils, and many of
the tiny pieces turned out there deserve high admiration, their
technique being perfect, and their mahogany, russet-brown, amber and
buff glazes showing wonderful lustre and richness. Seto, in fact,
acquired such a widespread reputation for its ceramic productions that
the term _seto-mono_ (Seto article) came to be used generally for all
pottery and porcelain, just as "China" is in the West. Seto has now
ceased to be a pottery-producing centre, and has become the chief
porcelain manufactory of Japan. The porcelain industry was inaugurated
in 1807 by Tamikichi, a local ceramist, who had visited Hizen and
spent three years there studying the necessary processes. Owari
abounds in porcelain stone; but it does not occur in constant or
particularly simple forms, and as the potters have not yet learned to
treat their materials scientifically, their work is often marred by
unforeseen difficulties. For many years after Tamikichi's processes
had begun to be practised, the only decoration employed was blue under
the glaze. Sometimes Chinese cobalt was used, sometimes Japanese, and
sometimes a mixture of both. To Kawamoto Hansuke, who flourished about
1830-1845, belongs the credit of having turned out the richest and
most attractive ware of this class. But, speaking generally, Japanese
blues do not rank on the same decorative level with those of China. At
Arita, although pieces were occasionally turned out of which the
colour could not be surpassed in purity and brilliancy, the general
character of the blue _sous couverte_ was either thin or dull. At
Hirado the ceramists affected a lighter and more delicate tone than
that of the Chinese, and, in order to obtain it, subjected the choice
pigment of the Middle Kingdom to refining processes of great severity.
The Hirado blue, therefore, belongs to a special aesthetic category.
But at Owari the experts were content with an inferior colour, and
their blue-and-white porcelains never enjoyed a distinguished
reputation, though occasionally we find a specimen of great merit.
Decoration with vitrifiable enamels over the glaze, though it began to
be practised at Owari about the year 1840, never became a speciality
of the place. Nowadays, indeed, numerous examples of porcelains
decorated in this manner are classed among Owari products. But they
receive their decoration, almost without exception, in Tokyo or
Yokohama, where a large number of artists, called _e-tsuke-shi_,
devote themselves entirely to porcelain-painting. These men seldom use
vitrifiable enamels, pigments being much more tractable and less
costly. The dominant feature of the designs is pictorial. They are
frankly adapted to Western taste. Indeed, of this porcelain it may be
said that, from the monster pieces of blue-and-white manufactured at
Seto--vases six feet high and garden pillar-lamps half as tall again
do not dismay the Bishu ceramist--to tiny coffee-cups decorated in
Tokyo, with their delicate miniatures of birds, flowers, insects,
fishes and so forth, everything indicates the death of the old severe
aestheticism. To such a depth of debasement had the ceramic art fallen
in Owari, that before the happy renaissance of the past ten years,
Nagoya discredited itself by employing porcelain as a base for
cloisonné enamelling. Many products of this vitiated industry have
found their way into the collections of foreigners.
Bizen.
Pottery was produced at several hamlets in Bizen as far back as the
14th century, but ware worthy of artistic notice did not make its
appearance until the close of the 16th century, when the Taiko himself
paid a visit to the factory at Imbe. Thenceforth utensils for the use
of the tea clubs began to be manufactured. This _Bizen-yaki_ was red
stoneware, with thin diaphanous glaze. Made of exceedingly refractory
clay, it underwent stoving for more than three weeks, and was
consequently remarkable for its hardness and metallic timbre. Some
fifty years later, the character of the choicest Bizen-yaki underwent
a marked change. It became slate-coloured or bluish-brown faience,
with _pâte_ as fine as pipe-clay, but very hard. In the _ao-Bizen_
(blue Bizen), as well as in the red variety, figures of mythical
beings and animals, birds, fishes and other natural objects, were
modelled with a degree of plastic ability that can scarcely be spoken
of in too high terms. Representative specimens are truly
admirable--every line, every contour faithful. The production was very
limited, and good pieces soon ceased to be procurable except at long
intervals and heavy expense. The Bizen-yaki familiar to Western
collectors is comparatively coarse brown or reddish brown, stoneware,
modelled rudely, though sometimes redeemed by touches of the genius
never entirely absent from the work of the Japanese artisan-artist.
Easy to be confounded with it is another ware of the same type
manufactured at Shidoro in the province of Totomi.
Takatori.
The Japanese potters could never vie with the Chinese in the
production of glazes: the wonderful monochromes and polychromes of the
Middle Kingdom had no peers anywhere. In Japan they were most closely
approached by the faience of Takatori in the province of Chikuzen. In
its early days the ceramic industry of this province owed something to
the assistance of Korean experts who settled there after the
expedition of 1592. But its chief development took place under the
direction of Igarashi Jizaemon, an amateur ceramist, who, happening to
visit Chikuzen about 1620, was taken under the protection of the chief
of the fief and munificently treated. Taking the renowned
_yao-pien-yao_, or "transmutation ware" of China as a model, the
Takatori potters endeavoured, by skilful mixing of colouring
materials, to reproduce the wonderful effects of oxidization seen in
the Chinese ware. They did not, indeed, achieve their ideal, but they
did succeed in producing some exquisitely lustrous glazes of the
_flambé_ type, rich transparent brown passing into claret colour, with
flecks or streaks of white and clouds of "iron dust." The _pâte_ of
this faience was of the finest description, and the technique in every
respect faultless. Unfortunately, the best experts confined themselves
to working for the tea clubs, and consequently produced only
insignificant pieces, as tea-jars, cups and little ewers. During the
18th century, a departure was made from these strict canons. From this
period date most of the specimens best known outside Japan--cleverly
modelled figures of mythological beings and animals covered with
lustrous variegated glazes, the general colours being grey or buff,
with tints of green, chocolate, brown and sometimes blue.
Awaji.
A ware of which considerable quantities have found their way westward
of late years in the _Awaji-yaki_, so called from the island of Awaji
where it is manufactured in the village of Iga. It was first produced
between the years 1830 and 1840 by one Kaju Mimpei, a man of
considerable private means who devoted himself to the ceramic art out
of pure enthusiasm. His story is full of interest, but it must suffice
here to note the results of his enterprise. Directing his efforts at
first to reproducing the deep green and straw-yellow glazes of China,
he had exhausted almost his entire resources before success came, and
even then the public was slow to recognize the merits of his ware.
Nevertheless he persevered, and in 1838 we find him producing not only
green and yellow monochromes, but also greyish white and mirror-black
glazes of high excellence. So thoroughly had he now mastered the
management of glazes that he could combine yellow, green, white and
claret colour in regular patches to imitate tortoise-shell. Many of
his pieces have designs incised or in relief, and others are skilfully
decorated with gold and silver. Awaji-yaki, or _Mimpei-yaki_ as it is
often called, is generally porcelain, but we occasionally find
specimens which may readily be mistaken for Awata faience.
Banko.
Banko faience is a universal favourite with foreign collectors. The
type generally known to them is exceedingly light ware, for the most
part made of light grey, unglazed clay, and having hand-modelled
decoration in relief. But there are numerous varieties. Chocolate or
dove-coloured grounds with delicate diapers in gold and _engobe_;
brown or black faience with white, yellow and pink designs incised or
in relief; pottery curiously and deftly marbled by combinations of
various coloured clays--these and many other kinds are to be found,
all, however, presenting one common feature, namely, skilful
finger-moulding and a slight roughening of the surface as though it
had received the impression of coarse linen or crape before baking.
This modern _banko-yaki_ is produced chiefly at Yokkaichi in the
province of Ise. It is entirely different from the original banko-ware
made in Kuwana, in the same province, by Numanami Gozaemon at the
close of the 18th century. Gozaemon was an imitator. He took for his
models the raku faience of Kioto, the masterpieces of Ninsei and
Kenzan, the rococo wares of Korea, the enamelled porcelain of China,
and the blue-and-white ware of Delft. He did not found a school,
simply because he had nothing new to teach, and the fact that a modern
ware goes by the same name as his productions is simply because his
seal--the inscription on which (_banko_, everlasting) suggested the
name of the ware--subsequently (1830) fell into the hands of one Mori
Yusetsu, who applied it to his own ware. Mori Yusetsu, however, had
more originality than Numanami. He conceived the idea of shaping his
pieces by putting the mould inside and pressing the clay with the hand
into the matrix. The consequence was that his wares received the
design on the inner as well as the outer surface, and were moreover
thumb-marked--essential characteristics of the banko-yaki now so
popular.
Izumo.
Among a multitude of other Japanese wares, space allows us to mention
only two, those of Izumo and Yatsushiro. The chief of the former is
faience, having light grey, close _pâte_ and yellow or straw-coloured
glaze, with or without crackle, to which is applied decoration in
gold and green enamel. Another variety has chocolate glaze, clouded
with amber and flecked with gold dust. The former faience had its
origin at the close of the 17th century, the latter at the close of
the 18th; but the _Izumo-yaki_ now procurable is a modern production.
Yatsushiro.
The Yatsushiro faience is a production of the province of Higo, where
a number of Korean potters settled at the close of the 17th century.
It is the only Japanese ware in which the characteristics of a Korean
original are unmistakably preserved. Its diaphanous, pearl-grey glaze,
uniform, lustrous and finely crackled, overlying encaustic decoration
in white slip, the fineness of its warm reddish _pâte_, and the
general excellence of its technique, have always commanded admiration.
It is produced now in considerable quantities, but the modern ware
falls far short of its predecessor.
Many examples of the above varieties deserve the enthusiastic admiration
they have received, yet they unquestionably belong to a lower rank of
ceramic achievements than the choice productions of Chinese kilns. The
potters of the Middle Kingdom, from the early eras of the Ming dynasty
down to the latest years of the 18th century, stood absolutely without
rivals as makers of porcelain. Their technical ability was
incomparable--though in grace of decorative conception they yielded the
palm to the Japanese--and the representative specimens they bequeathed
to posterity remained, until quite recently, far beyond the imitative
capacity of European or Asiatic experts. As for faience and pottery,
however, the Chinese despised them in all forms, with one notable
exception, the _yi-hsing-yao_, known in the Occident as _boccaro_. Even
the _yi-hsing-yao_, too, owed much of its popularity to special utility.
It was essentially the ware of the tea-drinker. If in the best specimens
exquisite modelling, wonderful accuracy of finish and _pâtes_ of
interesting tints are found, such pieces are, none the less, stamped
prominently with the character of utensils rather than with that of
works of art. In short, the artistic output of Chinese kilns in their
palmiest days was, not faience or pottery, but porcelain, whether of
soft or hard paste. Japan, on the contrary, owes her ceramic distinction
in the main to her faience. A great deal has been said by enthusiastic
writers about the _famille chrysanthemo-péonienne_ of Imari and the
_genre Kakiemon_ of Nabeshima, but these porcelains, beautiful as they
undoubtedly are, cannot be placed on the same level with the _kwan-yao_
and _famille rose_ of the Chinese experts. The Imari ware, even though
its thick biscuit and generally ungraceful shapes be omitted from the
account, shows no enamels that can rival the exquisitely soft, broken
tints of the _famille rose_; and the _Kakiemon_ porcelain, for all its
rich though chaste contrasts, lacks the delicate transmitted tints of
the shell-like _kwan-yao_. So, too, the blue-and-white porcelain of
Hirado, though assisted by exceptional tenderness of sous-pâte colour,
by milk-white glaze, by great beauty of decorative design, and often by
an admirable use of the modelling or graving tool, represents a ceramic
achievement palpably below the soft paste _kai-pien-yao_ of
King-te-chen. It is a curious and interesting fact that this last
product of Chinese skill remained unknown in Japan down to very recent
days. In the eyes of a Chinese connoisseur, no blue-and-white porcelain
worthy of consideration exists, or ever has existed, except the
_kai-pien-yao_, with its imponderable _pâte_, its wax-like surface, and
its rich, glowing blue, entirely free from superficiality or garishness
and broken into a thousand tints by the microscopic crackle of the
glaze. The Japanese, although they obtained from their neighbour almost
everything of value she had to give them, did not know this wonderful
ware, and their ignorance is in itself sufficient to prove their ceramic
inferiority. There remains, too, a wide domain in which the Chinese
developed high skill, whereas the Japanese can scarcely be said to have
entered it at all; namely, the domain of monochromes and polychromes,
striking every note of colour from the richest to the most delicate; the
domain of _truité_ and _flambé_ glazes, of _yo-pien-yao_ (transmutation
ware), and of egg-shell with incised or translucid decoration. In all
that region of achievement the Chinese potters stood alone and seemingly
unapproachable. The Japanese, on the contrary, made a specialty of
faience, and in that particular line they reached a high standard of
excellence. No faience produced either in China or any other Oriental
country can dispute the palm with really representative specimens of
Satsuma ware. Not without full reason have Western connoisseurs lavished
panegyrics upon that exquisite production. The faience of the Kioto
artists never reached quite to the level of the Satsuma in quality of
_pâte_ and glowing mellowness of decoration; their materials were
slightly inferior. But their skill as decorators was as great as its
range was wide, and they produced a multitude of masterpieces on which
alone Japan's ceramic fame might safely be rested.
Change of Style after the Restoration.
When the mediatization of the fiefs, in 1871, terminated the local
patronage hitherto extended so munificently to artists, the Japanese
ceramists gradually learned that they must thenceforth depend chiefly
upon the markets of Europe and America. They had to appeal, in short, to
an entirely new public, and how to secure its approval was to them a
perplexing problem. Having little to guide them, they often interpreted
Western taste incorrectly, and impaired their own reputation in a
corresponding degree. Thus, in the early years of the Meiji era, there
was a period of complete prostitution. No new skill was developed, and
what remained of the old was expended chiefly upon the manufacture of
meretricious objects, disfigured by excess of decoration and not
relieved by any excellence of technique. In spite of their artistic
defects, these specimens were exported in considerable numbers by
merchants in the foreign settlements, and their first cost being very
low, they found a not unremunerative market. But as European and
American collectors became better acquainted with the capacities of the
pre-Meiji potters, the great inferiority of these new specimens was
recognized, and the prices commanded by the old wares gradually
appreciated. What then happened was very natural: imitations of the old
wares were produced, and having been sufficiently disfigured by staining
and other processes calculated to lend an air of rust and age, they were
sold to ignorant persons, who laboured under the singular yet common
hallucination that the points to be looked for in specimens from early
kilns were, not technical excellence, decorative tastefulness and
richness of colour, but dinginess, imperfections and dirt; persons who
imagined, in short, that defects which they would condemn at once in new
porcelains ought to be regarded as merits in old. Of course a trade of
that kind, based on deception, could not have permanent success. One of
the imitators of "old Satsuma" was among the first to perceive that a
new line must be struck out. Yet the earliest results of his awakened
perception helped to demonstrate still further the depraved spirit that
had come over Japanese art. For he applied himself to manufacture wares
having a close affinity with the shocking monstrosities used for
sepulchral purposes in ancient Apulia, where fragments of dissected
satyrs, busts of nymphs or halves of horses were considered graceful
excrescences for the adornment of an amphora or a pithos. This _Makuzu_
faience, produced by the now justly celebrated Miyagawa Shozan of Ota
(near Yokohama), survives in the form of vases and pots having birds,
reptiles, flowers, crustacea and so forth plastered over the
surface--specimens that disgrace the period of their manufacture, and
represent probably the worst aberration of Japanese ceramic conception.
Adoption of Chinese Models.
A production so degraded as the early Makuzu faience could not possibly
have a lengthy vogue. Miyagawa soon began to cast about for a better
inspiration, and found it in the monochromes and polychromes of the
Chinese _Kang-hsi_ and _Yung-cheng kilns_. The extraordinary value
attaching to the incomparable red glazes of China, not only in the
country of their origin but also in the United States, where collectors
showed a fine instinct in this matter, seems to have suggested to
Miyagawa the idea of imitation. He took for model the rich and delicate
"liquid-dawn" monochrome, and succeeded in producing some specimens of
considerable merit. Thenceforth his example was largely followed, and it
may now be said that the tendency of many of the best Japanese ceramists
is to copy Chinese _chefs-d'oeuvre_. To find them thus renewing their
reputation by reverting to Chinese models, is not only another tribute
to the perennial supremacy of Chinese porcelains, but also a fresh
illustration of the eclectic genius of Japanese art. All the products of
this new effort are porcelains proper. Seven kilns are devoted, wholly
or in part, to the new wares: belonging to Miyagawa Shozan of Ota, Seifu
Yohei of Kioto, Takemoto Hayata and Kato Tomojiro of Tokyo, Higuchi
Haruzane of Hirado, Shida Yasukyo of Kaga and Kato Masukichi of Seto.
Seifu of Kioto.
Among the seven ceramists here enumerated, Seifu of Kioto probably
enjoys the highest reputation. If we except the ware of Satsuma, it
may be said that nearly all the fine faience of Japan was manufactured
formerly in Kioto. Nomura Ninsei, in the middle of the 17th century,
inaugurated a long era of beautiful productions with his cream-like
"fish-roe" _craquelé_ glazes, carrying rich decoration of clear and
brilliant vitrifiable enamels. It was he who gave their first really
artistic impulse to the kilns of Awata, Mizoro and Iwakura, whence so
many delightful specimens of faience issued almost without
interruption until the middle of the 19th century and continue to
issue to-day. The three Kenzan, of whom the third died in 1820;
Ebisei; the four Dohachi, of whom the fourth was still alive in 1909;
the Kagiya family, manufacturers of the celebrated Kinkozan ware;
Hozan, whose imitations of Delft faience and his _pâte-sur-pâte_
pieces with fern-scroll decoration remain incomparable; Taizan Yohei,
whose ninth descendant of the same name now produces fine specimens of
Awata ware for foreign markets; Tanzan Yoshitaro and his son Rokuro,
to whose credit stands a new departure in the form of faience having
_pâte-sur-pâte_ decoration of lace patterns, diapers and archaic
designs executed in low relief with admirable skill and minuteness;
the two Bizan, renowned for their representations of richly apparelled
figures as decorative motives; Rokubei, who studied painting under
Maruyama Okyo and followed the naturalistic style of that great
artist; Mokubei, the first really expert manufacturer of translucid
porcelain in Kioto; Shuhei, Kintei, and above all, Zengoro Hozen, the
celebrated potter of Eiraku wares--these names and many others give to
Kioto ceramics an eminence as well as an individuality which few other
wares of Japan can boast. Nor is it to be supposed that the ancient
capital now lacks great potters. Okamura Yasutaro, commonly called
Shozan, produces specimens which only a very acute connoisseur can
distinguish from the work of Nomura Ninsei; Tanzan Rokuro's half-tint
enamels and soft creamy glazes would have stood high in any epoch;
Taizan Yohei produces Awata faience not inferior to that of former
days; Kagiya Sobei worthily supports the reputation of the Kinkozan
ware; Kawamoto Eijiro has made to the order of a well-known Kioto firm
many specimens now figuring in foreign collections as old
masterpieces; and Ito Tozan succeeds in decorating faience with seven
colours _sous couverte_ (black, green, blue, russet-red, tea-brown,
purple and peach), a feat never before accomplished. It is therefore
an error to assert that Kioto has no longer a title to be called a
great ceramic centre. Seifu Yohei, however, has the special faculty of
manufacturing monochromatic and jewelled porcelain and faience, which
differ essentially from the traditional Kioto types, their models
being taken directly from China. But a sharp distinction has to be
drawn between the method of Seifu and that of the other six ceramists
mentioned above as following Chinese fashions. It is this, that
whereas the latter produce their chromatic effects by mixing the
colouring matter with the glaze, Seifu paints the biscuit with a
pigment over which he runs a translucid colourless glaze. The Kioto
artist's process is much easier than that of his rivals, and although
his monochromes are often of most pleasing delicacy and fine tone,
they do not belong to the same category of technical excellence as the
wares they imitate. From this judgment must be excepted, however, his
ivory-white and _céladon_ wares, as well as his porcelains decorated
with blue, or blue and red _sous couverte_, and with vitrifiable
enamels over the glaze. In these five varieties he is emphatically
great. It cannot be said, indeed, that his _céladon_ shows the velvety
richness of surface and tenderness of colour that distinguished the
old _Kuang-yao_ and _Lungchuan-yao_ of China, or that he has ever
essayed the moss-edged crackle of the beautiful _Ko-yao_. But his
_céladon_ certainly equals the more modern Chinese examples from the
_Kang-hsi_ and _Yung-cheng_ kilns. As for his ivory-white, it
distinctly surpasses the Chinese Ming _Chen-yao_ in every quality
except an indescribable intimacy of glaze and _pâte_ which probably
can never be obtained by either Japanese or European methods.
Miyagawa Shozan.
Miyagawa Shozan, or Makuzu, as he is generally called, has never
followed Seifu's example in descending from the difficult manipulation
of coloured glazes to the comparatively simple process of painted
biscuit. This comment does not refer to the use of blue and red _sous
couverte_. In that class of beautiful ware the application of pigment
to the unglazed _pâte_ is inevitable, and both Seifu and Miyagawa,
working on the same lines as their Chinese predecessors, produce
porcelains that almost rank with choice Kang-hsi specimens, though
they have not yet mastered the processes sufficiently to employ them
in the manufacture of large imposing pieces or wares of moderate
price. But in the matter of true monochromatic and polychromatic
glazes, to Shozan belongs the credit of having inaugurated Chinese
fashions, and if he has never fully succeeded in achieving _lang-yao_
(sang-de-boeuf), _chi-hung_ (liquid-dawn red), _chiang-tou-hung_
(bean-blossom red, the "peach-blow" of American collectors), or above
all _pin-kwo-tsing_ (apple-green with red bloom), his efforts to
imitate them have resulted in some very interesting pieces.
Tokyo Ceramists.
Takemoto and Kato of Tokyo entered the field subsequently to Shozan,
but followed the same models approximately. Takemoto, however, has
made a speciality of black glazes, his aim being to rival the _Sung
Chien-yao_, with its glaze of mirror-black or raven's-wing green, and
its leveret fur streaking or russet-moss dappling, the prince of all
wares in the estimation of the Japanese tea-clubs. Like Shozan, he is
still very far from his original, but, also like Shozan, he produces
highly meritorious pieces in his efforts to reach an ideal that will
probably continue to elude him for ever. Of Kato there is not much to
be said. He has not succeeded in winning great distinction, but he
manufactures some very delicate monochromes, fully deserving to be
classed among prominent evidences of the new departure. Tokyo was
never a centre of ceramic production. Even during the 300 years of its
conspicuous prosperity as the administrative capital of the Tokugawa
shoguns, it had no noted factories, doubtless owing to the absence of
any suitable potter's clay in the immediate vicinity. Its only notable
production of a ceramic character was the work of Miura Kenya
(1830-1843), who followed the methods of the celebrated Haritsu
(1688-1704) of Kioto in decorating plain or lacquered wood with
mosaics of raku faience having coloured glazes. Kenya was also a
skilled modeller of figures, and his factory in the Imado suburb
obtained a considerable reputation for work of that nature. He was
succeeded by Tozawa Benshi, an old man of over seventy in 1909, who,
using clay from Owari or Hizen, has turned out many porcelain
statuettes of great beauty. But although the capital of Japan formerly
played only an insignificant part in Japanese ceramics, modern Tokyo
has an important school of artist-artisans. Every year large
quantities of porcelain and faience are sent from the provinces to the
capital to receive surface decoration, and in wealth of design as well
as carefulness of execution the results are praiseworthy. But of the
pigments employed nothing very laudatory could be said until very
recent times. They were generally crude, of impure tone, and without
depth or brilliancy. Now, however, they have lost these defects and
entered a period of considerable excellence. Figure-subjects
constitute the chief feature of the designs. A majority of the artists
are content to copy old pictures of Buddha's sixteen disciples, the
seven gods of happiness, and other similar assemblages of mythical or
historical personages, not only because such work offers large
opportunity for the use of striking colours and the production of
meretricious effects, dear to the eye of the average Western
householder and tourist, but also because a complicated design, as
compared with a simple one, has the advantage of hiding the technical
imperfections of the ware. Of late there have happily appeared some
decorators who prefer to choose their subjects from the natural field
in which their great predecessors excelled, and there is reason to
hope that this more congenial and more pleasing style will supplant
its modern usurper. The best known factory in Tokyo for decorative
purposes is the Hyochi-en. It was established in the Fukagawa suburb
in 1875, with the immediate object of preparing specimens for the
first Tokyo exhibition held at that time. Its founders obtained a
measure of official aid, and were able to secure the services of some
good artists, among whom may be mentioned Obanawa and Shimauchi. The
porcelains of Owari and Arita naturally received most attention at the
hands of the Hyochi-en decorators, but there was scarcely one of the
principal wares of Japan upon which they did not try their skill, and
if a piece of monochromatic Minton or Sèvres came in their way, they
undertook to improve it by the addition of designs copied from old
masters or suggested by modern taste. The cachet of the Fukagawa
atelier was indiscriminately applied to all such pieces, and has
probably proved a source of confusion to collectors. Many other
factories for decoration were established from time to time in Tokyo.
Of these some still exist; others, ceasing to be profitable, have been
abandoned. On the whole, the industry may now be said to have assumed
a domestic character. In a house, presenting no distinctive features
whatsoever, one finds the decorator with a cupboard full of bowls and
vases of glazed biscuit, which he adorns, piece by piece, using the
simplest conceivable apparatus and a meagre supply of pigments.
Sometimes he fixes the decoration himself, employing for that purpose
a small kiln which stands in his back garden; sometimes he entrusts
this part of the work to a factory. As in the case of everything
Japanese, there is no pretence, no useless expenditure about the
process. Yet it is plain that this school of Tokyo decorators, though
often choosing their subjects badly, have contributed much to the
progress of the ceramic art during the past few years. Little by
little there has been developed a degree of skill which compares not
unfavourably with the work of the old masters. Table services of Owari
porcelain--the ware itself excellently manipulated and of almost
egg-shell fineness--are now decorated with floral scrolls, landscapes,
insects, birds, figure-subjects and all sorts of designs, chaste,
elaborate or quaint; and these services, representing so much artistic
labour and originality, are sold for prices that bear no due ratio to
the skill required in their manufacture.
There is only one reservation to be made in speaking of the modern
decorative industry of Japan under its better aspects. In Tokyo,
Kioto, Yokohama and Kobe--in all of which places decorating ateliers
(_etsuke-dokoro_), similar to those of Tokyo, have been established in
modern times--the artists use chiefly pigments, seldom venturing to
employ vitrifiable enamels. That the results achieved with these
different materials are not comparable is a fact which every
connoisseur must admit. The glossy surface of a porcelain glaze is ill
fitted for rendering artistic effects with ordinary colours. The
proper field for the application of these is the biscuit, in which
position the covering glaze serves at once to soften and to preserve
the pigment. It can scarcely be doubted that the true instincts of the
ceramist will ultimately counsel him to confine his decoration over
the glaze to vitrifiable enamels, with which the Chinese and Japanese
potters of former times obtained such brilliant results. But to employ
enamels successfully is an achievement demanding special training and
materials not easy to procure or to prepare. The Tokyo decorators are
not likely, therefore, to change their present methods immediately.
An impetus was given to ceramic decoration by the efforts of a new
school, which owed its origin to Dr G. Wagener, an eminent German
expert formerly in the service of the Japanese government. Dr Wagener
conceived the idea of developing the art of decoration under the
glaze, as applied to faience. Faience thus decorated has always been
exceptional in Japan. Rare specimens were produced in Satsuma and
Kioto, the colour employed being chiefly blue, though brown and black
were used in very exceptional instances. The difficulty of obtaining
clear, rich tints was nearly prohibitive, and though success, when
achieved, seemed to justify the effort, this class of ware never
received much attention in Japan. By careful selection and preparation
of _pâte_, glaze and pigments, Dr Wagener proved not only that the
manufacture was reasonably feasible, but also that decoration thus
applied to pottery possesses unique delicacy and softness. Ware
manufactured by his direction at the Tokyo school of technique
(_shokkô gakkô_), under the name of _asahi-yaki_, ranks among the
interesting productions of modern Japan. The decorative colour chiefly
employed is chocolate brown, which harmonizes excellently with the
glaze. But the ware has never found favour in Japanese eyes, an
element of unpleasant garishness being imparted to it by the vitreous
appearance of the glaze, which is manufactured according to European
methods. The modern faience of Ito Tozan of Kioto, decorated with
colour under the glaze, is incomparably more artistic than the Tokyo
_asahi-yaki_, from which, nevertheless, the Kioto master doubtless
borrowed some ideas. The decorative industry in Tokyo owed much also
to the kosho-kaisha, an institution started by Wakai and Matsuo in
1873, with official assistance. Owing to the intelligent patronage of
this company, and the impetus given to the ceramic trade by its
enterprise, the style of the Tokyo _etsuke_ was much improved and the
field of their industry extended. It must be acknowledged, however,
that the Tokyo artists often devote their skill to purposes of
forgery, and that their imitations, especially of old Satsuma-yaki,
are sometimes franked by dealers whose standing should forbid such
frauds. In this context it may be mentioned that, of late years,
decoration of a remarkably microscopic character has been successfully
practised in Kioto, Osaka and Kobe, its originator being Meisan of
Osaka. Before dismissing the subject of modern Tokyo ceramics, it may
be added that Kato Tomataro, mentioned above in connexion with the
manufacture of special glazes, has also been very successful in
producing porcelains decorated with blue _sous couverte_ at his
factory in the Koishikawa suburb.
Modern Wares of Hirado.
Higuchi of Hirado is to be classed with ceramists of the new school on
account of one ware only, namely, porcelain having translucid
decoration, the so-called "grains of rice" of American collectors,
designated _hotaru-de_ (firefly style) in Japan. That, however, is an
achievement of no small consequence, especially since it had never
previously been essayed outside China. The Hirado expert has not yet
attained technical skill equal to that of the Chinese. He cannot, like
them, cover the greater part of a specimen's surface with a lacework
of transparent decoration, exciting wonder that _pâte_ deprived so
greatly of continuity could have been manipulated without accident.
But his artistic instincts are higher than those of the Chinese, and
there is reasonable hope that in time he may excel their best works.
In other respects the Hirado factories do not produce wares nearly so
beautiful as those manufactured there between 1759 and 1840, when the
_Hirado-yaki_ stood at the head of all Japanese porcelain on account
of its pure, close-grained _pâte_, its lustrous milk-white glaze, and
the soft clear blue of its carefully executed decoration.
Ware of Owari.
The Owari potters were slow to follow the lead of Miyagawa Shozan and
Seifu Yohei. At the industrial exhibition in Kioto (1895) the first
results of their efforts were shown, attracting attention at once. In
medieval times Owari was celebrated for faience glazes of various
colours, much affected by the tea-clubs, but its staple manufacture
from the beginning of the 19th century was porcelain decorated with
blue under the glaze, the best specimens of which did not approach
their Chinese prototypes in fineness of _pâte_, purity of glaze or
richness of colour. During the first twenty-five years of the Meiji
era the Owari potters sought to compensate the technical and artistic
defects of their pieces by giving them magnificent dimensions; but at
the Tokyo industrial exhibition (1891) they were able to contribute
some specimens showing decorative, plastic and graving skill of no
mean order. Previously to that time, one of the Seto experts, Kato
Gosuke, had developed remarkable ability in the manufacture of
_céladon_, though in that field he was subsequently distanced by Seifu
of Kioto. Only lately did Owari feel the influence of the new movement
towards Chinese types. Its potters took _flambé_ glazes for models,
and their pieces possessed an air of novelty that attracted
connoisseurs. But the style was not calculated to win general
popularity, and the manufacturing processes were too easy to occupy
the attention of great potters. On a far higher level stood egg-shell
porcelain, remarkable examples of which were sent from Seto to the
Kioto industrial exhibition of 1895. Chinese potters of the Yung-lo
era (1403-1414) enriched their country with a quantity of ware to
which the name of _totai-ki_ (bodiless utensil) was given on account
of its wonderfully attenuated _pâte_. The finest specimens of this
porcelain had incised decoration, sparingly employed but adding much
to the beauty of the piece. In subsequent eras the potters of
King-te-chen did not fail to continue this remarkable manufacture, but
its only Japanese representative was a porcelain distinctly inferior
in more than one respect, namely, the egg-shell utensils of Hizen and
Hirado, some of which had finely woven basket-cases to protect their
extreme fragility. The Seto experts, however, are now making bowls,
cups and vases that rank nearly as high as the celebrated Yung-lo
totai-ki. In purity of tone and velvet-like gloss of surface there is
distinct inferiority on the side of the Japanese ware, but in thinness
of _pâte_ it supports comparison, and in profusion and beauty of
incised decoration it excels its Chinese original.
Ware of Kaga.
Latest of all to acknowledge the impulse of the new departure have
been the potters of Kaga. For many years their ware enjoyed the
credit, or discredit, of being the most lavishly decorated porcelain
in Japan. It is known to Western collectors as a product blazing with
red and gold, a very degenerate offspring of the Chinese Ming type,
which Hozen of Kioto reproduced so beautifully at the beginning of the
19th century under the name of _eiraku-yaki_. Undoubtedly the best
specimens of this _kinran-de_ (brocade) porcelain of Kaga merit praise
and admiration; but, on the whole, ware so gaudy could not long hold a
high place in public esteem. The Kaga potters ultimately appreciated
that defect. They still manufacture quantities of tea and coffee sets,
and dinner or dessert services of red-and-gold porcelain for foreign
markets; but about 1885 some of them made zealous and patient efforts
to revert to the processes that won so much fame for the old
Kutani-yaki, with its grand combinations of rich, lustrous, soft-toned
glazes. The attempt was never entirely successful, but its results
restored something of the Kaga kilns' reputation. Since 1895, again, a
totally new departure has been made by Morishita Hachizaemon, a
ceramic expert, in conjunction with Shida Yasukyo, president of the
Kaga products joint stock company (_Kaga bussan kabushiki kaisha_) and
teacher in the Kaga industrial school. The line chosen by these
ceramists is purely Chinese. Their great aim seems to be the
production of the exquisite Chinese monochromes known as
_u-kwo-tien-tsing_ (blue of the sky after rain) and _yueh-peh_
(_clair-de-lune_). But they also devote much attention to porcelains
decorated with blue or red _sous couverte_. Their work shows much
promise, but like all fine specimens of the Sino-Japanese school, the
prices are too high to attract wide custom.
Summary.
The sum of the matter is that the modern Japanese ceramist, after many
efforts to cater for the taste of the Occident, evidently concludes that
his best hope consists in devoting all his technical and artistic
resources to reproducing the celebrated wares of China. In explanation
of the fact that he did not essay this route in former times, it may be
noted, first, that he had only a limited acquaintance with the wares in
question; secondly, that Japanese connoisseurs never attached any value
to their countrymen's imitation of Chinese porcelains so long as the
originals were obtainable; thirdly, that the ceramic art of China not
having fallen into its present state of decadence, the idea of competing
with it did not occur to outsiders; and fourthly, that Europe and
America had not developed their present keen appreciation of Chinese
masterpieces. Yet it is remarkable that China, at the close of the 19th
century, should have again furnished models to Japanese eclecticism.
_Lacquer._--Japan derived the art of lacquering from China (probably
about the beginning of the 6th century), but she ultimately carried it
far beyond Chinese conception. At first her experts confined themselves
to plain black lacquer. From the early part of the 8th century they
began to ornament it with dust of gold or mother-of-pearl, and
throughout the Heian epoch (9th to 12th century) they added pictorial
designs, though of a formal character, the chief motives being floral
subjects, arabesques and scrolls. All this work was in the style known
as _hira-makie_ (flat decoration); that is to say, having the decorative
design in the same plane as the ground. In the days of the great
dilettante Yoshimasa (1449-1490), lacquer experts devised a new style,
_taka-makie_, or decoration in relief, which immensely augmented the
beauty of the ware, and constituted a feature altogether special to
Japan. Thus when, at the close of the 16th century, the Taiko
inaugurated the fashion of lavishing all the resources of applied art on
the interior decoration of castles and temples, the services of the
lacquerer were employed to an extent hitherto unknown, and there
resulted some magnificent work on friezes, coffered ceilings, door
panels, altar-pieces and cenotaphs. This new departure reached its
climax in the Tokugawa mausolea of Yedo and Nikko, which are enriched by
the possession of the most splendid applications of lacquer decoration
the world has ever seen, nor is it likely that anything of comparable
beauty and grandeur will be again produced in the same line. Japanese
connoisseurs indicate the end of the 17th century as the golden period
of the art, and so deeply rooted is this belief that whenever a date has
to be assigned to any specimen of exceptionally fine quality, it is
unhesitatingly referred to the time of Joken-in (Tsunayoshi).
Among the many skilled artists who have practised this beautiful craft
since the first on record, Kiyohara Norisuye (c. 1169), may be
mentioned Koyetsu (1558-1637) and his pupils, who are especially noted
for their inro (medicine-cases worn as part of the costume); Kajikawa
Kinjiro (c. 1680), the founder of the great Kajikawa family, which
continued up to the 19th century; and Koma Kyuhaku (d. 1715), whose
pupils and descendants maintained his traditions for a period of equal
length. Of individual artists, perhaps the most notable is Ogata Korin
(d. 1716), whose skill was equally great in the arts of painting and
pottery. He was the eldest son of an artist named Ogato Soken, and
studied the styles of the Kano and Tosa schools successively. Among
the artists who influenced him were Kano Tsunenobu, Nomura Sotatsu and
Koyetsu. His lacquer-ware is distinguished for a bold and at times
almost eccentric impressionism, and his use of inlay is strongly
characteristic. Ritsuo (1663-1747), a pupil and contemporary of Korin,
and like him a potter and painter also, was another lacquerer of great
skill. Then followed Hanzan, the two Shiome, Yamamoto Shunsho and his
pupils, Yamada Joka and Kwanshosai Toyo (late 18th century). In the
beginning of the 19th century worked Shokwasai, who frequently
collaborated with the metal-worker Shibayama, encrusting his lacquer
with small decorations in metal by the latter.
Modern Work.
No important new developments have taken place during modern times in
Japan's lacquer manufacture. Her artists follow the old ways
faithfully; and indeed it is not easy to see how they could do better.
On the other hand, there has not been any deterioration; all the skill
of former days is still active. The contrary has been repeatedly
affirmed by foreign critics, but no one really familiar with modern
productions can entertain such a view. Lacquer-making, however, being
essentially an art and not a mere handicraft, has its eras of great
masters and its seasons of inferior execution. Men of the calibre of
Koyetsu Korin, Ritsuo, Kajikawa and Mitsutoshi must be rare in any
age, and the epoch when they flourished is justly remembered with
enthusiasm. But the Meiji era has had its Zeshin, and it had in 1909
Shirayama Fukumatsu, Kawanabe Itcho, Ogawa Shomin, Uematsu Homin,
Shibayama Soichi, Morishita Morihachi and other lesser experts, all
masters in designing and execution. Zeshin, shortly before he died,
indicated Shirayama Fukumatsu as the man upon whom his mantle should
descend, and that the judgment of this really great craftsman was
correct cannot be denied by any one who has seen the works of
Shirayama. He excels in his representations of landscapes and
waterscapes, and has succeeded in transferring to gold-lacquer panels
tender and delicate pictures of nature's softest moods--pictures that
show balance, richness, harmony and a fine sense of decorative
proportion. Kawanabe Itcho is celebrated for his representations of
flowers and foliage, and Morishita Morihachi and Asano Saburo (of
Kaga) are admirable in all styles, but especially, perhaps, in the
charming variety called _togi-dashi_ (ground down), which is
pre-eminent for its satin-like texture and for the atmosphere of
dreamy softness that pervades the decoration. The togi-dashi design,
when finely executed, seems to hang suspended in the velvety lacquer
or to float under its silky surface. The magnificent sheen and
richness of the pure _kin-makie_ (gold lacquer) are wanting, but in
their place we have inimitable tenderness and delicacy.
New Development.
The only branch of the lacquerer's art that can be said to have shown
any marked development in the Meiji era is that in which parts of the
decorative scheme consist of objects in gold, silver, shakudo,
shibuichi, iron, or, above all, ivory or mother-of-pearl. It might
indeed be inferred, from some of the essays published in Europe on the
subject of Japan's ornamental arts, that this application of ivory and
mother-of-pearl holds a place of paramount importance. Such is not the
case. Cabinets, fire-screens, plaques and boxes resplendent with gold
lacquer grounds carrying elaborate and profuse decoration of ivory and
mother-of-pearl[4] are not objects that appeal to Japanese taste. They
belong essentially to the catalogue of articles called into existence
to meet the demand of the foreign market, being, in fact, an attempt
to adapt the lacquerer's art to decorative furniture for European
houses. On the whole it is a successful attempt. The plumage of
gorgeously-hued birds, the blossoms of flowers (especially the
hydrangea), the folds of thick brocade, microscopic diapers and
arabesques, are built up with tiny fragments of iridescent shell, in
combination with silver-foil, gold-lacquer and coloured bone, the
whole producing a rich and sparkling effect. In fine specimens the
workmanship is extraordinarily minute, and every fragment of metal,
shell, ivory or bone, used to construct the decorative scheme, is
imbedded firmly in its place. But in a majority of cases the work of
building is done by means of paste and glue only, so that the result
lacks durability. The employment of mother-of-pearl to ornament
lacquer grounds dates from a period as remote as the 8th century, but
its use as a material for constructing decorative designs began in the
17th century, and was due to an expert called Shibayama, whose
descendant, Shibayama Soichi, has in recent years been associated with
the same work in Tokyo.
Processes.
In the manufacture of Japanese lacquer there are three processes. The
first is the extraction and preparation of the lac; the second, its
application; and the third, the decoration of the lacquered surface.
The lac, when taken from an incision in the trunk of the _Rhus
vernicifera_ (_urushi-no-ki_), contains approximately 70% of lac acid,
4% of gum arabic, 2% of albumen, and 24% of water. It is strained,
deprived of its moisture, and receives an admixture of gamboge,
cinnabar, acetous protoxide or some other colouring matter. The object
to be lacquered, which is generally made of thin white pine, is
subjected to singularly thorough and painstaking treatment, one of the
processes being to cover it with a layer of Japanese paper or thin
hempen cloth, which is fixed by means of a pulp of rice-paste and
lacquer. In this way the danger of warping is averted, and exudations
from the wooden surface are prevented from reaching the overlaid coats
of lacquer. Numerous operations of luting, sizing, lacquering,
polishing, drying, rubbing down, and so on, are performed by the
_nurimono-shi_, until, after many days' treatment, the object emerges
with a smooth, lustre-like dark-grey or coloured surface, and is ready
to pass into the hands of the makie-shi, or decorator. The latter is
an artist; those who have performed the preliminary operations are
merely skilled artisans. The _makie-shi_ may be said to paint a
picture on the surface of the already lacquered object. He takes for
subject a landscape, a seascape, a battle-scene, flowers, foliage,
birds, fishes, insects--in short, anything. This he sketches in
outline with a paste of white lead, and then, having filled in the
details with gold and colours, he superposes a coat of translucid
lacquer, which is finally subjected to careful polishing. If parts of
the design are to be in relief, they are built up with a putty of
black lacquer, white lead, camphor and lamp-black. In all fine
lacquers gold predominates so largely that the general impression
conveyed by the object is one of glow and richness. It is also an
inviolable rule that every part must show beautiful and highly
finished work, whether it be an external or an internal part. The
makie-shi ranks almost as high as the pictorial artist in Japanese
esteem. He frequently signs his works, and a great number of names
have been thus handed down during the past two centuries.
_Cloisonné Enamel._--Cloisonné enamel is essentially of modern
development in Japan. The process was known at an early period, and was
employed for the purpose of subsidiary decoration from the close of the
16th century, but not until the 19th century did Japanese experts begin
to manufacture the objects known in Europe as "enamels;" that is to say,
vases, plaques, censers, bowls, and so forth, having their surface
covered with vitrified pastes applied either in the _champlevé_ or the
_cloisonné_ style. It is necessary to insist upon this fact, because it
has been stated with apparent authority that numerous specimens which
began to be exported from 1865 were the outcome of industry commencing
in the 16th century and reaching its point of culmination at the
beginning of the 18th. There is not the slenderest ground for such a
theory. The work began in 1838, and Kaji Tsunekichi of Owari was its
originator. During 20 years previously to the reopening of the country
in 1858, cloisonné enamelling was practised in the manner now
understood by the term; when foreign merchants began to settle in
Yokohama, several experts were working skilfully in Owari after the
methods of Kaji Tsunekichi. Up to that time there had been little demand
for enamels of large dimensions, but when the foreign market called for
vases, censers, plaques and such things, no difficulty was found in
supplying them. Thus, about the year 1865, there commenced an export of
enamels which had no prototypes in Japan, being destined frankly for
European and American collectors. From a technical point of view these
specimens had much to recommend them. The base, usually of copper, was
as thin as cardboard; the cloisons, exceedingly fine and delicate, were
laid on with care and accuracy; the colours were even, and the designs
showed artistic judgment. Two faults, however, marred the work--first,
the shapes were clumsy and unpleasing, being copied from bronzes whose
solidity justified forms unsuited to thin enamelled vessels; secondly,
the colours, sombre and somewhat impure, lacked the glow and mellowness
that give decorative superiority to the technically inferior Chinese
enamels of the later Ming and early Tsing eras. Very soon, however, the
artisans of Nagoya (Owari), Yokohama and Tokyo--where the art had been
taken up--found that faithful and fine workmanship did not pay. The
foreign merchant desired many and cheap specimens for export, rather
than few and costly. There followed then a period of gradual decline,
and the enamels exported to Europe showed so much inferiority that they
were supposed to be the products of a widely different era and of
different makers. The industry was threatened with extinction, and would
certainly have dwindled to insignificant dimensions had not a few
earnest artists, working in the face of many difficulties and
discouragements, succeeded in striking out new lines and establishing
new standards for excellence.
New Schools.
Three clearly differentiated schools now (1875) came into existence.
One, headed by Namikawa Yasuyuki of Kioto, took for its objects the
utmost delicacy and perfection of technique, richness of decoration,
purity of design and harmony of colour. The thin clumsily-shaped vases
of the Kaji school, with their uniformly distributed decoration of
diapers, scrolls and arabesques in comparatively dull colours, ceased
altogether to be produced, their place being taken by graceful
specimens, technically flawless, and carrying designs not only free
from stiffness, but also executed in colours at once rich and soft.
This school may be subdivided, Kioto representing one branch, Nagoya,
Tokyo and Yokohama the other. In the products of the Kioto branch the
decoration generally covered the whole surface of the piece; in the
products of the other branch the artist aimed rather at pictorial
effect, placing the design in a monochromatic field of low tone. It is
plain that such a method as the latter implies great command of
coloured pastes, and, indeed, no feature of the manufacture is more
conspicuous than the progress made during the period 1880-1900 in
compounding and firing vitrifiable enamels. Many excellent examples of
cloisonné enamel have been produced by each branch of this school.
There has been nothing like them in any other country, and they stand
at an immeasurable distance above the works of the early Owari school
represented by Kaji Tsunekichi and his pupils and colleagues.
Cloisonless Enamels.
The second of the modern schools is headed by Namikawa Sosuke of
Tokyo. It is an easily traced outgrowth of the second branch of the
first school just described, for one can readily understand that from
placing the decorative design in a monochromatic field of low tone,
which is essentially a pictorial method, development would proceed in
the direction of concealing the mechanics of the art in order to
enhance the pictorial effect. Thus arose the so-called "cloisonless
enamels" (_musenjippo_). They are not always without cloisons. The
design is generally framed at the outset with a ribbon of thin metal,
precisely after the manner of ordinary cloisonné ware. But as the work
proceeds the cloisons are hidden--unless their presence is necessary
to give emphasis to the design--and the final result is a picture in
vitrified enamels.
Monochromatic Enamels.
The characteristic productions of the third among the modern schools
are monochromatic and translucid enamels. All students of the ceramic
art know that the monochrome porcelains of China owe their beauty to
the fact that the colour is in the glaze, not under it. The ceramist
finds no difficulty in applying a uniform coat of pigment to porcelain
biscuit, and covering the whole with a diaphanous glaze. The colour is
fixed and the glaze set by secondary firing at a lower temperature
than that necessary for hardening the _pâte_. Such porcelains,
however, lack the velvet-like softness and depth of tone so justly
prized in the genuine monochrome, where the glaze itself contains the
colouring matter, _pâte_ and glaze being fired simultaneously at the
same high temperature. It is apparent that a vitrified enamel may be
made to perform, in part at any rate, the function of a porcelain
glaze. Acting upon that theory, the experts of Tokyo and Nagoya have
produced many very beautiful specimens of monochrome enamel--yellow
(canary or straw), _rose du Barry_, liquid-dawn, red, aubergine
purple, green (grass or leaf), dove-grey and lapis lazuli blue. The
pieces do not quite reach the level of Chinese monochrome porcelains,
but their inferiority is not marked. The artist's great difficulty is
to hide the metal base completely. A monochrome loses much of its
attractiveness when the colour merges into a metal rim, or when the
interior of a vase is covered with crude unpolished paste. But to
spread and fix the enamel so that neither at the rim nor in the
interior shall there be any break of continuity, or any indication
that the base is copper, not porcelain, demands quite exceptional
skill.
Translucid Enamel.
The translucid enamels of the modern school are generally associated
with decorative bases. In other words, a suitable design is chiselled
in the metal base so as to be visible through the diaphanous enamel.
Very beautiful effects of broken and softened lights, combined with
depth and delicacy of colour, are thus obtained. But the decorative
designs which lend themselves to such a purpose are not numerous. A
gold base deeply chiselled in wave-diaper and overrun with a paste of
aubergine purple is the most pleasing. A still higher achievement is
to apply to the chiselled base designs executed in coloured enamels,
finally covering the whole with translucid paste. Admirable results
are thus produced; as when, through a medium of cerulean blue, bright
goldfish and blue-backed carp appear swimming in silvery waves, or
brilliantly plumaged birds seem to soar among fleecy clouds. The
artists of this school show also much skill in using enamels for the
purposes of subordinate decoration--suspending enamelled butterflies,
birds or floral sprays, among the reticulations of a silver vase
chiselled à jour; or filling with translucid enamels parts of a
decorative scheme sculptured in iron, silver, gold or shakudo.