JAPANESE ART--INTRODUCTORY--LACQUER WARE, POTTERY AND PORCELAIN
Japanese art is a subject which invites exhaustive treatment. To deal
with it adequately in two or three chapters of a general work on Japan
is obviously impossible. Still it is, I think, possible, within the
limits at my disposal, to give my readers some conception of that art
to which Japan is so greatly indebted for the extraordinary way in
which she has impressed the world. The art of Japan is in a sense
unique, and it may be that to some extent the Japanese atmosphere, so
to speak, is essential in order to fully appreciate it. Mr.
Chamberlain, in his "Things Japanese," has observed that "To show a
really fine piece of lacquer to one of the uncultivated natives of
Europe or America is, as the Japanese proverb says, like giving
guineas to a cat." Much the same remark might, however, be made in
reference to the art products of any country. Be that as it may, the
Japanese people are now largely dependent on the foreigner for art
patronage. It may be that this has resulted in art-artisans abandoning
their old standard and devoting themselves to the manufacture of
whatever pays best, prostituting the spirit of art to the promptings
of gain, and compelling the native to cater for foreign taste rather
than to adhere to Japanese canons of art. I am afraid that the
commercial spirit is fatal to art of any kind. The true artist, like
the poet, in an ideal state of existence would only work under
inspiration, but, unfortunately, the artist, like the poet, is daily
faced by that necessity which knows no law and demands the subsistence
of the body as an essential for work of any kind.
Perhaps some of my readers might desire a definition of art. There
are, I know, people in this world who can never approach the
consideration of or deal with any subject unless the subject itself
and every term in connection therewith is precisely defined. In
reference to Japanese art I am inclined to employ the words of Mr.
Walter Crane in opening, many years ago, the annual exhibition of the
Arts and Crafts Society. He remarked: "The true root and basis of all
art lies in the handicrafts. If there is no room or chance of
recognition for really artistic power and feeling in design and
craftsmanship--if art is not recognised in the humblest object and
material, and felt to be as valuable, in its own way, as the more
highly rewarded pictorial skill--the art cannot be in a sound
condition. And if artists cease to be found among the crafts, there is
great danger that they will vanish from the arts also, and become
manufacturers and salesmen instead."
Japanese art is unquestionably of that kind which requires a certain
educational process. It does not, for instance, at once appeal to that
vague entity the "man in the street." There is a grotesqueness about
some of it, a lack of perspective in much of it, which is caviare to a
large number of persons. This much, however, can be said about
Japanese art--that it is original. It is almost altogether the outcome
of the artistic instincts of the people. Undoubtedly it has been to a
large extent influenced by Buddhism, and, as we have seen, Buddhism is
a foreign religion; but at the same time I think it may fairly be
asserted that, though the Buddhist religion may have influenced and
utilised Japanese art, it has never killed, or indeed affected to any
degree, what I may term the individualistic artistic instincts of the
nation. Japanese art requires to be closely studied. It is something
that grows upon one, and the closer it is studied the greater its
influence. To me one of its most pleasing features is what I have
termed in the Preface its catholicity. It is not, as art is in so many
European countries, the cult of a few, a sort of Eleusynian mystery
into which a select number of persons have been initiated. It has, on
the contrary, permeated, and exercised an influence upon, the whole
nation, and been employed for even the most humble purposes. It is for
this reason that, as I have previously observed, I am of opinion the
Japanese may be considered and described as the most artistic people
in the world.
I have referred to the grotesqueness and lack of perspective
incidental to some descriptions of Japanese art. It certainly neglects
chiaroscuro and linear perspective, and it displays an entire lack of
form knowledge. The human figure and face have apparently never been
studied at all. The colouring is frequently splendid, while the
figures are for the most part anatomically incorrect. One would think
that Japanese artists had never seen their own or any other human
bodies. A rigid adherence to conventionality is, in my opinion, a
defect of all Japanese art. By conventionality I do not, of course,
mean what I may term the individuality of the art itself, but the
fact that Japanese artists have felt themselves largely bound by the
traditions of their art to treat the human and other figures not in
accordance with nature, but altogether in accordance with the
conventions of that art, and to entirely ignore perspective. I am
quite aware that some enthusiastic lovers of things Japanese admire,
or affect to admire, these defects. They have been described as a
protest against the too rigid rules exacted in Western art. I suggest,
however, that art in its highest form should seek to be true to
nature, and in so far as Japanese art fails in this respect it is, I
think, defective. At the same time I cordially admit that its defects
are more than compensated by its splendid workmanship, its gorgeous
colouring, and its striking originality.
It was only about forty or fifty years ago that Japanese art became
known to any extent in Europe. Certainly the Portuguese missionaries
introduced by Francis Xavier and the traders in the Dutch factory at
Nagasaki were in the habit of exporting a few articles to Europe,
chiefly porcelain ware made to order. I fear both missionaries and
merchants regarded Japanese art, as we now know it, as barbaric, and
never in the slightest degree realised either its beauties or its
originality. Neither they nor the many millions of art-lovers in
Europe dreamt that Japan was a country where art was universal, not
esoteric--an art with schools, traditions, masters, and masterpieces.
Probably the Paris Exhibition of 1867, to which the Prince of Satsuma
sent a collection of Japanese artistic treasures, was the occasion
when the true inwardness of Japanese art burst upon the Western world
as a whole. It was a veritable revelation. It at once aroused
enthusiasm and curiosity, and I fear cupidity, among European artists
and art collectors. Europe was awakened to the possibilities of Japan
as an art nation, and Japan, failing to realise or properly appreciate
the artistic accumulated wealth it possessed, commenced to part with
it in a truly reckless manner. The depletion of the art treasures of
the country commenced about this time, and though that depletion has
been largely arrested, it is nevertheless still, to some extent, going
on.
Japanese art, as it has come under the cognisance of a foreigner, may
be considered in connection with four or five purposes to which it has
been employed or adapted. First amongst these I place lacquer, next
pottery and porcelain, then carving in wood and iron, metal-work and
painting. The lacquer industry has been in existence in Japan so long
as we have any authoritative history of the country. If any credence
is to be given to tradition, long before the Christian era there was
an official whose sole duty it was to superintend the production of
lacquer for the Imperial Court, and specimens over a thousand years
old, though rare, still exist. The process of lacquering is a somewhat
intricate one, and varies, of course, in accordance with the time and
labour spent on the article to be lacquered, and the cost of the same.
After the article has been carefully made from specially selected
wood--in the case of the choicest specimens of lacquer work this is
usually a pine-wood of fine grain--it is first coated with a
preparation composed of clay and varnish, which, after being permitted
to dry, is smoothed down with a whetstone. When this operation has
been concluded, the article proposed to be lacquered is covered with
some substance, either silk, cloth, or paper. It is then given from
one to five coats of the foregoing mixture, each coat being permitted
to dry before the next is applied. After this has been effected, the
whetstone is again employed with a view of obtaining a perfectly
smooth surface when the lacquering proper commences. This may be a
perfunctory or it may be a very complicated operation, according to
the value of the article, layer after layer of the varnish--from one
to fifty coats--being laid upon the material at intervals. After the
final coat has been applied, the smoothing process commences. The
whole of these operations are, however, only the preliminaries to the
scheme of decoration, which is often very elaborate. The dusts of
powders used for this purpose are of various kinds and of varying
cost. When the ornamentation which often consists in colouring the
groundwork with particles of gold dust has been completed, sometimes
as many as a dozen coatings of transparent lacquer are imposed upon
the same.
The art of lacquering in Japan dates back at least 1,200 or 1,300
years, and tradition assigns it a period more ancient still. There
are, however, few if any articles of lacquer ware now in the country,
whose origin can be traced back so many years. At any rate, there is
no satisfactory evidence in regard to the antiquity of any specimens
of lacquer ware dating back more than seven or eight centuries. In old
Japan the manufacturer of lacquer work was intimately associated with
the domestic life of the upper classes. Griffis tells us that nearly
every Daimio had his Court lacquerer, and that a set of household
furniture and toilet utensils was part of the dowry of a noble lady.
On the birth of a daughter, he relates, it was common for the lacquer
artist to begin the making of a mirror case, a washing bowl, a
cabinet, a clothes rack, or a chest of drawers, often occupying from
one to five whole years on a single article. An inro, or pill-box,
might require several years for perfection, though small enough to go
into a fob. By the time the young lady was marriageable, her outfit of
lacquer was superb.
The names of many of the great lacquer artists of Japan are still
venerated. The masterpieces of Hoyami Koyetsu who flourished in the
sixteenth century, are still, though rare, procurable. Japan numbers
on her roll of fame twenty-eight great lacquer artists. There have,
of course, been many hundreds, and indeed thousands, in the past
centuries whose work was superb, but the twenty-eight are deemed to
be the immortals of this particular art. One of these great men,
Ogawa Ritsuo, is famous for the number and variety of the
materials--mother-of-pearl, coral, tortoise-shell, &c. &c., he used
in his work. A profuse richness is its chief characteristic. One of
his pupils imitated in his work various materials--pottery and
wood-carving, and bronzes. The last famous artist in lacquer,
Watanobe Tosu, died about thirty years ago. Whether he is destined
to have a successor or successors remains to be seen. These lacquer
artists, as I have indicated, worked not for lucre, but for love.
Attached to some Daimios household, they devoted their lives, their
energies, their imagination, their artistic instincts to the
devising of splendid work and the making of beautiful, ingenious,
absolutely artistic and, at the same time, entirely useful articles.
It is impossible within the space at my disposal to deal in detail
with the large variety of lacquer work produced in Japan with the
various kinds of lacquer, or with what I may term the artistic
idiosyncrasies of Japanese lacquer work. One can now hardly believe
that until the opening up of Japan half a century or so ago, few
specimens of lacquer found their way to Europe, although Japanese
porcelain had been largely imported and was highly prized. Even at
the present time I do not think that the artistic beauties of Japanese
lacquer work have been appreciated in this country to anything like
the extent they deserve to be. I have heard people remark, for
example, that they failed to understand the perpetual reproduction of
the great snow-covered mountain Fusi-Yama in Japanese designs, while
they could see nothing in these storks, bewildering landscapes, and
grotesque figures. Perhaps the best explanation of the constant
appearance of Fusi-Yama in all Japanese work is that which De
Fonblanque gives. He says: "If there is one sentiment universal
amongst all Japanese, it is a deep and earnest reverence for their
sacred mountain. It is their ideal of the beautiful in nature, and
they never tire of admiring, glorifying, and reproducing it. It is
painted, embossed, carved, engraved, modelled in all their wares. The
mass of the people regard it not only as the shrine of their dearest
gods, but the certain panacea for their worst evils, from impending
bankruptcy or cutaneous diseases to unrequited love or ill-luck at
play. It is annually visited by thousands and thousands of pilgrims."
The Japanese artist in constantly reproducing Fusi-Yama has merely
voiced national sentiment and feeling.
[Illustration: VIEW OF FUSI-YAMA FROM A TEA HOUSE
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]
The substance applied to wood to produce what is called lacquer, is
not what is generally known in England as varnish. It is really the
sap of the _rhus vernicifera_ which contains, among other ingredients,
about 3 per cent. of a gum soluble in water. It has to undergo various
refining processes before being mixed with the colouring matter, while
the greatest care is exercised throughout with a view of obviating the
possibility of dust or any other foreign matter finding its way into
the mixture. The fine polish usually seen on lacquer work is not
actually the result of the composition applied, but is produced by
incessant polishing. The lacquered articles in old Japan were used for
various purposes--mirror cases, fans, letter-carriers, the inro, which
was at one time a necessary part of every Japanese gentleman's attire;
it was secured to the sash, and utilised to hold medicine powders, for
perfumes, as a seal-box, &c., seals being at one time, as indeed they
are to some extent still, in use in place of a signature. But the
amount of ancient lacquer ware now in Japan, or, indeed, of artistic
articles made solely for use and not merely to sell, is, as I have
said, small. European collectors have denuded the country; the
treasures of the Daimios, which were almost recklessly sold when they
were disestablished, and to a large extent disendowed, have been
distributed all over the globe, and a large quantity, perhaps the
largest quantity, of the lacquer work now made in the country is
manufactured solely for the purpose of being sold as curios either at
home or abroad. That this fact has largely lowered the artistic ideals
and debased the artistic taste in Japan appears to be the general
opinion. Much of the present-day work of Japan in lacquer, as in other
articles, is certainly to my mind artistic and beautiful in the
extreme, but obviously, men working almost against time to turn out
"curios," for which there is a persistent demand on the part of
visitors who are not always by temperament or training fitted to
appreciate the artistic or the beautiful, are unlikely to produce such
fine or original work as the artisan of old leisurely employed at his
craft and pluming himself, not on the amount of his earnings or the
extent of his output, but on the quality and artistic merits of his
work.
Next to lacquer in importance amongst the Japanese arts, I think,
comes ceramic ware, which has long had a great vogue in Europe, and
indeed was highly prized here many years before the artistic skill of
the Japanese in lacquer was generally known. That decorative art, as
expressed in the pottery and porcelain of Japan, has been largely
influenced by China and Korea seems to be unquestionable. The Japanese
have nevertheless imparted to it a peculiar charm of their own, the
outcome of originality in ideas, while the art has, through many
centuries, been fortunate enough to have been fostered and encouraged
by the great and powerful of the land. As a people the Japanese are
entirely free from anything that savours of ostentation, and this fact
is emphasised in their art just as it is in their homes. The charm of
the ceramic ware of Japan, in my opinion, consists in the beauty of
its colouring rather than in its figuring. This ceramic ware, as my
readers probably know, differs greatly in appearance, quality, and, I
may add, in price according to the particular part of the country in
which it is produced. It is not necessary to be an art connoisseur to
grasp the fact that, say, the famous Satsuma ware is distinct in
almost every respect from that of Imari, Kaga, Ise, Raku, Kyoto, &c.
All these different wares have charms peculiar to each. It is really
marvellous to think that a country with such a comparatively small
area as Japan should have produced so many different kinds of ceramic
ware, each possessing distinct and pronounced characteristics, and
having indeed little affinity with each other save in regard to the
general excellence of the workmanship and the artistic completeness of
the whole.
As I have said, both Korea and China have had a marked influence on
the manufacture of pottery and porcelain in Japan. Korean potters
appear to have settled there prior to the Christian era, and to have
imparted to the Japanese the first rudiments of knowledge in regard to
working in clay, but the development of the process was greatly due to
Chinese influences. During the thirteenth century, one Toshiro paid a
visit to China, where he exhaustively studied everything relating to
the potter's art. On his return to his own country he introduced great
improvements, both in manufacture and decoration, and made, it is
believed, for the first time, glazed pottery. Soon afterwards
household utensils of lacquer began to go out of use, being replaced
by those made of clay, and a great impetus was accordingly given to
the trade of the potter. Tea, which is believed to have been
introduced into Japan from China in the year 800 does not appear to
have come into general use till the sixteenth century. The "tea
ceremonies" known as the Cha-no-yu came into vogue about the same
time, and undoubtedly had an immense influence on the ceramic art. The
articles used in the "tea ceremonies" included an iron kettle resting
on a stand; a table or stand of mulberry wood 2 feet high; two
tea-jars containing the tea; a vessel containing fresh water; a
tea-bowl. It is not my purpose to describe the many interesting
details of these "tea ceremonies." Suffice it to observe that they
gave a great impetus to the manufacture of costly and elaborate china.
The leaders of society, as we should term them, who took part in these
ceremonies exercised a judicious and enlightened patronage of the
ceramic art. They encouraged rising talent, and welcomed new
developments. There can, I think, be no doubt that Japan, in an
artistic sense, owes much to the frequenters of these "tea
ceremonies." Tea-jars and tea-bowls especially became, under the
patronage and guidance of these men, choice works of art, and were
bestowed by the great and powerful on their friends, by whom they were
greatly cherished and handed down as heirlooms. Some of these
treasures still remain in the country, a large number have been
purchased by art connoisseurs and taken to various parts of the world,
while many, of course, have from various causes perished. Under the
conditions of life which obtained in old Japan the ceramic art reached
a pitch of excellence, not to say glory, which it is never likely to
attain either in Japan or elsewhere. It was emphatically a period of
art for art's sake. The patronage, if I may use a word perhaps not
strictly accurate, of the great artists of those days was exercised in
such a manner as to enable them to employ all their talents, artistic
ideals, and enthusiasm in the direction of producing masterpieces of
their craft.
The secrets of porcelain manufacture are believed to have been brought
to Japan from China about the beginning of the sixteenth century. In
the year 1513, Gorodayu, Shonsui, of Ise, returned from China and
settled in Arita, in the province of Hizen, which at once became and
still remains the headquarters of the famous Imari ware. The porcelain
produced here is chiefly, but not altogether, the blue and white
combination, but Arita also makes porcelain ware decorated in various
colours and exceedingly ornate in appearance. It is, however, stated
that this ornate Imari ware was first made for exportation to China to
supply the Portuguese market at Macao, and that it was afterwards
fostered by the Dutch at Nagasaki, whose exportations of the ware to
Europe were on a considerable scale. This peculiar style of decoration
is believed to have been due to the demands of the Dutch, whose
patrons in Europe would have none other. One remark I may make in this
connection, viz., that those enormous vases and other similar articles
of Japanese ware which have long been so greatly prized in Europe, and
many of which are magnificent specimens of decorative art, are not, in
one sense, characteristically Japanese. The Japanese has always, if I
may so express it, used art as the handmaiden of utilitarianism. Every
article intended for the Japanese home had to be not merely a thing of
beauty but a thing for use. It never entered the minds of the Japanese
to hang beautiful specimens of their porcelain ware on their walls, or
what did duty for walls, to collect dust. They used vases certainly of
a moderate size to hold flowers, tea-pots and tea-cups for the purpose
of making and drinking tea, water-bottles and various other articles
for domestic use; everything in fact was, as I have said, designed not
only from an artistic but a utilitarian standpoint, and hence it is, I
think, that art, as I have already remarked, has permeated the whole
people. Even in the poorest house in Japan it is possible to see, in
the ordinary articles in domestic use, some attempt at art, and, I may
add, some appreciation of it on the part of the users of those
articles. In my opinion when art is not applied to articles of general
utility but is confined to articles not intended for use, art becomes,
as is largely the case in this country, either the cult of a class or
the affectation of a class, and its beauties and inward meaning cease
to have any effect upon, just because they are not understood by, the
great mass of the people.
Satsuma ware is probably the most widely known, and the most esteemed
among foreigners, of Japanese porcelain. Its soft, cream-like colour
is now known in every part of the world, while the delicate colour
decorations imposed upon the cream-like background, certainly give a
most effective appearance. I question however whether, from a purely
artistic standpoint, Satsuma is worthy of being compared with many of
the other porcelains in Japan. Much of it as seen in Europe was
specially made for Europe, and having been so is, I suggest, not in
the true sense artistic. As a matter of fact Satsuma ware was
introduced from Korea, and was made in the first instance solely for
the use of the Prince of Satsuma and his friends. The kilns were
originally built on Korean models, and the potters in Satsuma remained
a class apart, not being allowed to marry with the outside world.
Kaga ware is well known to all art connoisseurs. This porcelain is
rare. The masters of the art of Kaga ware, with its exquisite
colouring and elaborate ornamentation in gold and silver, have left no
successors, while their output was small. The ware is of course still
made, and as the clay of the district is of a dark red colour, the
ware has a uniform tint.
Bizen ware reached the apotheosis of its perfection just before the
Revolution. It is made in the province of Bizen. The better kind is
made of a white or light bluish clay, and well baked in order to
receive the red-brown colour, whereas the commoner kind is of a red
clay.
The various Kyoto wares are remarkable for their quaint forms, and
some of them are highly prized.
It would, of course, be impossible for me to attempt in detail a
description of the other very numerous ceramic wares of Japan.
Undoubtedly, as I have said, Satsuma is the most popular with
Europeans, but it is not, and I do not think it deserves to be, the
most highly prized by art connoisseurs. The ceramic wares of Japan may
be classified under three headings: (1) Pottery, ornamented by
scoring and glazing; (2) A cream-coloured faience with a glaze often
crackled and delicately painted; (3) Hard porcelain. Under the first
of these classifications may be included Bizen, Seto, Raku, and some
other wares. Under the second I place Satsuma and some less important
similar products. Among the porcelains the most famous are those of
Kutania, Hizen, and Kyoto. In regard to decorations, the Japanese have
utilised the seven gods of good fortune, many landscapes, a few of the
domestic animals--the dragon, phoenix, an animal with the body and
hoofs of a deer, the tail of a bull, and with a horn on its forehead,
a monster lion, and the sacred tortoise. Trees, plants, grasses, and
flowers of various kinds, and some of the badges in Japanese heraldry
are also largely made use of. However grotesque some of these objects
may be, or however grotesque the representations of animals and even
landscapes may be, no one who has closely studied it can deny the fact
that the effect of Japanese decorative art as applied to the ceramic
ware of the country is, on the whole, magnificent. The more one
studies it the more impressed one is with its marvellous beauty and
the originality which has been brought to bear upon it. I defy any man
or woman, who possesses the artistic sensibilities, even in a latent
degree, to visit a gallery containing the masterpieces of Japanese
ceramic art, closely study them in all their details, and minutely
examine the attention which the artist has given to even the smallest
of those details without being impressed by its power. It is, I
consider, a liberal education to any person who has the slightest
prepossession for art to wander through such a gallery and admire the
masterpieces of these wonderful art-workers of Japan.
The demand for the various art products of Japan in both Europe and
America has had its perhaps inevitable result in not only the
manufacture of articles simply and solely for the foreign market, but
in the what I may term faking of modern to represent ancient art
productions. "Old" Satsuma, for example, is a case in point. The
genuine old Satsuma ware, by constant use, obtained, like meerschaum,
a delightful tint. Modern Satsuma is comparatively white, and so, in
order to pander to the taste of the European collector of the ancient
article, the modern is stained to the required shade. The article
itself is genuine, and indeed beautiful, but this "faking" of it to
meet European and American tastes is one of the results, I fear, of
Western influences. What the precise effect of European influences may
be on the old porcelain art of Japan it is impossible to say. So far
as I am concerned, I have no hesitation in expressing my own opinion
that it will not be a healthy influence. Art for art's sake is, I
admit, difficult when the plutocrats of the West, with a craze or a
fad for Eastern art, are pouring out their wealth in order to obtain
specimens thereof. Demand usually induces supply, and the Japanese
artisan of to-day would be more than human did he not respond to the
demand of the West for "Old Satsuma" and other specimens of the
artistic treasures in pottery and porcelain of Japan. The spirit of
commercialism is, as I have said before, fatal to art. If the artist
is forced to work quickly and cheaply he quite evidently cannot bring
his individuality into play. He must transform his studio into a
workshop, and ponder only, or chiefly, upon the possibility of his
output. I have been much struck in this connection with the remarks of
a writer in regard to orders for art work sent from New York to Japan.
"I can remember," he said, "one of our great New York dealers
marking on his samples the colours that pleased most of his buyers,
who themselves were to place the goods. All other colours or patterns
were tabooed in his instructions to the makers in Japan. This was the
rude mechanism of the change, the coming down to the worst public
taste, which must be that of the greatest number at any time."
[Illustration: KUTANI EARTHENWARE, DECORATED WITH POLYCHROME ENAMELS
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: INCENSE BURNER
AWATA FAYENCE. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
As regards the modern porcelain of Japan I need say but little.
Originality is apparently dead, and the makers of to-day are content
to copy the past. No doubt the purely mechanical processes of
manufacture have been greatly improved, and much, if not most, of the
modern ceramic ware of Japan is extremely beautiful. At the same time
some of it, especially that which is made solely for the foreign
market, is to my mind neither artistic nor beautiful. It is decorated,
if I may use such a term, in most of the colours of the rainbow, and
rendered more gaudy still by a plethora of very poor gilding.
There is in Japan a certain school of progressive ideas in reference
to the art of the country. This school is of opinion that Japanese art
should not, so to speak, remain stereotyped, but that it should
assimilate and adapt and apply all that is good and beautiful in
Western art. The objects that this school has in view are no doubt
laudable, but I confess I hope with all my heart that those objects
will fail of accomplishment. There has been already far too much
Europeanising of Japanese art, and the result, so far as I have been
able to judge, is not encouraging in respect of any further advance or
development in that direction. Japanese art, and especially the
ceramic art, possesses, as I have before said, an individuality which
can only be spoiled, even if it be not destroyed, by adding on to or
mixing up with it the totally distinct art and art methods of Western
civilisation. Were this done it would become a bastard or a mongrel
art, and, as history affords abundant evidence, would in due course
lapse into a condition of utter decadence.
Quite a volume might be written on the subject of marks on Japanese
pottery and porcelain. These have long interested and frequently
misled the collector. They are of various kinds. Sometimes there is a
mark signifying the reign or part of the reign of an emperor, or the
name of a place at which the article was made, or, more frequently
still, the name of the particular potter whose handicraft it was.
Sometimes Chinese dates are found impressed on the article without any
regard to chronological correctness. Indeed, Chinese dates are to be
found on Japanese porcelain indicating a period long anterior to that
in which the manufacture of porcelain was known in Japan. These
spurious dates have proved pitfalls for collectors. The mark is
sometimes impressed with a seal or painted; occasionally it is merely
scratched. The investigation of these marks is a recondite study
assuredly full of interest, but, as I have said, prolific in pitfalls
for the unwary or the too-credulous.