II
JAPANESE PORCELAIN
The subject of Japanese porcelain can only be briefly discussed here, on the one hand in its relation to the Chinese porcelain of which it may be considered an offshoot, and on the other, from the point of view of its influence on European factories. Though the origin of the art in Japan is obscure, it is certain that the Japanese learned the making of porcelain from their neighbours across the sea. Tradition asserts that one Gorodayiu Go Shonsui visited the Chinese factories in 1510 with this purpose, and on his return established a kiln of short-lived duration for the manufacture in his own country. It is not, however, until the beginning of the following century that sure ground is reached; about that time the necessary materials were discovered in the province of Hizen, in the extreme south-west of the island empire, by a Corean potter named Risanpei, and porcelain kilns were set up by him at Arita, which remains to the present day one of the chief Japanese centres of the industry.
At first only blue and white wares were made, but about 1645 the method of painting in enamel colours over the glaze was learned from a Chinaman by a potter of the Arita factory named Kakiyemon, and the style of decoration associated with him was inaugurated. This style was maintained by more than one generation of the Kakiyemon family, and characterises a quantity of the porcelain exported to Europe through the Dutch merchants established at Deshima, in the outskirts of Nagasaki. As will be seen later, it provided patterns for imitation in many of the earlier European porcelain works; most of the pieces so imitated, as, for instance, the prototype of the Chelsea jar figuring in [Plate 23], bear designs of a formal character, showing that they probably do not belong to the earliest work of the Kakiyemon school. A typical example of this later manner is a large jar at South Kensington, painted with a group of figures and trees repeated in three panels, reserved on a close pattern of peony-flowers and foliage; a dish in the Brighton Museum, bearing on the back the name “Kaki” in seal characters, shows formal designs painted with extraordinary neatness with a full palette of enamel colours, betokening a still later stage in the development of the style. Charming as these more familiar designs are by reason of their clean drawing and the purity of their colours, they must be regarded as somewhat foreign to the Japanese genius, being the outcome of the effort to please the taste of Western buyers. The purely Japanese manner which may be attributed to the first Kakiyemon is illustrated by some small plates at Kensington from the Bowes Collection; the design is limited to slight floral sprays or a few detached blossoms in three colours only, red, green, and light blue, so as to allow the qualities of the soft white glaze to be fully appreciated.
PLATE 13
Toilette-pot and Cover, Chantilly, about 1735, painted in the style of the Japanese Kakiyemon ware. Silver-gilt mount of the period. Height, 7 in. Given by Mr. J. H. Fitzhenry.
No. C 424-1909. See p. [53].
Mark: a hunting-horn in red.
