The porcelain now found in Siam, of which many specimens have been lately brought to Europe, is of a very different character. This is the highly decorated enamelled ware which may be classed with the famille rose from the prevalence of the rouge d’or among the enamels. This ware, none of which can be earlier than the middle of the eighteenth century, is certainly made in China, but the presence in the decoration of
PLATE XXII. CHINESE
certain peculiar Buddhist types makes it rather difficult to believe that the enamelling was in all cases executed in Canton. It is true that in the colours, and in the general style of the decoration, we are often reminded of the well-known Cantonese enamels on copper. The white surface of the ground is, for the most part, entirely hidden by a floral decoration; but amid this, on medallions surrounded by tongues of flame, we find centaur-like monsters with human heads, above which rise almond-shaped nimbi. From the top of the cover of the hemispherical bowls—the commonest form—rises a knob in the shape of the Buddhist jewel. The enamel of this ware appears to scale off readily, as if from imperfect firing. The prevailing colours are a deep red for the ground, and a bright green relieved with white and yellow for the design ([Pl. xxii].). While the finer specimens, as we have already said, remind us of the Canton enamels, others suggest rather, in the scheme of colour and decoration, the painted and lacquered bowls of India and Ceylon. In the Indian Museum at South Kensington may be seen an exceptionally fine collection of this Sinico-Siamese porcelain, lent by Signor Cardu, and a good opportunity is here provided for comparing its decoration with that on the rough earthenware from Ceylon and various parts of India which is exhibited in adjacent cases.
A coarse kind of porcelain is made in Annam. At Sèvres are some cups presented by the envoy from that kingdom. The rude pattern of bamboos painted in blue, sous couverte, on a greyish paste, does not give an exalted idea of Annamese civilisation.
In Japan we sometimes find specimens of a somewhat rough but picturesquely decorated ware, hardly a true porcelain, I think, which from the country of its origin is known as Kochi. From the nature and colour of its glaze it may be compared to some of the old Chinese wares of the demi grand feu, and again, in certain points, to the earlier types of the Japanese porcelain of Kaga and Imari. Kochi has been identified with Cochin-China, but as the geographical ideas of the Japanese as to foreign states were not very definite—derived as they were from the Chinese geographers of the Ming period—we may perhaps be justified in looking further north for the source of this ware, either in Tonquin or in some part of Kuang-tung, the southernmost province of China.[111]
CHAPTER XII
THE PORCELAIN OF JAPAN
IN any assemblage of the ceramic products of Japan, more especially in one of native origin, it will be seen that porcelain no longer, as in China, holds the place of honour. This place would be taken, in such a collection, by a series of small bowls and jars mostly of a dark-coloured earthenware, which offer little to attract a European eye. On the other hand, a Western collector of Japanese ceramics would be likely to find more to interest him in the decorated fayence of which the kilns of Kioto and Satsuma have furnished the most exquisite examples. And yet, perhaps, in no country, not even in China, do we find porcelain, and that of a high technical quality, so largely employed for domestic use. The commonest coolie eats his rice or drinks his tea or saké from a bowl or cup of porcelain, while to find specimens of the old rough stoneware or earthenware we must explore the Kura—the fireproof storehouses of the rich noble or merchant—where, wrapped in cases of old brocade, these little objects are carefully preserved and classified. It would be out of place here to enter into the causes, political, social, and, we may add, also psychological, that have influenced the Japanese mind in thus associating all that is refined and intellectual with a class of pottery in which, to say the least, the artistic possibilities are confined within very narrow limits. But, as is now well known, this tendency has been fostered by the ceremonies connected with the social gatherings known as the Cha-no-yu (literally ‘hot water for tea‘), when the powdered tea is prepared in and drunk from examples of these primitive wares. On such occasions the criticism and measured praise of the utensils employed forms an important—indeed an almost obligatory—part of the conversation among the guests.