With the Kutani potter, the beginning of the end seems to have coincided with the introduction of the iron-red and gold decoration. This was brought about when the assistance of one of the Zengoro family, Zengoro the eleventh or Hozen, probably, was obtained from Kioto. At the same time the brilliant decoration in enamel colours was still carried on, often enough with happy effect, and this was kept up to quite a late period. In these latter days the use of a true white porcelain again became prevalent—indeed the materials are at the present day brought from Amakusa and other islands off the coast of Hizen.
There are two marks that have always been associated with the Kaga ware—first, the character for Kutani, the ‘Nine Valleys,’ the name of the little mountain village where the ware was first made; second, the Chinese word Fu (Japanese Fuku), meaning ‘prosperity’ or ‘wealth,’ written in the seal character. We find this last mark painted in black on the back of the old pieces covered with a green glaze ([Pl. B]. 23).
In our account of Japanese porcelain we have been hampered by the restrictions imposed by our subject. Among Japanese ceramic products there is a big middle class, what we have called kaolinic stoneware. Wares of this kind, when made in neighbouring kilns and differing in their decoration in no way from what may be classed as true porcelain—and this is the case in the pottery districts of Kaga and around Kioto—have naturally found their way within our limits. Other kinds quite as near to true porcelain, such as the picturesque fayence of Inuyama or many of the old Raku wares, have remained unmentioned. The temptation to overstep the line has been great, inasmuch as so many of the wares showing originality and real artistic merit lie distinctly on the further side.
We may say finally that a closer acquaintance with Japanese ceramics will confirm what may be observed in the case of other branches of Japanese art—in their painting, for example, and in their lacquer-ware. I mean the important part played by the critic, using that term in a wide sense, in restraining the native exuberance of the artist. The first tendency of the European connoisseur is to regret the hampering influence of Chinese tradition and the restrictions imposed upon all new developments. But when these influences have for a time been removed, the facile productiveness of the Japanese artist has always tended to land him in that pretty and over-decorated style that has found its way into middle-class drawing-rooms at home. We find a tendency to this unrestrained decoration and reckless association of colours creeping into favour long
PLATE XXVII. JAPANESE, KAGA WARE
before the opening of the country. Indeed, centuries ago at Kioto, and even perhaps in the old Nara days, a somewhat similar love of the trifling and effeminate may be recognised now and again. The services rendered by the severe traditions of the old Chinese schools of the Tang and Sung dynasties, and by the ascetic spirit of the Cha-no-yu in keeping within bounds the native tendency to luxuriant overgrowth, must not be overlooked. When these influences were removed, the arts soon ran to seed.
CHAPTER XIII
FROM EAST TO WEST
WE have now followed the steps by which the dependants and the neighbours of the ‘Middle Kingdom’ to the North, the East and the South, acquired the essentially Chinese art of the manufacture of porcelain. The next stage in our history brings us at one step to Europe. Before making this stride of more than a thousand leagues from Japan to Central Germany, it will be convenient to bring together some of the scattered references to the porcelain of China that have been laboriously disinterred from the works of the Arab and Christian writers of the Middle Ages, and to compare these statements with the scant account of the trade with Western lands to be found in the Chinese books of that time. We shall then trace rapidly the history of the stages by which the European nations became better acquainted with the porcelain of the Far East so as finally to master the secret of the manufacture.