Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/237

 dating from the Yuan and Ming periods reveals nearly all the elements of the Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne decoration, while the purely decorative elements, as scrolls, diapers, and arabesques, are to be found in textile fabrics of the same eras. Japan, borrowing freely in every age from her neighbour though often modifying what she borrowed, was in possession of all these elements before her keramists thought of attempting polychromatic decoration. The question reduces itself, therefore, to the method of combining the elements, and here the credit does not apparently belong to either China or Japan alone. It is impossible to mistake the presence of Persian influence in the floral traceries of the Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne family. The "Dessin cachemire" of the early Delft potters is certainly a near relative, and in all probability the parent, of the Japanese and Chinese fashion. It is known that the style of Japanese polychromatic decoration was largely modified by Dutch suggestion, and it is easy to conceive that Persian examples, finding their way to the Far East viâ the Factories at Cambron and Deshima, may have inspired a fashion of combination and arrangement largely adopted by the potters of Imari and sparingly copied at Ching-tê-chên. Perhaps, then, there is warrant for saying that, if Japan owed much to China, she partly repaid the debt by re-grouping the decorative elements which she had received from the Middle Kingdom, and evolving what may be called the natural style, in contradistinction to the artificial, or mathematical, style of her neighbour. Thus there is no reason to be surprised that the porcelains of Imari, though they derived their decorative origin from China, soon attracted favourable notice in the Middle Kingdom