Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/300

 fine arts, for it discredited everything elaborate or beautiful. Korean porcelain and pottery, inferior at their best and worthless at their worst, were particularly prized, and of all the keramic products of China the tea clubs took only cups of Chien-yao—temmoku (heaven's eye) they called it—not because they cared for the wonderful raven's wing glaze with its singular streaking of silver or dappling of russet which characterises this Sung ware, but because its heavy thick pate and black colour had the merit of keeping the tea warm and of presenting a cool rim to the lips of the drinker. It must be admitted, however, that the Cha-jin was not altogether sincere when he aped this humility of selection. If he professed himself content with a homely object, he averted any suspicion of economical motives by lavishing money freely on its wrappers and receptacles; and if he dispensed with beauty he exacted prestige and "odile." Enormous value attached to objects that had been approved, above all used, by acknowledged masters of the cult. A certificate from Kobori Masakazu, Furuta Oribe, or Sen-no-Rikiu added many tens of gold pieces to the value of an object. Yoshimasa brought together in the Silver Pavilion a collection of utensils which were regarded as standards of the orthodox tea-equipage. Oda Nobunaga did the same in his castle of Azuchi, and Hideyoshi surpassed them both when he furnished the Palace of Pleasure. To have belonged to