Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/86

 made of silk crape stuffed with cotton wool. Ultimately these came into vogue in every well-to-do household.

Tiled roofs were still regarded as altogether beyond the competence of any but the greatest folk. It is for that reason that in the above-quoted descriptions of Kyōtō's grandeur in its palmiest days, the play of light upon the roofs of notable edifices is a feature always emphasised. The reference is not, however, to ordinary lustreless tiles of baked earthenware, but to richly glazed tiles procured from China, and also to copper slabs with which the roofs of palaces and great temples were sometimes covered. The green tile of China captivated Japanese fancy. But it could not be manufactured in Japan until a comparatively late period of the Military epoch. The middle of the thirteenth century found Japanese potters producing their first vitrified glazes on small utensils for the tea-drinking ceremony. Glazed tiles were still beyond their strength. By way of substitute for them, slabs of copper bronze were employed, which quickly developed a beautiful green patina when exposed to climatic influence. Expensive as such a substitute seems, it was not, perhaps, so very costly by comparison, seeing what difficulties attended the carriage of stoneware tiles from the interior of China to Kyōtō. Roofs in general were boarded until the sixteenth century, when instruction derived from Korean potters gave an