Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/161

 encircled by a broad flange, so that while the lower hemisphere is sunk into a charcoal furnace, the upper, supported on the flange, remains above the level of the matted floor. But that is indeed a rough description, for the cha-gama engrossed the skill of the best artisans, and designs for its shape and ornamentation were furnished by the greatest artists. Yashichiro's models were sketched by the painters that helped Yoshimasa to elaborate the details and utensils of the tea ceremonial, and a metal-caster himself had the honour to be appointed metal-caster and sculptor to the Imperial Household, the Ise Shrine, and the Shōgun's family. He received the art name "Miami," and from his time the iron tea-urn occupied a place of great importance. Japanese connoisseurs recognise and appreciate infinitesimally small differences in shape, in quality of metal, and in surface decoration, and though the foreign amateur can scarcely emulate such discrimination, he finds no difficulty in admiring the refined taste, the ingenuity of form and design, and the elaboration of nomenclature that are lavished in Japan on utensils which, in other parts of the world, would be regarded as little better than kitchen furniture. Sesshiu, the celebrated painter, furnished designs for cha-gama in the fifteenth century, and when the tea ceremonial, under the patronage of rulers like Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, assumed national dimensions, the manufacture of iron urns became a branch of high art, and continued to have that rank throughout the whole of the Yedo epoch. The cha-gama, however, has no honour outside Japan. Being inseparable from the purpose it serves, it has never commended itself to the European or American collector, nor has any writer undertaken to compare