Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/360

 came into vogue, the cloisonné method being a subsequent modification. Unfortunately no distinctive term was devised for the paste jewels. They also received the name shippō, and a source of error was thus introduced, later generations having no means of discriminating whether a vessel described as being of shippō had decoration of the "seven precious things" or of vitrified enamels.

The mirror referred to above as forming part of the Shoso-in collection dating from the eighth century has decoration in nagashi-jippō, namely, the unpolished style, and is of comparatively crude manufacture. It is the earliest known specimen of cloisonné enamel preserved in Japan, but there can be little doubt that vitrified pastes had been previously employed in the same manner. Among the contents of the dolmens, which certainly do not belong to a period more recent than the fourth or fifth century of the Christian era, great quantities of coloured glass beads are found, and it is thus evident that long before the Shoso-in collection was formed, the Japanese understood the manufacture of vitrifiable paste. But there are apparently no means of determining the exact date when champlevé or cloisonné enamel had its origin in Japan.

One thing, however, is certain; namely, that until the nineteenth century enamels were employed by the Japanese decorators for accessory purposes only. No such things were manufactured as vases, plaques, censers, or bowls having their surface covered with enamels applied either in the champlevé or the cloisonné style. In other words, none of the objects to which European and American collectors give the term