Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/406

 specimen of the wares which he supposed to have been produced and preserved in temples and noblemen's residence during nearly three centuries. No Japanese connoisseur had any knowledge of such objects having been manufactured previously to 1837. All the circumstances under which their production had commenced at the latter date, were well known and had been officially recorded. The artisan who had originated the work was living and had received a reward from the Government for his invention. Some of the specimens which Mr. Bowes attributed to the seventeenth century were unhesitatingly identified by artisans of the present time as their own work, and the signatures which certain of these specimens bore were claimed by the men who had actually signed them. But none of these things shook Mr. Bowes' faith. He thought that he could detect in the wares themselves technical evidence, or signs of wear and tear, justifying his theory, and he clung to that theory with a tenacity which, considering the testimony on the other side, is probably unique.  —A possible exception is a Koto (musical instrument) said to have belonged to the poet Chōmei in the twelfth century. It has mosaics of cloisonné enamel on the face and sides.  —Kaji supposed that the specimen was Dutch. There can be little doubt that it was a Chinese enamel imported by the Dutch at Nagasaki.  —It will be at once understood that such a method, to be successful, implies great command of coloured pastes. Indeed, no feature of enamel manufacture is more conspicuous than the progress made by the Japanese in that respect during the past twenty years (1880–1900), and much of it is due to the assistance of a profoundly skilled German expert, the late Dr. Waagener.  —It is a mere accident that the representatives of the Kyōtō and Tōkyō schools are both called Namikawa. There is no relationship. Moreover, the Kyōtō Namikawa is himself an expert of the highest skill; the Tōkyō Namikawa is only an enterprising and resourceful employer of experts.  —In connection with the question of technical processes a fact of some interest may be mentioned. Up to the year 1890 the cloisons were attached to the base with solder which, when repeatedly exposed to the heat of the furnace, showed a tendency to "boil," thus causing holes in the enamel. Hence it often happened that vases or plaques upon which great labour had been expended, were found to be disfigured by pittings and scars when they finally emerged from the fire. These defects were usually hidden with wax, the result being that a specimen showing a glossy uniform surface at the 