Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/103

 year there were shipped from Batavia 16,580 specimens of porcelain of various kinds collected by the Netherlands Company. But that all these specimens were made in Japan is most improbable. At only one factory in Hizen was enamelled porcelain produced in the early years. The supply was, therefore, limited, and even if the workmen had occupied themselves in executing Dutch commissions alone they could not have turned out such large quantities. It must be remembered that a Japanese porcelain-factory does not signify a large establishment employing many scores of workmen, but rather a sort of household industry, of which the most skilled processes are carried on by the members of the family. Especially is this true of the Arita factory where Tokuemon and Kakiemon worked. Not in their own interests alone, but also in obedience to the imperative commands of their feudal chief, they were careful to throw a thick veil of secrecy over the methods of enamel decoration which they had discovered, and it is certain that the practice of those methods was confined to the smallest possible number of persons. Among the wares exported by the Dutch, those of Chinese manufacture doubtless predominated, and to this commixture is probably attributable much of the subsequent perplexity of European amateurs. Further, of the pieces actually procured by the Dutch in Japan, some bear strong witness to mischievous foreign interference. Then, as now, Japanese artisans were quite willing to humour the vitiated suggestions of European taste. In the Royal Keramic Collection at Dresden there is a large triple-gourd-shaped vase, figured in Messrs. Audtley and Bowes' "Keramic Art in Japan." Judged by the canons of Japanese art proper, this piece is exe-