Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/112

 fifteenth century, when Sōshiro of Fushimi applied this material to the surface of his pieces. The manufacture of lacquer is, perhaps, the oldest of Japan's art industries. As early as the seventh century lacquered articles were received by the Government by way of taxes, and in the days of Yoshimasa the lacquer-workers of Kyōtō were numerous and wonderfully skilled. It was probably owing entirely to Yoshimasa's passion for lacquered wares, and to their consequent popularity that Sōshiro conceived the idea of decorating faience by this process. The fashion was rarely adopted by the renowned potters of Kyōtō in later times. Lacquer only became a recognised substitute for vitrifiable enamels at Arita in the third, or degraded, period of the Hizen industry; namely, from the second advent of Westerns in 1858. Almost immediately after the revival of foreign trade at Nagasaki, by the Americans, Dutch, English, and French in 1858–1860, the potters at Arita began to pander to the vulgar demands of foreign taste. Size and showiness were regarded as the main objects to be attained in the manufacture of a vase; and lacquer, being not only much cheaper but also more easily used than vitrifiable enamels, became the staple of decorative material. According to the records of the Arita potters themselves, the idea of employing lacquer in this way was due, originally, to an accident. Some pieces of size having emerged from the kiln in a blemished condition, their defects were concealed by a coating of lacquer, and in that condition they were exposed for sale. They immediately attracted the attention of foreign buyers, and the manufacturers obtained a suggestion from this unanticipated result.