Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/119

 the first ambition of a Japanese expert. The Okawachi workmen were eminently happy in this direction. At no other kiln in Japan were céladons of equal quality produced. The colour of the glaze in some of the best specimens is indescribably beautiful. Only a practised eye can perceive that, in point of delicacy and lustre, the advantage is with the Chinese ware. It has been stated above that the materials used at Okawachi were procured from Izumi-yama, in the Arita district. But within the Nishimatsu-ura district there was found a clay of fine quality, well suited for the manufacture of stone-ware. This clay appears to have been mixed with the Arita stone in the preparation of céladon pâte, the object of the workmen being to obtain a semi-porcelain mass showing the reddish tint seen in old Chinese celadons. Such a method was not, however, invariable. A close-grained, white pate—the Arita clay prepared with special care—is often found in good specimens of old Nabeshima-yaki, whether céladon or enamelled porcelain. From a later period—about the close of the eighteenth century—when the Okawachi potters, no longer enjoying so large a share of official patronage, were obliged to economise the cost of transporting materials, the clay of the district began to be more freely used, and the pâte suffered in respect of both texture and purity.

Since the abolition of feudalism in Japan (1868) the Okawachi potters have been obliged to materially alter the character of their work. They seldom manufacture fine specimens of richly but delicately enamelled porcelain. Their staple production is thick stone-ware, covered with brown or céladon glaze, coarsely crackled and decorated with gold and red. Though far inferior to the beautiful porcelains of other