Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/133

 business in 1856. The factory occupied itself in the manufacture of wares for home use entirely until 1868, when, owing to the downfall of the feudal system and the withdrawal of baronial patronage, Japanese keramists were everywhere obliged to turn their attention to foreign markets. Ezaiemon opened a warehouse for the sale of Arita porcelain at Deshima, in Nagasaki. In 1876 he took the lead in establishing a keramic society called the Kōran-sha. This name, which literally signifies "the company of the fragrant orchid," was that of a factory at which the Tsuji family had for many years been engaged in the manufacture of porcelain for official use. A spray of orchid flowers and leaves had long been a favourite mark on Arita ware (vide Marks and Seals). Tsuji Katsuzo, then head of the factory, joined the new association, and by the enterprise of these artists the manufacture of Arita porcelain began to recover much of its old excellence. They did not indeed succeed in preparing a fine pâte and a lustrous, uniform glaze, equal to the work of the old potters; but their management of vitrifiable enamels and their fertility in decorative designs left little to be desired. In 1880 Tsuji seceded from the Kōran-sha, in company with several other experts, and established a separate association, to which they gave the name of Seiji-sha (pure ware company). The original purpose of the Seiji-sha was to produce porcelain for export only, but it soon began to supply the home market also. The principal artists are Tsuji Katsuo, Tetsuka Kame-no-suke, Fukami Takeji, and Kawara Chujiro. Their work, already admirable, gives earnest of steady improvement. At a recent exhibition in Tōkyō, vases in fine white biscuit with delicately executed designs in relief, and large pieces richly decorated with enamels of great brilliancy, established the Seiji-sha's title to be regarded as the leading factory in Arita. They are now working with machinery procured from France, and it is safe to predict that unless they revert to the degraded fashions of the years immediately succeeding the fall of feudalism, when Japanese artists generally fell into the error of pandering to the lowest form of Western taste, the Arita porcelain of the future will be equal in brilliancy and superior in decoration to the Imari-yaki of the past.