Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/142

 that it fared alike with the Japanese in ancient and in modern times: by attempting to adapt themselves to the requirements of foreign markets, they outraged their instincts and injured their reputation. Imari porcelain manufactured for use in Japan was of very different quality and style. It consisted nearly entirely of plates, bowls, cups with or without covers, dishes, ewers, bottles, and so forth, flower-vases and ornamental pieces being the exception. Many of these utensils, as may well be supposed, were comparatively coarse and crudely decorated. But many were excellent in every respect,—fineness of pâte, lustre, tone, and uniformity of glaze, brilliancy and purity of enamels, tasteful conception and delicate execution of decorative designs. They had thicker biscuit and a character generally more solid than choice Chinese porcelains, but on the whole they could claim superiority to the latter in beauty of decorative conception, while they certainly were little if at all inferior in skill and care of execution. Setting aside any question as to whether the Arita decorator borrowed his subjects from other branches of his country's art industry or conceived them himself, the connoisseur cannot hesitate to admit that his range and wealth of fancy were remarkable. From this point of view he excelled his Chinese rival. For whereas the latter's field of subjects was so narrow that he rang the changes on them with tiresome iteration, the former scarcely repeated himself at all. One may collect—or rather might once have collected—thousands of old Imari specimens—usually sets of five, ten, or twenty pieces—no two of which are exactly alike, and though they necessarily vary in degrees of technical and artistic excellence, every one