Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/146

 shows that it was always produced in limited quantities, and that it was not offered for sale in the open market. The Dutch doubtless exported it whenever they could obtain specimens, but their instinct as active traders induced them to turn rather to the Arita factories, the more plentiful outcome of which offered a larger field, while the amenability of the potters to foreign suggestions made them convenient to deal with. It should be observed also that the superiority ascribed by European connoisseurs to the Nabeshima enamels has no foundation in fact. In brilliancy, purity, variety, and accuracy of application, the enamels of choice Imari specimens have never been surpassed. "Old Japan," with its masses of blurred, impure blue sous couverte, and its dominant red and gold above the glaze, must not be taken as a type of the decorative or technical skill developed at Arita. First-class examples of Imari-yaki stand on a wholly different plane. For the clearer guidance of amateurs, the enamels generally found on the finest pieces may be recapitulated here. First among them is purple, a peculiar amethyst-like tinge, verging upon lilac. Then comes opaque, yet lustrous green, the colour of young onion-sprouts,—a beautiful enamel, much prized by the Japanese, who called it tampan (sulphate of copper). Then follows turquoise blue, and finally black, the last, however, being exceptional. Add to these, red, grass-green, gold and blue (sous couverte), and the palette alike of the Arita and the Nabeshima keramists is exhausted. Neither factory can claim to have excelled the other in the preparation and application of enamels. The one difference is that the Arita potter, with true artistic instinct, employed stronger masses of colour and more profuse