Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/153



URING two centuries Japan's keramic reputation in Europe rested chiefly on the enamelled porcelains of Arita, the "Old Japan" of European collectors. Had the beautiful blue-and-white ware of Hirado, or the chastely decorated masterpieces of the Kakiemon school found their way westward in any quantity, they might have compelled admiration after a time. Yet when it is remembered that the striking brilliancy of the grand Chinese blues failed, until quite recently, to excite the enthusiasm of Occidental connoisseurs, it becomes easy to understand how the less effective and more æsthetic porcelains of Hirado remain even to this day without due recognition. In early times the Dutch traders stood between Europe and Japan. They were the medium through which a reflection of Japanese art had to be transmitted. But the Dutch, being practical merchants, thought less of educating new tastes than of catering for those that already existed. They did not export Hirado blue-and-white, because, in the first place, it was scarcely procurable, and, in the second, they understood nothing of its beauties. They did not largely export porcelains of the Kakiemon genre, because a style so simple was incapable of