Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/173

 imitation of an old specimen—his work does not fall far short of the best standards. Therefore the only certain criterion is quality of pâte and glaze.

In the case of the polychromatic or monochromatic wares of Chōsa, not alone the peculiar glazes, but also the fine, iron-red pâte is easily recognised after a little experience. Another guide in identifying a Satsuma, or Chōsa, tea-jar (chatsuho) is the ito-giri; a mark left on the bottom by the thread which the potter used to sever the piece from the clay out of which it was modelled. This mark is generally found upon Japanese tea-jars, but since the Korean workmen who settled in Satsuma turned the throwing-wheel with the left foot, while potters at other factories turned it with the right, it will be readily understood that the spiral of the Satsuma thread-mark is from left to right, and that of other factories from right to left.

Pure white faience, sometimes cleverly moulded or reticulated, was a favourite production of the ancient Satsuma potters, and has proved a fertile source of deception in modern times. For these unadorned pieces, though they possess little value in the eyes of uneducated Western collectors, need only to be tricked out in gold and coloured enamels and steeped in some soiling decoction. Thus they are transformed into specimens of "old Satsuma," concerning which the wily dealer can always direct a customer's attention to the plainly old pâte, and by that inimitable feature silence criticism of everything else. One scarcely cares to calculate how many "gems" of Satsuma-yaki which now occupy places of honour in European and American collections, belong really to this hybrid category. Further, to satisfy the demands of foreign taste, there has sprung up of late years in Japan a class