Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/193

 These two varieties complete the list of fine Satsuma wares. There remain to be noted two descriptions, which, in addition to the scantness of their merits from an artistic or technical point of view, possess no claim to originality. They are Mishima Satsuma and Sunkoroku Satsuma. The former is copied directly from the Korean ware described in the preceding chapter, which derived its name from the fact that its decoration resembled the vertically disposed lines of ideographs in the Mishima almanack. It is hard, reddish brown stone-ware, the decoration effected by inlaying white slip in the pâte, and the glaze is light grey. Large jars of this faience are common objects in Japanese confectioners' shops; they present the aspect of pieces covered with corduroy. In some specimens the ugliness is relieved by horizontal lines, bands of stars, fringes of scallops, or decoration à gerbe. The ware belongs to the same type as the celebrated Yatsushiro-yaki, to be spoken of by and by, but having been manufactured solely for the most ordinary uses, little care was expended upon it. Occasionally the formal designs of the Mishima Satsuma are traced in black.

The second variety, or Sunkoroku Satsuma, is copied from a faience of archaic character manufactured near Aden, and valued by the Japanese for the sake of its curiosity and foreign origin. The pâte is stone-grey, tolerably hard, but designedly less fine than that of choice Satsuma wares. The glaze is translucid, and the decoration consists of zigzags, scrolls, diapers, and tessellations in dark brown obtained from the juice of the Kaki. The Indian affinities of this type are unmistakable. It is not without interest, but a somewhat coarse grey faience with purely con-