Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/206

 rather than with a tracery of intersecting lines. Its appearance is aptly described by the Chinese term "fish-roe crackle." Working, as he did, at different places, varieties are found in the pâte of his pieces. The most common is hard, close-grained clay, verging upon brick-red in colour, and perfectly free from foreign particles. Sometimes the colour changes to yellowish grey, and the texture becomes nearly as fine as that of pipe-clay. His monochrome glazes are scarcely less remarkable than his crackle. First among them must be placed metallic black, run over grass-green in such a way that the latter shows just sufficiently to correct any sombreness of effect. On the surface of this glaze, or else in reserved medallions of cream-like crackle, are painted diapers, and chaste floral designs in gold, silver, red, and coloured enamels. Another glaze invented by him, and imitated successfully by the chief experts among his successors, is pearl-white, through which a pink blush seems to spread. In golden brown, chocolate, and buff he also produced charming tints, and his skill as a modeller was scarcely less than his mastery of mechanical details. As a rule he marked his pieces with the two ideographs Nin-sei (vide Marks and Seals). Japanese connoisseurs profess ability to distinguish the true from the false by this cachet alone. But although Ninsei seems to have habitually subjected his graving-tool to greater pressure when commencing than when finishing a stroke, thus offering a slight guide to the identification of his mark, this subtle distinction is scarcely appreciable to foreign eyes. The amateur's wisest plan is to place no reliance on the mark Nin-sei, for it has been more extensively counterfeited than the cachet of any other Japanese artist. Hundreds, nay,