Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/24

 first place, two kinds of tazza are found, one with a cover, the other without, which have their counterparts in Chinese porcelains of mediæval times. Further, the well-known "pilgrim bottle" of Chinese keramists and of Cypriote relics is present, having either complete loops for the passage of the suspensory cord, or partial loops for its retention. Mr. Gowland also notes a small, barrel-shaped vessel, occasionally found in dolmens, which resembles a Cypriote form, and which has no representative among Chinese vessels. Much more suggestive, however, than these resemblances is the method of ornamentation in high relief seen on important specimens of ornamental pottery taken from dolmens. The student is here confronted with a decorative fashion never followed in either China or Korea, namely, the modelling of figure subjects and other objects on the shoulders of vases. It is a fashion constantly adopted by the potters of Greece and of Cyprus in ancient times, and its frequent presence in Apulian and Cypriote relics, combined with its absence from the works of Chinese and Korean potters, suggests an interesting range of speculation. But on the other hand has to be set the fact that this kind of decoration did not survive the dolmen period in Japan itself. It disappeared as completely as though it had never existed. Thus, if from the above facts the student infers a racial distinction between the dolmen-building Japanese and the inhabitants of the Asiatic continent's neighbouring regions, he will be logically compelled to infer a similar distinction between the dolmen-builders and the Japanese of later times. However, racial affinities need not be discussed here. It is enough to note the not unremarkable similarity of decorative conception