Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/26

 ornamental vases described above, evidently did not exhaust their skill upon these clumsy productions. The figures were called hani-wa, which literally means "circle of clay," an appellation derived from the order in which they were arranged, namely, as a circular fence about the grave. A book (Wamyō-sho) published in the tenth century, defines hani-wa as "human figures made of clay, placed upright in cart-wheel order round the edge of a sepulchral mound." The need of such objects for burial purposes led to the establishment of a keramic factory under the auspices of the Court, the potters employed there, one hundred in number, being summoned from the provinces of Izumo. It appears, therefore, that Izumo was a centre of keramic production at the date when clay effigies were substituted for human sacrifices, and there would consequently be some interest in determining that date. The Nihongi, which is the oldest Japanese compilation having any claims to be called historical, assigns the incident to a time corresponding with the commencement of the Christian era, but hani-wa have been found in dolmens believed to belong to an earlier epoch. At all events it seems safe to allege that, nineteen centuries ago, the keramic industry had an officially recognised status in Japan, and that it flourished chiefly in Izumo. From the time of the establishment of the Yamato factory the making of hani-wa became such an important feature of the keramic industry that potters received the appellation of hanishi (abbreviated afterwards in haji), or makers of hani-wa.

Japanese annals allege that just about the time when the above events were occurring, a Korean