Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/323

 convey an idea of the wealth of fancy displayed in the decoration of modern Owari porcelain. It will suffice, however, to say that the dominant feature of the decoration is pictorial. No other Japanese ware has been so thoroughly and frankly adapted to Western tastes. From the monster pieces of blue and white manufactured in Owari (vases six feet high and garden pillar-lamps half as high again do not at all perplex the modern Seto keramist) to the tiny coffee-cups decorated in Tōkyō with their delicate miniatures of birds, flowers, insects, fishes, and so forth, there is nothing that does not indicate the death of the old order. Seto and the Tōkyō ateliers constitute the Stoke-upon-Trent of Japan, always excepting the triumphs of plastic art for which the latter is renowned.

Owari porcelain is easy to recognise by the peculiarly chalky, soft appearance of its pâte. This feature is more marked in modern than in old ware.

Since 1868 the Owari potters have introduced an entirely novel method of decorating porcelain, by cloisonné enamelling. The art of enamelling upon copper had long been known and practised in Japan. A knowledge of the process is said to have been acquired at the close of the sixteenth century, when the patronage of the Taikō imparted such a marked impulse to all the art-industries of the country. But although the Japanese manufactured cloisonné enamel which was not wanting in evidences of patient dexterity, their work was never really satisfactory. They were unable to produce the beautiful colours of the Chinese experts, and their artistic instinct consequently impressed a different character upon their pieces. The Chinese applied his full-bodied brilliant colours to vessels of solid construction; the Japanese laid his