Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/336

 the sixteenth century, when the Japanese expeditionary force landed there (1598) on its return from Korea. The Taikō had died four years previously, but his orders had been obeyed. The Japanese generals brought back with them a large number of Korean keramists. Of these, some settled at Karastu, where their skill soon made itself felt at the potteries. The pieces produced under their instruction were called Chōsen-garatsu, or "Korean Karatsu," Chōsen being the name by which Korea was then known. The pâte of these specimens is better manipulated than that of any previous Karatsu-yaki, but, though hard, is coarse and very dark in colour. Two glazes are almost invariably used,—the one mahogany, the other dark cream-colour. These glazes show considerable lustre. The former generally constitutes the body-glaze, while the latter is used to cover small portions of the surface. The effect of the combination is pleasing. Another, though very rare, variety has iron-red metallic spots, and is partially covered with a curious creamy glaze, tinged with red. Good specimens of Chōsen-garatsu have always been prized by Japanese amateurs.

From about the middle of the seventeenth century the Karatsu ware begins to assume a more decorative character. The Korean potters appear to have followed the example of their Chōsa contemporaries (vide Satsuma-yaki). They began to produce flambé glaze,—chiefly mahogany or dark brown with splashes of bluish white or clouds of blue and green. These are not uninteresting. Certainly they are far superior to the thick, grey granular glazes, coarsely crackled and often blistered, of the earlier Karatsu-yaki. But they do not show either the lustre or the solidity of