Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/357

 the best productions of the Bizen factories are confined to the Ao-Bizen type. Many beautiful specimens have the red pâte generally but erroneously supposed to be characteristic of all Bizen-yaki. Sometimes the glaze applied to this latter variety bears such a close resemblance in colour and metallic sheen to the finest golden-tinted bronze that the two may readily be confounded. As a general rule this charming glaze, unique in Oriental keramics, belongs to the productions of the eighteenth century.

The terms Ko-Bizen-yaki and Imbe-yaki are properly interchangeable, but by some connoisseurs the former is applied to unglazed, the latter to glazed, specimens. The most valued pieces of old Bizen ware are those stamped with the shape of a new moon (Mikka-zuki), a waning moon (Kae-zuki), or the ideographs Koku-bei (vide Marks and Seals), while another less esteemed variety bears the delineation of a cherry blossom. The last mark is found also on comparatively modern pieces. During the period of art renaissance, towards the close of the sixteenth century, Kyōtō amateurs appear to have visited Bizen and manufactured tea-utensils there. In the collections of modern virtuosi pieces are preserved bearing marks attributed to Sōhaku, Shimbei, Shōgen, and Moemon, who flourished between 1573 and 1614.

Another variety of Bizen-yaki, found in ware of various epochs from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, is distinguished by the term Hi-dasuki. Tasuki is the name of a cord used to confine the long sleeves of the Japanese dress when the wearer wishes to employ his arms freely. It passes round the shoulders and is crossed behind them. Hi-dasuki thus signifies a kiln (hi) mark resembling the tasuki. Such mark-