Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/420

 of the Fukagawa atelier was indiscriminately applied, and has probably proved a source of considerable confusion to collectors. Many other factories for decoration were established from time to time in Tōkyō. Of these some still exist; others, ceasing to be profitable, have been abandoned. On the whole, the industry may now be said to have assumed a domestic character. In a house, presenting no distinctive features whatsoever, the decorator is found with a cupboard full of bowls and vases in glazed biscuit which he adorns, piece by piece, using the simplest conceivable apparatus and a meagre supply of pigments. Sometimes he fixes the decoration himself, employing for that purpose a small kiln which stands in his back-garden; sometimes he entrusts this part of the work to a factory where greater facilities are provided. As in the case of everything Japanese, there is no pretence, no useless expenditure about the process. This school of Tōkyō decorators, though often choosing their subjects badly, have contributed much to the progress of the keramic art during the past ten years. Little by little, there has been developed a degree of skill which compares not unfavourably with the work of the old masters. Table services of Owari porcelain—the ware itself excellently manipulated and of almost egg-shell fineness—are now decorated with floral scrolls, landscapes, insects, birds, figure subjects, and all sorts of designs, chaste, elaborate, or quaint; and these services, representing so much artistic labour and originality, are sold for prices that bear no ratio whatsoever to the skill required in their manufacture. There is only one reservation to be made in speaking of this modern decorative industry of Japan under its better aspects.