Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/444

 tion: their materials were slightly inferior. But their skill as decorators was as great as its range was wide, and they produced a multitude of masterpieces on which alone Japan's keramic fame might safely be rested.

Such, briefly speaking, had been the story of the art and the distinction between the methods of its practice in China and Japan until the commencement of a new era in the latter country. When the mediatisation of the fiefs, in 1871, terminated the local patronage hitherto extended so munificently to keramic and other artists, the Japanese gradually learned that they must thenceforth depend chiefly upon the markets of Europe and America. They had to appeal, in short, to an entirely new gallery, and how to secure its approval was to them a perplexing problem. Perhaps their wisest plan would have been to adhere strictly to pure Japanese canons during that period of shifting patronage, and they have been severely censured by some critics for not exhibiting such conservatism. But when has it been the habit of sellers to impose their own standards upon buyers rather than to cater to the latter's tastes? Great painters may, in a measure, create an atmosphere for themselves; yet even the greatest painter, though he may direct and elevate, must always remain in touch with the spirit of the time in which he lives and of the public to whom he appeals. The same rule applies with much greater inflexibility to the art-artisan. It was but natural that the Japanese potter, when required to win favour in Europe and America, should endeavour to adapt his work to Western taste.

In the early years of the Meiji era, there was a