Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/45

 eighteenth century, to counterfeit Shonzui's pieces for purposes of export. It is therefore, only too likely that many an unwary collector has been deceived. Let it be said, then, at once, that in no case did a Japanese potter of later days produce either the deep, full blue of the beautiful Mohammedan mineral, or the rich, lustrous glaze which Shonzui's imported materials—doubtless the very best of their kind—enabled him to achieve; a glaze which has been aptly likened by his countrymen to the surface of flowing water. These are criteria which the amateur should unhesitatingly apply. The nature of the pâte will not guide him much, for fineness of clay, a slight admixture of dark particles, and that peculiar oily aspect which nearly all Chinese porcelain presents, are characteristics not easily appreciated even by the educated eye. In point of fact, genuine specimens of Shonzui's porcelain are almost as rare and as well known as the paintings of some great master. Whether many have left Japan is very doubtful, the value attached to them in the country of their manufacture being almost incomprehensible to outsiders.

Although this manufacture of porcelain soon came to an end, owing to lack of materials, the decorative processes which Shonzui had learned in China were not forgotten. The potters of Arita, profiting by his instruction, began to produce a faience, or stone-ware, of tolerable quality, with designs in blue under the glaze. Very few specimens of this ware have survived. It was scarcely worthy of preservation, except as the first Japanese pottery with coloured decoration. That the blue was palpably inferior to the deep brilliant colour which Shonzui succeeded in producing, will readily be conceived. It was proba-