Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/452

 tiful and extraordinarily delicate. Satsuma keramists were never remarkable for such work in former times. It belonged almost solely to the province of the Hirado potters, and they used it solely in a subsidiary rôle, as for the tops of censers or for some trivial part of an alcove statuette. But what the Satsuma artists have now conceived is pierced decoration constituting the sole ornamentation of a specimen. It appears at first sight that translucid porcelain should be a better and more natural medium for work of this kind, since faience does not lend itself so readily to the production of sharp edges and clearly chiselled contours. But no one who has seen the Satsuma work can hesitate in choosing between the results of the process in the two materials, faience and porcelain. The former shows softness and grace which cannot possibly be obtained with the latter. Chinese keramists understood this well. All their exquisite modelling in relief was done with soft-paste porcelain, and everybody who has had an opportunity of examining their masterpieces in that line cannot have failed to appreciate the charm of such work. Chiselling in relief and chiselling à jour are different operations, of course, but the decorative features of both are similar, and the quality of ware that lends itself to an admirable result in the case of the one is equally essential for the other. The new Satsuma method is not described exhaustively as decoration à jour. Much of it is chiselling in the round, a wholly new departure. It is difficult to speak too highly of the delightful effect produced. Such a feat of technical skill is possible only in a country where expert labour is satisfied with a very small reward. An interesting fact connected with this new departure is that it was inaugurated by Chin