Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/50

 of Kyōtō, where the Taikō castle stood. The clay employed was of a rich white or buff colour, very hard and of exceedingly fine texture. No glaze was used, but the biscuit was polished till its surface shone like ivory, and designs in lacquer, black, gold, or sometimes red, were then applied. A very few specimens—incense-burners and tea-jars—are all that now remain of the Sōshiro-yaki, but they suffice to show that the ware had considerable artistic merit, and that the lacquer decoration employed in those days was almost imperishable. The Taikō signified his high approval of Sōshiro's productions by bestowing upon him the title of Tenka-ichi, "first in the Empire," a distinction accorded only to artists of preëminent excellence. Sōshiro may have deserved this honour in comparison with his fellow-potters, but the fact that his very mediocre achievements obtained such distinction is in itself a sufficient proof of the generally inferior condition of the keramic art at the time.

Hideyoshi himself appears to have been disappointed with the results achieved. He had built, on the heights overlooking the lovely valley of the Ujigawa, a "Palace of Pleasure" (Juraku-Jō), containing a collection of choice objects of virtu, including heirlooms of Yoshimasa and Nobunaga. The Juraku-Jō did not long remain a record of its founder's æsthetic tastes. The Taikō assigned it as a residence to his adopted son, Hideyoshi, and when the latter proved a traitor, the palace which his presence had contaminated was razed to the ground by the command of the stern old Chancellor. Meanwhile there had gradually grown up a far more wonderful monument of Japanese greatness, the Castle