Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/54

 credited with the use of gold for decorative purposes and with the manufacture of splashed or variegated glazes. Among specimens of Raku ware manufactured by him and his successors, many are interesting for the sake of the soft colours and plastic skill they display. But, on the whole, the ware's attractiveness consists mainly in its freedom from all technical suggestions. It is impressionist faience.

The Raku-yaki is essentially a domestic production. The apparatus required for its manufacture can be obtained easily and used anywhere. After the piece is shaped and glazed, it is placed on a support inside a fire-clay pot, which stands in a species of hearth. The pot is completely surrounded with charcoal, kept at a red heat by constantly passing over it an ample supply of air from a bellows. After a few hours the glazing material assumes an appearance of melting, whereupon the vessel is removed from the pot with a pair of tongs, and either placed in another pot to cool or dipped in water. Marks of the tongs are often seen on Raku cups. Pieces thus disfigured not infrequently excite the special admiration of ignorant people, who call them Hasami-yaki (tongs-ware). The pâte of the Kyōtō Raku is made with clay found at Okazaki near the city, or at Shigaraki in Omi. The glazing material is composed, in the case of the well-known black glaze, of powdered glass, oxide of lead, and two species of stone, one of which is obtained from the bed of the river Kamo. In the case of the red, or salmon-coloured glaze, sulphate of iron is substituted for the latter stone. A white glaze is also very common. It is crackled, more or less coarsely, and looks rather soft than lustrous. All the Raku glazes—black, red, green, yellow, and white—may