Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/78

 by order of the authorities at the site of the Hyakken factory resulted in the finding of numerous fragments of porcelain decorated with vitrifiable enamels. None of these pieces show any traces of gold and silver: the colours used are red, green, and blue only. They suffice, however, to dispel all doubts as to the ability of the Hizen keramists to manufacture ware of this nature as early as 1620. On the other hand, the art of such decoration was evidently in its infancy. Blue sous couverte was preferred as a decorative agent. Some fine specimens of this class were probably manufactured, but in quality of glaze and purity of colour they were not yet comparable with the masterpieces of Shonzui, or the porcelains imported from the Middle Kingdom. Besides, in those early days, the difficulties of using the Izumi-yama stone must have been even greater than they were afterwards found. In manufacturing porcelain elsewhere, whether in China or Japan, the pâte was formed by mixing at least two materials, the one infusible, the other fusible. These are the Kaolin and the Petuntse of the Chinese; the "bone" and the "flesh" of the ware. But the Izumi-yama stone was employed from the first without any admixture of foreign matter. That nature should have provided in Japan only, and at only one place in Japan, material fit to be used in all its simplicity by the porcelain-makers, has always been regarded by the potters of Hizen as a sort of special dispensation. On the other hand, it has been shown of late years, that the Arita stone by no means corresponds with European ideas of an orthodox porcelain earth. Ordinary porcelain stone consists of 46.33 per cent of silica, 39.77 per cent of alumina, and 13.9 per cent of other matters. But among eight