Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/84

 the designs are confined to a few places, the object apparently being to surround each little picture with as ample a margin as possible. This description applies to Arita porcelain after the processes of enamelled decoration and other technical details had been fully mastered, a condition which was probably attained about the year 1660. The chaste style then inaugurated continued thenceforth to be associated with the name of Kakiemon, and lost nothing in the hands of his descendants, who will be referred to in detail by and by.

In manufacturing pieces such as these, a point of primary importance was the preparation of the pâte. Any failure in that direction would have been fatal to the beauty of vases which, by the paucity of their decoration, seemed to challenge inspection of their unenamelled surface. Local tradition says that Kakiemon's chaste fashions were suggested by the success he had already achieved in the manipulation of the izumi-yama stone; that he curtailed the decorator's functions for the sake of increasing the scope of the potter's. At any rate, it seems pretty certain that, even so early as the year 1650, the workmen of Arita had acquired great skill in the management of the materials that formed the porcelain mass. The processes which they employed remain in vogue to-day. Before describing these processes, it is necessary to consider briefly the various kinds of porcelain stone found in Hizen. Information upon this point is obtained from the researches of Dr. G. Wagener, to whom the modern art industries of Japan owe a heavy debt of gratitude, and of Professor Wurtz. By these experts eight varieties of Hizen materials have been analysed, with the following results:—