Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/99

 that they should add enamel decoration over the glaze to pieces already decorated with blue under the glaze. There thus came into existence the familiar Imari-yaki; the "Old Japan" of Western amateurs; the Nishiki-de or "Brocade Pattern" of the Japanese themselves. It was a brilliant ware, depending chiefly upon wealth of decoration and richness of colouring. The pâte was good, but the glaze seemed to lose something of its softness and purity by the second firing which it had to undergo for the sake of the enamels. Frequently the bleu sous couverte also suffered by the same process. Assuming the quality of the pigment to be good, blue under the glaze depends for intensity and purity of tone principally upon the temperature of the furnace. Now nothing is rarer in enamelled Imari porcelain than a good blue, and nothing is commoner than a specimen in which the decoration over the glaze gives evidence of great care and skill, while the blue designs under the glaze are blurred or of impure tone. But the enamels were not applied until after a piece was finished so far as concerned the glaze and the designs under it, and it seems therefore a reasonable conclusion that, in specimens with elaborate enamel decoration, any imperfections shown by the blue under the glaze were the result of processes subsequent to the application of the enamels. The conscientious, labour-loving potter of old times would not have been likely to continue the decoration of a vase which had already ceased to be a complete success. In China, where, owing to the peculiar process of applying glazes, the difficulty of preserving a piece from accidents until it emerged from the furnace was considerably increased, risks of injuring the colour by a second firing were as far as