30 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XII. 



duced into Japan from China in the thirteenth century, and at the 

 close of the fifteenth, tea-clubs were formed which practised an elaborate 

 tea-ceremonial growing into a sort of esthetic and religious cult. Need- 

 less to say that these tea-tasting competitions were derived also from 

 China and in full swing there as early as the Sung period. 1 



The Japanese devotees of the tea-cult were intent on supplying 

 their cherished pieces of pottery with a history and with poetical names ; 

 they were animated with a soul, and wrapped up in precious brocades, 

 treated as gems and relics. They were eagerly bought and sold at 

 prices far out of proportion with their real value. It is recorded, 

 says Brinkley (Japan, Vol. VIII, p. 270), that the Abbot Nensei, in 

 exchange for a little tea-jar of Chinese faience, known as "First Flower," 

 obtained in 1584 a vermilion rescript excusing himself and his descend- 

 ants from the payment of all taxes forever; and it is further a fact that 

 amateurs of the present time disburse hundreds of dollars for speci- 

 mens of Soto-yaki that scarcely seem worth the boxes containing them. 

 Kuroda, the feudal chief of Chikuzen, had a triple case made for a 

 Chinese tea- jar presented to him, and appointed fifteen officials who 

 were all held responsible for its safety {Ibid., p. 319). Of wonderful 

 tales of Japan connected with pottery, the story of the dancing tea-jar 

 which assumed the shape of a badger (tanuki) 2 may be called to mind 

 as an analogy to the personification and zoomorphy of Malayan jars. 



In 1854 Tanaka Yonisaburo wrote a book under the title Tokiko 

 "Investigations of Pottery," which was published in 1883 at Tokyo 

 in two volumes of moderate size. This author has devoted a noticeable 

 study to the pottery introduced into Japan from foreign countries, and 

 shows that many pieces taken for Japanese are in fact of foreign origin. 

 He dwells at length on the pottery of Luzon, which was highly appre- 

 ciated in Japan, and which seems to have acted as a stimulus to the 

 productions of her kilns. Owing to the importance and novelty of this 

 subject, a complete translation of two chapters of the Tokiko is here 

 added. In the first chapter, foreign pottery, inclusive of that of Luzon, 

 is considered in general ; in the second chapter, Luzon pottery is dealt 

 with more specifically. The general designation of this pottery is 

 Namban. The latter is a Chinese word composed of nan "south" 

 and Man, originally a generic term for all non-Chinese aboriginal 

 tribes inhabiting the mountain-fastnesses of Southern China. It is 

 usually translated "the southern Barbarians," but it is very doubtful 



1 Bushell, /. c, p. 124. The Japanese tea-ceremonies have been described in 

 many books. Of monographs, W. Harding Smith, The Cha-No-Yu, or Tea Cere- 

 mony (Transactions of the Japan Society London, Vol. V, pp. 42-72) and Ida Trot- 

 zig, Cha-No-Yu Japanernas Teceremoni (Stockholm, 191 1) may be mentioned. 



2 First told in English garb by A. B. Mitford in his Tales of Old Japan. 



