July, 191 2. Chinese Pottery. 41 



On Luzon it is the designation for a dyed article. On a flowerpot of 

 Mitani Rioboku Fukushiu, the legend Karamono Koroku (i. e. Chinese 

 Koroku) is inscribed. Koroku is an article of pottery. It is so called 

 by combining the names of the utensil and the locality. It is soft 

 because it is not thoroughly baked. Among later imports some with 

 black designs and pale-yellow glaze are encountered. Its sound is 

 solid. 



11. Luzon is compact and dense both in clay and glaze. After 

 years, when washed, it appears like new, and its age may be doubted. 

 This is due to the intense heat of the tropical regions. 



12. The genuine jars and tea-canisters have their bottoms concave. 1 

 The "Book on Tea" (Cha-kei) says: "When placed on the bottom and 

 on the sides of the body, tea keeps well in these jars." Luzon, therefore, 

 is serviceable for tea. 



13. The best qualities are of white clay; the middle grades are of 

 yellow clay mixed with white clay and sand ; and the lowest grades are 

 of purplish-black clay. 



14. All Luzon pieces have the wheel-mark (rokuro) Cq) • ® n the 

 incense-boxes (kogo) it is always found inside of the body and on the 

 lid. On the basins (hachi), censers (koro) and bowls (chawan) it is 

 outside on the bottom. On the pitchers (mizusashi) it is on the handle. 

 Among the so-called Koshido of Iga Shigaraki, Luzons are numerous. 

 They should carefully be distinguished. Those of stronger lustre 

 and free from any defilements are Luzons. One will surely find two 

 vertical spatular marks on the right. 



The following varieties are encountered among Luzons: Tea- 

 canisters with plum-blossoms impressed by means of a stamp, and a 



color being the oldest) with a peculiar archaic decoration of scrolls and diapers, 

 rarely landscapes, carefully drawn in dark brown; whatever the origin of the style 

 of decoration, it forms a most unique type. There are fifteen pieces of this pottery 

 in the Morse collection at Boston, and one of these is dated 1845. It may hence 

 be inferred that the first part of the nineteenth century is the period when the Sun- 

 koroku was in vogue. The Japanese concerned seem to agree in assigning to it a 

 foreign origin. T. Oueda (La c^ramique japonaise, p. 69) explains the word as the 

 name of a centre of foreign manufacture the products of which were imitated. 

 Brinkley (p. 171) holds a more elaborate theory. He makes Sunkoroku a variety 

 of Satsuma copied from a faience of archaic character manufactured near Aden, and 

 valued by the Japanese for the sake of its curiosity and foreign origin. "The 

 pdte is stone-gray, tolerably hard, but designedly less fine than that of choice Satsu- 

 ma wares. The glaze is translucid, and the decoration consists of zigzags, scrolls, 

 diapers, and tessellations in dark brown obtained from the juice of the Kaki. The 

 Indian affinities of this type are unmistakable. It is not without interest, but a 

 somewhat coarse gray faience with purely conventional designs in dark brown cer- 

 tainly cannot boast many attractions. The original ware of Aden is, in some cases, 

 redeemed from utter homeliness by a curious purplish tinge which the glaze assumes 

 in places." It is evident that this pottery is different from that of our Japanese 

 author, which is stated to be soft. 



1 This is the case in all specimens of Philippine jars in Mr. Cole's collection 



