CERAMICS. 453 



fire, and utilized these exceedingly valuable qualities in the manu- 

 facture of their very durable brick and of many sorts of vessels, 

 as do we also. The nature of potter's clay, its origin, and the 

 manner of its transformation when burned, so far as they could 

 not be apprehended at a glance, also the geological and chemical 

 properties, were as hidden from them as from the Chinese and 

 Japanese, although these nations brought ceramic industry to its 

 highest perfection, and for a long time excelled all others in the 

 variety of raw materials employed, of the products, and of their 

 modes of ornamentation. 



No other branch of industry is of older origin, and no other is 

 better adapted in its gradual development, and in the manner of 

 treating the raw material, to a people of intelligence, artistic sense, 

 and progress, than Ceramics. Its products enable us to judge of 

 the limited civilization of the Trojans, and to recognise and 

 admire the developed artistic sense and love of beauty of the 

 Greeks and Etruscans. Buried for thousands of years in ruins 

 and dust, they still preserve their form and decoration, and have 

 become, as they have been excavated in modern times, not only a 

 rich field of antiquarian investigation, but also often the patterns 

 most worthy to be imitated in our modern industry. 



In face of the fact that the clay-ware industry of many 

 countries and peoples reaches back into pre-historic times, that its 

 productions were almost indispensable to human beings, we can 

 scarcely imagine in our own minds the civilization in the time of 

 our ancestors without them. And yet there was a time in Ger- 

 many when the people lived in caves, and supported life by 

 hunting reindeer, bears, and other quadrupeds ; when, like the 

 South Sea islanders at their first contact with Europeans, they 

 were unacquainted with metals and clay-wares, and prepared their 

 food on heated slate and sandstones, instead of in pots and pans. 



But to return to the Ceramic Art of Japan. For its better 

 comprehension I give in advance a survey of the products con- 

 cerned. Following the precedent of Brogniart, the various kinds 

 of pottery are usually divided into two large groups, and dis- 

 tinguished as soft and hard, corresponding to the Japanese 

 designations, Tsuchi-yaki and Ishi-yaki, i.e. " Burned Earth " and 

 " Burned Stone." The soft clay-wares are burned generally with a 

 smaller degree of heat, as in the fire of a porcelain furnace they 

 would fuse together or smelt. The material is opaque, shows an 

 earthen fracture, is easily scratched with a knife, is porous, and 

 generally permits the filtering through of liquids. The glazing 

 which is used to prevent this, and at the same time as a foundation 

 for further decoration, is either alkali- or lead-glaze. In both cases 

 it unites with a part of the silicic acid of the ware, producing a thin 

 transparent glaze, or it is a tin-glaze which lies pretty thick upon 

 the surface and forms an opaque milk-white enamel. 



All earthenwares, from brick to the finest Faience, belong to 



