462 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



The beautiful coloured ground tints, chalcedony, dull violet, yel- 

 low, and Turkish blue, so much valued by collectors, began to be 

 used in the 13th century. The most flourishing period of Chinese 

 porcelain making, however, like that of most other branches of its 

 art industry, was during the Ming dynasty, especially in the 

 second half of the 15th century. During this period its manu- 

 facture occupied a new position, owing to the employment of many 

 coloured decorations upon glaze. The so-called five principal 

 Chinese colours were used for these, viz., green (east), red (south), 

 white (west), black (north), and yellow (earth), to which the blue 

 of heaven was added as a sixth. Gold, and gold-purple, were not 

 used till the year 1690. 



Single pieces of Chinese porcelain were introduced gradually 

 into the countries of Southern and Western Asia, and even into 

 Egypt, by the Arabs and Persians. Its distribution in Europe 

 devolved on the Portuguese after the sea-passage to India was 

 discovered, and later upon their successors in trade with Eastern 

 -Asia — the Dutch and English. 



During the first half of the i8th century, as has been remarked 

 on page 335, Chinese patterns were borrowed for the new direction 

 in artistic pottery, not only at Meissen (Bottger), but also at 

 Sevres, Stoke-upon-Trent (Wedgewood), and elsewhere. The 

 porcelain and pottery collection, founded by Augustus the Strong, 

 king of Saxony, operated as a powerful and active stimulus to the 

 works of Bottger and his associates, so that it is easy to point out 

 how directly the old Meissen style was formed by it. 



The languages of Japan and China have no word which dis- 

 tinguishes porcelain sharply and unequivocally from all other clay- 

 wares ; but there are enough other evidences that Japanese porce- 

 lain manufacture is not yet three hundred years old, and that its 

 introduction is closely connected with the expedition of Hideyoshi 

 to Corea in 1 592-1 598 A.D. Documents of this date, and the 

 written and orally communicated history of porcelain and Faience 

 manufacture in the several provinces, as well as its existing pro- 

 ductions whose origin is well known, corroborate the belief that 

 it began at this time with the forced importation of Corean potters 

 by the Daimios of Satsuma, Hizen, Choshiu, and several others, in 

 their dominions, in 1598. The founding of artistic pottery by 

 these Coreans in Arita, Naeshirogawa, Kagoshima, Plagi, and other 

 places, was one of the most important consequence of this expe- 

 dition for the conquest of Corea and China.^ 



As has been said before, Japanese clay-wares are not desig- 

 nated according to their character, but their origin. Awata- 

 yaki, Kutani-yaki, Seto-mono, Banko-yaki, and numerous other 

 names, show this. The designations Ishi-yaki for hard- burned 



* Corea, which now appears so poor in comparison with China and Japan, 

 and whose art industry has degenerated so much, once manufactured many- 

 articles of high artistic value, especially in porcelain and bronze. 



