472 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



decorated under glaze with blue cobalt. When his stock of Chinese 

 porcelain material was exhausted, however, and he found himself 

 obliged to depend on domestic clay, he could make nothing but 

 Faience, as did his successors up to the close of the century, with 

 cobalt decoration under glaze. 



Ceramics, however, received a new impulse here, and in many 

 other parts of Japan, with the return of the army from Corea 

 (1598 A.D.). Nabeshima Naoshige, the Daimio of Hizen, and one 

 of the commanders of the Japanese troops in Corea, brought back 

 with him several Corean potters, who settled first in the bathing 

 resort Ureshimo, but later in Arita. One of them, Ri-sampei by 

 name, in 1599, discovered porcelain stone on the Idzumi-yama to 

 the east of Arita, and at once inaugurated the porcelain manu- 

 facture of Japan. The use of Benigara (red oxide of iron) followed 

 some years after that of cobalt decoration under glaze — some say 

 it was introduced by the Dutch in Deshima — and two years later 

 decoration on glaze was introduced by Higashidori Tokuzayemon, 

 a potter of Arita, after he had learned the process from the captain 

 of a Chinese junk, at Nagasaki. This was a great step forward, 

 for at this time the notable skill and artistic talent of the Japanese 

 began to develop. The Dutch, as early as 1680, imported "Old 

 Hizen" from Nagasaki. The rich collection at Dresden offers 

 greater advantages than any other in Europe to one who wishes to 

 study the condition of the porcelain industry in that period. 



It is made up mainly of large, urn-shaped, covered jars, or Tsubo, 

 called tea-urns, because they served originally for preserving tea ; 

 also of hemispherical dishes (Domburi), and round, flat plates, Jap. 

 Sara. They are decorated with flowers (paeonies and chrysanthe- 

 mums especially), small landscapes, human figures, in red and gold, 

 with sometimes a little green, but the use of blue, violet, yellow, 

 and black muffle colours belongs to a later period. This " Old 

 Hizen," which preserved its essential character up to the close of 

 the 1 8th century, is now much sought for. A few plates, 61 centi- 

 meters in diameter, with fine landscape decorations, were considered 

 cheaply bought, even in Japan, some twelve years ago, at 25 yen 

 (;^5), and could scarcely be purchased in Europe, in view of the 

 great risk of transportation, for less than four or five times this 

 amount. 



Porcelain still stands at the head of all the celebrated products 

 (known as Meibutsu) of the province of Hizen. It is said to be 

 made altogether in about thirty-six places, although Arita far 

 excels all the rest, and furnishes now, as 200 years ago, the most 

 highly-valued wares of all Japan. Its porcelain is perfectly uniform, 

 and adds considerable translucence to a pure white colour, besides 

 being hard enough for all the purposes of ordinary life. It burns 

 so easily that decorative art has in its surface, as in that of Faience, 

 a fine field, and is aided also by the very plastic character of the 

 excellent material. 



