38 
House & Garden 
These five amusing little flower bowls are examples of rare Imari. They have detachable wheels and were originally 
used as stands for saki cups. Each is 23/1" high by long. They are part of the collection of Harry Maxwell of 
Kobe, Japan, from which the other illustrations have been chosen 
T HE keramic wares of Japan, partic¬ 
ularly Japanese porcelains, have al¬ 
ways exercised their fascination on 
collectors in the Occident. This is not sur¬ 
prising, when one takes into account their 
unusual decorative features, features which 
endear Japanese porcelains to the American 
and European art-lover far more, indeed, 
than to the Japanese connoisseurs them¬ 
selves, for the Japanese prefer those quieter 
and almost undecorated bits of pottery which 
enter the ceremony of tea drinking, the cha 
no yu, based on the four virtues of urbanity, 
purity, courtesy and imperturbability. Up 
to a few years ago Japanese collectors paid 
no attention to the highly decorated Japanese 
porcelains so dear to the hearts of western 
collectors, in consequence of which nearly 
all the decorated porcelains of the 'Old 
THE IMARI WARE 
OF JAPAN 
Collectable Porcelains of the Hizen 
Province 
GARDNER TEALL 
{Below) Two plates and cov¬ 
ered bowl, examples of the 
highly colored enameled ware 
reproduced eighty years ago 
from 17 th Century export de¬ 
signs 
Japan” sort went out to other lands, and 
now the Japanese collector must scramble to 
find examples in out-of-the-way places in 
his own country. Today these old pieces of 
decorated porcelains are being eagerly sought 
by native collectors who have come to recog¬ 
nize their interest and importance in the his¬ 
tory of Japanese keramics. 
Japan's debt to Chinese culture has been 
enormous and it is without doubt that her 
knowledge of porcelain was derived from 
China by way of Korea, if not 
from Korea. We can well imag¬ 
ine that such pieces of porcelain 
as found their way into Japan 
in those early days were treas¬ 
ured and admired, and led the 
Japanese to attempt porcelain 
manufacture for themselves. The 
(Below) From left to right—sauce pot with land and sea scape, oil 
bottle, tea waste bold of Hirado ware with raised cord, Hirado saki 
cup stand with designs in relief and a blue and white sauce pot with 
teakwood lid 
In the circle 
above is the 
crest of the 
Prince of Hizen; 
the other marks 
are found on the 
finest old Imari 
porcelain 
(Below) These two pieces of Hirado 
ware show a placque with tower and land¬ 
scape decorations and a deeper placque 
with a center landscape surrounded by 
decorations in relief 
