84 
House & Garden 
The G-E Twin 
Convenience 
Outlet affor d s 
double service 
from a single 
outlet . 
A RE you enjoying the convenience of elec- 
/ \ tricity? Do you connect the plug of 
JL JL your toaster into a convenience outlet 
at your breakfast table, or do you stand over 
a hot range? Or must you climb on a chair 
to attach an unsightly cord to your lighting 
fixture? 
\ OU will be surprised to find how little it 
costs to turn partial into complete convenience 
— either in your present home or one now 
being planned—to substitute convenience for 
inconvenience. 
Be sure to have beautiful table lamps, cooling 
breezes from fans, or quick heat from portable 
heaters all over the house. Be able to have 
electrical kitchen-helpers to work for you; 
and use all of them at the same time, if need be. 
Plan for enough switches so that you will 
never need to fumble in the dark, no matter 
where you may be. All these features are es¬ 
sentials of complete electrical convenience. 
WHETHER you buy, rent, or build, con¬ 
venience is what you will demand of your 
electrical installation. 
A New Booklet for Home Lovers 
How to secure this electrical convenience in each 
room of your house is told in detail in a booklet 
prepared for you. This booklet will be sent you 
free, together with the name of a nearby electrical 
contractor qualified to assist you in planning adequate 
electrical convenience for your home. And it you 
now own your home you can have the work done 
on an easy payment plan, just as you buy a piano 
or phonograph. 
If you own or rent a home, or ever expect to, you 
will find this booklet well worth reading. Address 
Merchandise Department, General Electric Com¬ 
pany, Bridgeport, Conn. 
What Is 
Your Address? 
The Imari Ware of Japan 
(Continued from page 82) 
porcelains from the various kilns in the been begun by Yojibei, as were also 
Province of Hizen came to be shipped 
through the port of Imari, the name 
Imari-yaki, meaning Imari Ware, came 
to be given to all these products, al¬ 
though there was no kiln in the city of 
Imari itself. So strongly has the name 
of this port attached itself to the porce¬ 
lains of Hizen, that one uses the term 
Imari Ware more frequently than any 
other in referring to the porcelains of 
Hizen’s various kilns—those of the 
Arita, Nabeshima and Hirado wares 
(the three principal ones), and elsewhere 
the wares of Ichinose, Hirose, Nanga- 
wara, Ohotaru, Hokao, Kuromouda, 
Shida, Ko-Shida and Yoshida. The 
Arita ware was produced at Arita, the 
Nabeshima ware at Ohokawachiyama 
and the Hirado ware at Mikawau- 
chiyama, but to all, as we have said, was 
given the inclusive name of Imari Ware, 
as applied to wares intended for export, 
wares distinguished by their brocaded 
effect, decorated in few bold laid-on col¬ 
ors in floal, scroll and diaper pattern, 
and often with figures, landscapes, birds 
and animals. The Imari style was, it 
should be remembered, preceded by 
what may be called the premiere sorte 
du Japon, the Kakiyemon, whose milky 
white paste bore the cobalt blue enamel 
decoration applied over the glaze, dis¬ 
tinguishing it from the 18th Century 
Imari W T are, or “Old Japan" which had 
the cobalt blue decoration under the 
glaze. The heavily decorated Imari was, 
of course, in strong contrast to the deli¬ 
cate and restrained Kakiyemon. 
Arita Imari 
One cannot do better than here to 
quote Captain Brinkley’s description of 
Arita porcelain—made at Arita, an im¬ 
portant town near the Idzumiyama—as 
contained in his authoritative volume on 
keramics in his well-known work “Ja¬ 
pan and China”: “The Arita artists 
made enameled brilliancy a subordinate 
feature, and sought, by careful painting 
and refined motives, to compensate for 
what was lost in richness of effect. This 
conception and execution of the ware 
was excellent. The pate was fine and 
pure, having a clear and bell-like timbre. 
The milk-white glaze, soft, yet not lack¬ 
ing in lustre, formed a ground harmon¬ 
izing well with the ornamentation which 
was simple sometimes to severity. The 
enamels were clear and rich in tone, but 
of few colors; lustreless red, frequently 
showing an orange tint, grass-green, and 
lilac-blue (over the glaze) constituted 
nearly the whole palette. Of decorative 
subjects, floral medallions were perhaps 
most common, but the dragon, the 
Phoenix, the bamboo, the plum, the pine, 
birds fluttering about a sheaf of corn, 
other naturalistic subjects, together with 
various kinds of diapers, were constantly 
depicted. The characteristics of this 
ware are not only the sparseness, but 
also the distribution of the decoration; 
instead of being spread over the sur¬ 
face, the designs were confined to a few 
places, the object apparently being to 
surround each little picture with as 
ample a margin as possible. This de¬ 
scription applies to Arita porcelain after 
the processes of enameled decoration 
and other technical details had been ful¬ 
ly mastered, a condition which was 
probably attained about the year 1660.” 
Sir A. W. Franks tells us that in the 
period of Tempo, about the year 1830, a 
wealthy inhabitant of Arita named 
Hiratomi Yojibei, an amateur of dis¬ 
tinction, found that the clay from 
Hirato was much better suited for re¬ 
ceiving the Arita glazes than was the 
slower drying clay obtained from the 
Idzuyama (Idzu mountain). Later 
Goto Island clay was found to be 
superior and came generally into use 
at Arita. The making of the Arita tea¬ 
cups with saucers is believed to have 
the Arita flower vases, all of which 
found ready sale to the foreigners visit¬ 
ing Nagasaki. These pieces were all 
marked with the characters signifying 
“Sampo”, a title which has been given 
Yojibei. 
Nabeshima Imari 
Some three miles north of Arita lies 
the village of Ohokawachiyama, where 
the Nabeshima Imari was produced. 
This ware was so called from the found¬ 
er and patron of the manufactory, the 
Prince of Nabeshima, Nabeshima 
Naoshige, feudal chief of Hizen, who, 
in the year 1710, removed the works 
thither from Iwayagawa, as the 
Iwayagawa site was so near the public 
highway that it was not found possible 
to maintain the secrecy desired in con¬ 
nection with the porcelain’s fabrication. 
Only the finest pieces were made here, 
pieces used by the Imperial Court, the 
Court of the Shogun and by the Daimio. 
We are told that its sale to private in¬ 
dividuals and to foreigners was strictly 
prohibited, any transgression of this 
prohibition being severely punished. 
This fine Nabeshima porcelain differed 
from the Imari-yaki in the milky white¬ 
ness of its glaze and the comparative 
sparseness of its decoration. The pecu¬ 
liar greens, turquoise blue and fine black 
of the Nabeshima ware is not to be 
found in other contemporary Japanese 
porcelains. 
The Hirado ware, produced at Mika- 
wachi, a town some six miles south of 
Arita was so called since it enjoyed the 
particular patronage of Prince Mat- 
sura, the feudal chief of Hirado. Al¬ 
though this manufactory had been 
established about the year 16SS, it was 
not until 1751 that the Prince of Hirado 
took over the works and the mid-18th 
Century to about 1830 is the period of 
its finest examples, pieces of rare beauty. 
Official prohibitions prevented this ware 
from finding its way into the market 
and its production was limited. Col¬ 
lectors seek for specimens of Hirado 
eagerly. Apropos the variety of Hirado 
styles Egan Mew says: “Among the 
modeled and colored figures those of 
little boys and old men are well known. 
. . . The colors of Hirado work are put 
on in glazes of a curious brown, varying 
from bright and light to dark, and black 
and blue. The Hirado works are also 
famous for their delicate under-glaze 
blue productions, which without having 
the depth and vivid qualities of the 
Chinese blue, from which it was re¬ 
fined by an elaborate process, are very 
charming. Figure subjects are more fre¬ 
quent here than in most of the Japan¬ 
ese factories. It has been supposed 
that the number of boys shown in the 
piece marks the quality of the example, 
seven standing for the highest classes 
and three the lowest.” 
Collector's Chances 
None of the crude late wares of in¬ 
ferior quality, “picturesque” but having 
no appeal to the true connoisseur, which 
the Japanese kilns have produced in 
enormous quantities can be mistaken for 
the old Imari Ware. Fortunately the 
field is not entirely combed and the col¬ 
lector of today may hope to come across 
a fine piece in Europe and America, but 
it would probably be the work of a 
lifetime now to assemble an Imari col¬ 
lection through “browsing”, or by other 
than the rare chance of some important 
group of Imari offered at public sale. In 
Japan the native collectors seem to have 
penetrated to the haunts of every bit 
of “Old Japan” that happened to re¬ 
main on the islands, in consequence of 
which Japan as a gathering field for old 
Imari is anything but hopeful. 
The illustrations which accompany 
(Continued on page 86) 
