Page 24 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

INTRODUCTION
4
My use of the words " rare," " very rare," etc., is in the interest of col-
lectors, and based upon my own experience as a collector. This experience
has been derived from the examination of hundreds of collections in Japan,
public and private, including the stock in trade of innumerable bric-a-brac
shops. Added to this may be mentioned a more or less critical examina-
tion of the leading public and many private collections of Europe and
America. It should be understood that rarity does not always signify an
original high value or beauty or even intrinsic merit.

False Guides
There is no royal road leading to the identification of pottery. Counter-
feits either of age or mark can be determined only by familiarity with the
genuine. The mark of the potter, if the piece be genuine, is the best clue.
In the pottery of some provinces, notably Hizen, Nagato, and Tosa, the
pieces are rarely signed, and here an appeal must be made to the clay.
The name of a village or shrine written or impressed on pottery is no safe
criterion of its origin. At many of the shrines and leading pleasure resorts
in Japan, one may buy for a trifle some little souvenir of the place, and
usually the object has been made in the immediate neighborhood, and from
the material gathered there. Thus at Nikko one gets various forms of
boxes and cups made from a large woody fungus ; at Hakone, inlaid wood-
work ; at Enoshima, shellwork, etc. These are all true souvenirs of their
respective places. As to the pottery souvenirs one cannot be so sure such
:
objects may be made at some great pottery centre and impressed with the
mark of some great resort where they are to be sold as souvenirs, as is the
case probably with one form of Miyajima pottery. Even the name written
on a time-worn box, with carefully folded attestation within, is a hazardous
guide, as the original specimen may have been broken or lost, and another
specimen, equally valuable perhaps, substituted. Ninagawa was deceived in
this way by a bowl of Rokubei, with mark erased, being found, cuckoo-like,
in a box from which a Satsuma bowl had been displaced. Above all, the
crest or mon of a family appearing on the pottery is absolutely worthless
in identifying the origin of the specimen.

Obscure Potters
The apparent ease with which the Japanese turn to pottery-making has
led to hosts of petty potters following the pursuit for a short time, their
product being usually in faint imitation of reputable work. Any attempt at
originality has led to the production of absurdities which have rarely sur-