Page 33 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

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INTRODUCTION 13
Sesshu and the early Kano school being represented. Okyo and the Shijd
school, Korin and Bunjinga came next in number. The Nagasaki school
was not uncommonly followed, and, in a few cases, the Soga and Tosa
schools were represented. Of the popular school, Ukioye, only four
examples were seen ; and as an evidence of the reserve of the potter, only
one instance of a copy of Hokusai occurs. The potters of the provinces of
Sanuki and Kaga, and the potter Mokubei of Kyoto, followed the Chinese
school ; while Higo, Iwaki, Satsuma, and Kyoto followed Kano.

PRINCIPAL USES OF OBJECTS IN THE COLLECTION

Concerning the various uses to which pottery is applied, the Japanese
are only equaled by the Greeks of past times. Schliemann records the fact
that the ruins of the first prehistoric city of Hissarlik show the almost uni-
versal use of pottery by the people. " Utensils for every-day life, terra-
cotta funeral urns, large terra-cotta bowls, weights for fishing-nets, handles
for their brushes, and even hooks to hang their clothes upon, were all made
of pottery." Where we use silver and other metals, glass, etc., in the
making of various articles for daily use, the Japanese use pottery.
It is thought proper here to answer some of the questions which will
naturally be asked, by explaining the uses of the principal objects in the
collection. Examples of many of these are grouped together, but are not
on exhibition for want of room.

House
For use in the house may occasionally be seen a vessel the upper portion
of which has numerous perforations. This is used to hold material which,
when burnt, produces a dense smoke, a device used for driving mos-

quitoes out of the house (cases 17 and 19). Little wheels of hard pottery
are used as rollers for the sliding window or scuttle in the roof of the
kitchen ; a solid block of pottery in the form of a tortoise, bird, or simple
square, having a deep, wide notch in one end, is used to hold the end of a
standing screen. In house construction the roofing tile, sometimes glazed,
and the tiles terminating the ends of the ridge or the eaves, often very
elaborate, are of pottery. The intricate friezes of the rooms, usually perfo-
rated and of delicate wood carving, are sometimes seen in porcelain. The
ornamental -headed nails and recessed contrivances for shoving back the
screen partitions are sometimes made of porcelain.