Page 37 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

INTRODUCTION 17

emptied after rinsing the bowl, a little tube to hold the cloth with which
the bowl is wiped, and, in some forms, a long pottery tube, with broader
base, in which the bamboo dipper may stand, handle down, in a most un-
balanced attitude, are also seen. These and many other devices make up
the paraphernalia of the tea ceremony. The tea is reduced to powder
by grinding in a stone handmill. The Ethnological Museum at Leipzig
possesses a pottery mill. Sometimes a pottery mortar and pestle are used
to pulverize the leaves. Such, in brief, are the pottery utensils used in the
tea ceremony, a ceremony which has not only profoundly influenced the
pottery, but has affected the character of the house and garden as well.
Perhaps it may be nearer the truth to say that those whose tastes are quiet
and refined enough to enjoy the formal drinking of tea, with its easy,
though apparently rigid etiquette, demand cleanliness, purity, simplicity in
all the appointments connected with the service.

Wine

The universal wine of the country, used everywhere and on all occasions,
is the well-known sake, fermented from rice, and apparently no stronger
than German beer. This wine is drank hot from little, shallow, flaring cups,
usually of porcelain. The sake is served from bottles simple in shape, with
gradually tapering neck. These 'are often beautifully decorated, notably the
Satsuma and Kyoto forms. There are a great variety of sake bottles, some
with wide bottoms to use on shipboard or at picnics ; others with a bulbous
expansion, that they may float when placed in hot water ; others made
tapering to a point below, so that they can be stuck in the ashes. Recep-
tacles for sake are made with large areas of heating surface, or a vessel may
be filled with hot water, with accommodations for a narrow cylindrical sake
bottle. Beside the usual form of sake cup, there is one made in the form of
a mask, with a long nose, so that the wine must be drank before the cup is
laid down ; others are made in the form of a bell for the same purpose. A
cup is made with a hole in the bottom, over which the finger must be
placed ; the holder is forced to drink the liquor at once. In company, a
very important vessel (the haisen) is used to hold cold water, in which the
guest first rinses his cup before passing to another with whom he wishes to
drink. Little cups are seen which are tied to the girdle and used in travel-
ing. Three cups of varying sizes, resting one upon another, are used in
the marriage ceremony.