Page 141 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

thirteenth century, or fully two hundred years before

the dilettanteism from which they subsequently de-

rived their value had begun to be largely developed.

Thus, from every point of view, there is reason to

believe that they are genuine representatives of what

the Sung and Yuan potters were able to accomplish

in the way of decorating with blue under the glaze.

It was not a notable accomplishment, either techni-

cally or aarstiTsatii-csalol-yy.aki,Th" eTaie-asroli"er pieces are known

in Japan being the Japanese
""
method of pronouncing the ideographs Ta-Sung

(the great Sung dynasty). They are stone-ware
;

the pdte hard, fine, and well manipulated, but gener-

erally too thick and solid to suggest any great skill

of manufacture. The designs are bold, but roughly

executed, and the blue is evidently of very inferior

quality, its tone being muddy and unsatisfactory.

Working with such a pigment, the keramists of those

early days had little to encourage elaborate or artistic

effort. They seem also to have been more or less

inexperienced or careless in the management of white,

translucid glazes ; for the surface of their pieces,

especially at salient points, is often disfigured by

defects doubtless due originally to blisters in the

glaze. Blemishes of this peculiar nature are regarded

as marks of authenticity by the Japan"ese, who call
them muhsi-kui, or " insect erosions a
; term that

aptly describes their appearance. Not until the latter

days of the Yuan dynasty i.e. the beginning of

the fourteenth century does this ware begin to

show signs of skilled manufacture. The pdte then

ceases to be stone-ware and becomes porcelain ; the

glaze is whiter and more even and the blue has
;

a much purer, though still inferior, tone. To this

99