Page 261 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

manner of distributing the design. Here the Japa-
nese shows a far higher artistic instinct than the Chi-

nese. The latter, remembering chiefly that he had

a certain ground to fill, filled it without any idea
of charming the fancy as well as dazzling the eye.
His conception of division was purely mathematical.

He parcelled out the surface by the aid of concentric

borders or parallel lines, and if he found that he had
to otcupy two spaces of wholly different dimensions,
separated, perhaps, by a leafy branch or a bunch of

flowers, it did not shock him to fill one with a big

phoenix and the other with a miniature specimen of
the same bird. Hard, mechanical practicality was
the prominent trait of his methods. But the Japa-

nese, when: he sat down to decorate a vase, delighted
to divide its surface by some eccentrically symmetri-

cal disposition of lines and curves, the spaces enclosed
within which, while they admirably preserved their
mutual equipoise as well as their sensible though not

easily traceable relation to a common centre, acquired
so much individuality that to fill them with wholly

diverse decorative subjects never suggested any dis-
cordant contrast. Little observation is needed to

familiarise the connoisseur with this prevailing bent

of Japanese decorative art, and to enable him to dis-
tinguish between the styles of the neighbouring em-
pires. At the same time, neither this guide, nor yet

the greater freedom, boldness, and fidelity of the
Japanese decorator's brush, can always be implicitly
relied on. There are Chinese and Japanese speci-
mens of which the photographs could not be distin-
guished. This is especially the case with plates, and
other flat objects. Here, however, the connoisseur
has the assistance of " spur-marks," or little points

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