Page 267 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

dating from the Yuan and Ming periods reveals nearly

all the elements of the Chrysanthemo-Pceon'eenne decora-

tion, while the purely decorative elements, as scrolls,

diapers, and arabesques, are to be found in textile

fabrics of the same eras. Japan, borrowing freely in

every age from her neighbour though often modify-

ing what she borrowed, was in possession of all these

elements before her keramists thought of attempting

polychromatic decoration. The question reduces

itself, therefore, to the method of combining the ele-

ments, and here the credit does not apparently belong

to either China or Japan alone. It is impossible to

mistake the presence of Persian influence in the floral

traceries ocfacthheemiCrhery"saonfthtehmeo-ePacreloyneDeenlnfet family. is The
potters
" Dessin cer-

tainly a near relative, and in all probability the parent,

of the Japanese and Chinese fashion. It is known

that the style of Japanese polychromatic decoration

was largely modified by Dutch suggestion, and it is

easy to conceive that Persian examples, finding their

way to the Far East 'via the Factories at Cambron

and Deshima, may have inspired a fashion of combi-

nation and arrangement largely adopted by the potters

of Imari and sparingly copied at Ching-te-chen.

Perhaps, then, there is warrant for saying that, if

Japan owed much to China, she partly repaid the

debt by re-grouping the decorative elements which

she had received from the Middle Kingdom, and

evolving what may be called the natural style, in con-

tradistinction to the artificial, or mathematical, style

of her neighbour. Thus there is no reason to be

surprised that the porcelains of Imari, though they

derived their decorative origin from China, soon at-

tracted favourable notice in the Middle Kingdom

VOL. IX. 14 2O9