CHAPTER XXIXBIZEN OR IMBE
The chief objects made at Bizen were vases, incense-burners, and numerous figures of animals and persons. Amongst the last are found a number of mythical divinities illustrating the two religions of Japan, Shintoism and Buddhism, especially the latter. Before me, as I write, is a good specimen of old Bizen. It is the figure of Hotei, the god of Contentment. Brown glazed ware with a paste of fine, hard red clay. He is standing on a wind-bag with his dress open to his waist, and his laugh is typical of the wonderful facial expression often to be found in Oriental figures. The pottery of Bizen was made at a very early date, but the early specimens were of a coarse, gritty red paste with no glaze, and only common articles were made. Then, in the sixteenth century, more attention was paid to the preparation of the clay, and Chinese copies were imitated. The most valued pieces of this old Bizen are those stamped with a new moon or a cherry blossom. A century later a white-brown paste, fine and nearly as hard as porcelain, was used largely for figures. This was followed by the use of the red clay. It is interesting to notice the glaze applied to this kind of Bizen. The figure of Hotei illustrates this uniquebronzing, as it were. The colour and metallic lustre are so good that the figure has often been mistaken for bronze. Choice specimens are to be found with salt glazes, brown, grey, and white, and of these the last is rarest. One other peculiarity of all Bizen is that the glaze is absorbed into the paste; this is said to be due to continued firing. When struck the pieces ring very clearly, whilst the modern production has a dead, dull sound. The Bizen pottery of our own time is degenerate. The monstrosities to be found in curiosity shops are neither artistic nor interesting.
Kutani, in the province of Kaga, produced pottery of dark clay with a light chocolate glaze about the middle of the seventeenth century. Later, one of the potters, who was sent to Hizen for the purpose, brought back information which led to great improvement. At the end of that century, and early in the next, two wares were produced. One is marked by a deep green glaze, which formed an effective and striking decoration, but other glazes were also used on these other wares, notably deep purple, yellow, and a soft blue. The other class was an imitation of Hizen ware, with the difference that blue under the glaze was not associated with enamel colours over the glaze. In addition to the colours mentioned a beautiful red was introduced and gold was added.
The artistic designs were purely Japanese bits of nature-painting, tiny landscapes, birds on plum branches, and other simple but striking subjects of this kind. The contrast to the Imari ware, with its bold masses of blossoms and colours, is as great as it is with modern Kutani. The latter often haspeacocks, groups of brilliant peonies and chrysanthemums, brightly dressed women and wonderful old men, cocks upon barrels, and other well-known subjects. The only figures on old Kutani are children playing.
The paste is of a bad colour, a kind of dirty white. It passes from stoneware to porcelain, according to the nature of the clay, much of which was imported, and which was sometimes mixed with the clay found at Kutani. The other makers of porcelain frequently sent their pieces in a white state to be decorated here, and this was done especially from Arita. From this it will be seen that the Kutani mark appears on porcelain varying in composition. Thus there are stoneware and excellent porcelain. Some of it will bear comparison with the best Hizen egg-shell. What tests should be applied to find out whether the specimen submitted is old Kutani or not? One has been given—it is this: blue under the glaze is not employed in conjunction with enamel decoration. Then there is the tone of the blue. Reference has been made to the rich blue of Imari, the exquisite soft and clear blue of Hirado, but the Kutani blue is, like the paste often is, inferior in quality. The glaze, however, has a wax-like surface which is distinctive. In the coloured specimens the severe nature of the decoration and the beauty and lustre of the enamels are characteristic features.
But Kutani copied Chinese originals in the best style, so that if such specimens were bought in China they would pass for good examples of the best period. But in Japan, as in China, porcelain is made of two earths, one fusible, the other infusible, and owing to the difference in the matter of firing, most Japanese porcelain has spur-marks or small projections on the bottom, produced by the supportsused in the process of firing. Otherwise, the same means are employed in making and decorating porcelain in both countries.
Ninsei and Kinkozan have been mentioned as celebrated potters, Kenzan and Yeiraku must be added to them. Kenzan at first imitated the Ninsei ware of Kyoto, but, being himself an artist and a brother of the celebrated painter Ogato Korin, he soon developed an original and genuine Japanese style in which striking results were produced with a seeming absence of laboured detail. The simplicity of a branch of prunus blossoms, a few nodding reeds or grasses, a little group of birds amidst the foliage, the distant hill seen through the midst, suited the space available for decoration. He used black, brown, green, blue, and purple in plain colours, and enamels as well as gold. His early work was done on Awata pottery, but his style is unmistakable, and he marked all his pieces with his name "Kenzan." Other specimens of his bold outline sketches are found on a coarse ware with a gritty paste. At a later period he went to Iriya, in Tokio, but owing to unsatisfactory materials for the making of pottery nothing very great was accomplished. His productions are exceedingly rare and proportionately valuable. His family still have a kiln near Kyoto, and his son and grandson imitated his style, including the mark, with some success.
There is an ancient pottery at Kyoto, founded by a family named Sozen and later Yeiraku, a title bestowed upon them by the Prince of Kü or Kishu.The present potter is of the same name and he still makes earthenware and porcelain. It was about 1600 when Yeiraku—then Zengoro-Hozen—began to make unglazed tea urns as his ancestors had done. As a recreation he tried experiments with pastes and glazes, which attracted considerable attention, and secured for him an invitation from the Prince of Kishu to come to his province. Here Yeiraku ware was made, so called from the stamp it bears. Zengoro made glazes his special study, and produced rich combinations of turquoise, blue, purple, and yellow, but more than these was his successful coral-red glaze, made in imitation of the old Chinese "vivid red" of the Yung-lo period. This last achievement gained for him the gift of a golden stamp, "Yeiraku," and the name which the family has borne for so many years. Yeiraku's skill was often tested by orders to copy all sorts of Chinese, Korean, and even Dutch pieces, which he did so well that the original and its imitation could not be distinguished. Yeiraku was wealthy now, and could have gone into easy retirement. Yet such was his love of his art that he worked on. He had produced the purple, yellow, turquoise, green, and the blue and white, also the coral red and enamelled porcelains of China, but he tried fruitlessly to get the tin glaze of Delft and the various glazes of lakes of the Chinese.
The illustrations given of the goddess Kuwanon, in Chinese Kouanyin or Kwan Yin, show one of the most interesting of the Buddhist deities. She was reincarnated at least thirty-three times, as a man, a woman, a demon, and so on, for the greatest good of humanity. Still, it is in the feminine form that her figure is most frequently found in Japanese porcelain and pottery, as well as in Chinese. Her hair is in the style of Louis XIV., she wears a necklace bearing anornament in the form of a cross, and, being "the giver of children," she is holding a little child, whilst Loung-nou and Hoang-tchen-sai, her two servants, stand at her right and left. Perhaps the rarest of these figures is in the cream-white porcelain of Nankin. A figure of this goddess was recently sold for £45.