WARES OF SATSUMA
first produced is distinct from the factory where its manufacture was revived at the close of the eighteenth century. It may be confidently asserted that enamelled wares were made by the potters of Tatsumonji as early as 1675. Mitsuhisa was then the feudal chief of Satsuma, and it is recorded that he bestowed nearly as much patronage upon the potters of his fief as his ancestor Yoshihiro had done. Iyemitsu, third Regent of the Tokugawa dynasty, had encouraged the already growing taste for highly decorated ware, and his influence was felt at all the centres of keramic industry in Japan. The Prince of Sasshiu was not likely to be behind the times. He summoned to his fief the painter Tangen, a pupil of the renowned Tanyu (died 1674), and employed him to paint faience himself or to furnish the keramists with designs. Ware produced under these circumstances received the name Satsuma Tangen, and now constitutes one of the treasures of Japanese dilettanti. The number of pieces manufactured was small. They were destined entirely for private use or for presents. The decoration was not brilliant, the object being to show the painter's skill rather than the enameller's. Judging by the very rare specimens still extant, it appears that the rich combinations of jewelled diapers and delicately painted medallions of middle-period Satsuma were not affected by the potters of Tangen's time. The style of the latter may be more appropriately called sketchy—slight floral designs, impressionist landscapes, birds on branches, and such simple subjects constituted the favourite motives. Sometimes the only colour employed by the decorator was the reddish brown obtained from Kaki-no-shibu (the juice of the Diospyros Kaki). Such pictures were called Shibu-e.
143
