JAPAN
has two and even three superposed glazes—usually assumes the form of white flecking or splashing, but not infrequently the body-glaze is light brown and the upper glaze tea-green without any flecking. The glazes, though thin, are soft and solid, and nothing can exceed the skill with which they are applied. In a majority of cases they are run so as to leave uncovered a portion of the pâte at the lower part of the specimen, a tour de force most characteristic of the tea-green class. There is further the iron-dust glaze, brownish red with minute black spotting, often relieved by blue flecks or splashes similar to those of the Namako variety. This Tessha-gusuri is, on the whole, the most easily procurable. Its manufacture was carried down to the middle of the present century. Late specimens may be detected by their comparatively coarse, porous pâte and the crude appearance of their glaze. By recent connoisseurs the Namako variety has been distinguished as Satsuma Izumi, from the name of a factory in the north of the province where similar faience is even now produced. But the outcome of this kiln is coarse and altogether inferior to the faiences of Tatsumonji, Nawashiro, and Tadeno. In fact, the Izumi faience is among the cheapest and rudest wares of every-day use in Japan, whereas the varieties described above belong to a high range of keramic skill. Unfortunately, as is too often the case with respect to choice Japanese glazes, specimens of these fine wares are nearly always small and insignificant, as tea-jars, cups, saké-bottles, ewers, and censers.
Enough has already been said about Satsuma porcelain—generally known in Japan as Hirasa-yaki—and of faience having blue decoration sous couverte.
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