WARES OF KYŌTŌ
thousands, of comparatively modern specimens of Kyōtō ware thus marked are offered by curio-dealers to inexperienced strangers as genuine specimens of Ninsei-yaki. Perhaps it need scarcely be said that genuine specimens are very scarce. They do exist, and find their way into the market from time to time, but their high value in Japan—as much as two or three hundred dollars is readily paid for a small bowl of the best description—keeps them out of Western collections. If it be required to indicate tests of easy application for determining the claims of a piece attributed to Ninsei, they are, first, the pâte, which ought to be very hard and of brick-red or yellowish grey colour; secondly, the crackle, which should be uniform and of circular shape; and thirdly, the enamels, which in pieces by Ninsei and his contemporaries or immediate successors are remarkable for combined richness and softness. The second of these characteristics, if present in a marked degree, will generally justify the amateur in assigning a specimen of Kyōtō faience, if not to Ninsei, at any rate to the century in which Ninsei lived.
The most renowned pictorial artist of Ninsei's era was Tanyū. This painter and the great keramist appear to have been fast friends. It is related that they took an equal interest in each other's art, and that many of the pieces manufactured by Ninsei bore designs from the brush of Tanyū or his pupil Eishin. These designs were largely imitated at the Kyōtō factories, and the popularity of pieces thus decorated was shared by specimens copied from Chinese ware ornamented with fishes from the brush of a Chinese artist, Bokkei, and hence called Bokkei-hachi. In fact, public taste turned completely from the sober and severe style of the Seto potters. Decorated faience became the
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