MODERN DEVELOPMENTS
Sung Chien-yao, with its glaze of mirror-black or raven's-wing green, and its leveret-fur streaking or russet-moss dappling, the prince of all wares in the estimation of the Japanese tea-clubs. Like Shōzan, he is still very far from his original, but, also like Shōzan, he produces highly meritorious pieces in his efforts to reach an ideal that will probably continue to elude him for ever. Of Kato there is not much to be said. He has not succeeded in winning great distinction, but he manufactures some very delicate monochromes, fully deserving to be classed among prominent evidences of the new departure, and he has also been able to produce porcelains decorated with blue under the glaze that are almost equal to fine specimens of the best-period Chinese ware. Indeed it must be admitted that Japan's modern potters have solved the problem long supposed to be insolvable, the problem of blue under the glaze. Seifū, Miyagawa, Kato Tomotaro, and others are turning out admirable specimens of that class, though there is no evidence that they will ever achieve the soft-paste blue-and-white of the Chinese masters.
Higuchi of Hirado is to be classed with keramists of the new school on account of one ware only, namely, porcelain having translucid decoration, the so-called "grains-of-rice" of American collectors, designated "fire-fly style" (hotaru-de) in Japan. That, however, is an achievement of no small consequence, especially since it had never previously been essayed outside China. The Hirado expert has not yet attained technical skill equal to that of the Chinese. He cannot, like them, cover the greater part of a specimen's surface with a lace-work of transparent decoration, exciting wonder that pâte deprived so
419
