JAPAN
bly obtained from a mineral of Japanese origin; but this is uncertain. The Japanese potters of Seto certainly used cobalt in the manufacture of their black glazes, and it is asserted that Shonzui himself ultimately eked out the pigment which he had brought from China by mixing it with the mineral of his own country. On the other hand, the commercial relations between Japan and China were of such a nature during the sixteenth century that it should have been a simple matter for the keramists of the former country to obtain supplies of Chikiang cobalt, however unprocurable the precious Mohammedan mineral may have been. The point is not of special importance. Indeed, the interest attaching to the ware manufactured by Shonzui's immediate successors centres solely in the fact that it represents the outcome of a period when the methods of porcelain manufacture were known while the materials were wanting. With regard to the identification of the ware, its pâte varies from dense faience to stone-ware, and is generally tinged distinctly with red; its glaze is sometimes grey, or slate colour, but usually an impure white; there are no marks of date or factory, and the blue decoration is somewhat rudely executed. Reference to the general question of Hizen pottery will be made in a future chapter.
Although the porcelain manufactured by Shonzui seems to have attracted considerable attention in his time, he was not sufficiently fortunate to obtain the patronage of any powerful noble. Indeed, after the death of the Regent Yoshimasa (1491), the Tea Ceremonials which he had inaugurated, if they did not wholly pass out of fashion, failed to increase in popularity. All the great feudal chieftains, engaged either
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