great local artist, Kumeno, takes silver as the basis of his vases, and this is beaten up into the desired design, with specially fine effect in water and wave pieces. Wires are also used. The enamel put on is for the most part transparent, so that very delicate results are obtained by the silver shining through the glaze.
Books recommended. Brinkley's Japan and China, Vol. VII, p. 327 et seq.—The Industries of Japan, by Dr. J. J. Rein, p. 488 et seq.
Confucianism. To describe in detail this Chinese system of philosophy, would be alien to the plan of the present work. Suffice it to say that Confucius (called by the Japanese Kōshi) abstained from all metaphysical flights and devotional ecstasies. He confined himself to practical details of morals and government, and took submission to parents and political rulers as the corner stone of his system. The result is a set of moral truths—some would say truisms—of a very narrow scope, and of dry ceremonial observances, political rather than personal. This Confucian code of ethics has for ages satisfied the Far-Easterns of China, Korea, and Japan, but would not have been endured for a moment by the more eager, more speculative, more tender European mind.
The Confucian Classics consist of what are called, in the Japanese pronunciation, the Shi-sho Go-kyō, that is "the Four Books and the Five Canons." The Four Books are "The Great Learning," "The Doctrine of the Mean," "The Confucian Analects," and "The Sayings of Mencius." Mencius, let it be noted, is by far the most attractive of the Chinese sages. He had an epigrammatic way about him and a certain sense of humour, which give to many of his utterances a strangely Western and modern ring. He was also the first democrat of the ancient East,—a democrat so outspoken as to have at one time suffered exclusion from the libraries of absolutistic Japan. The Five Canons consist of "The Book of Changes," "The Book of Poetry," "The Book of History," "The Canon of Rites," and "Spring and Autumn" (annals of the state of Lu by Confucius).
Originally introduced into Japan early in the Christian era,
