Studio: international art (46.1909)

The Cha-no-yu Pottery of Japan

Enshiu, a great master of the tea ceremony, was,
as related by Okakura, “complimented by his
disciples on the admirable taste he had displayed
in the choice of his collection.” Said they :
“ Each piece is such that no one could help
admiring. It shows that you had better taste than
had Rikiu, for his collection could only be appre-
ciated by one in a thousand ! ” Sorrowfully Enshiu
replied : “ This only proves how commonplace I
am. The great Rikiu dared to love only the
objects which personally appealed to him, whereas
I, unconsciously, cater to the tastes of the majority.
Verily Rikiu was one in a thousand
among tea masters ! ”

Among the simple, undecorated
wares especially valued by the tea
clubs was one known as Hagi,
from the chief town in the pro-
vince of Nagato. The first ware
of importance was made at Matsu-
rnoto, in late sixteenth or early
seventeenth century, in imitation
of Corean ware. It has a pearl-
grey craquele glaze of a milky
appearance, essentially character-
istic of its prototype. (Fig. 2.)

Kilns were afterwards opened in
other parts of the province, and
the colour of the glazes became
varied in character, such as pale
green, light lavender, cream white,
and buff to brown. To the West-
ern connoisseur its chief interest
lies in the remarkable variety and beauty of its
crackle. The variety is doubtless due to the varying
thickness of the glaze employed ; the heavier the
glaze, the coarser becomes the crackle, and as the
body of the glaze frequently varies in one object,
so the crackle will be found to be proportionately

coarse or fine. In order to produce regularity
of crackle, a most careful manipulation of the cool-
ing process in the kiln is necessary. What its pre-
cise nature may be is a matter of doubt and some
discussion, but it is certain that no Western potter
has been able to produce it with that uniformity of
interlacement and perfection of finish which his
confrere in the East achieved. A typical example
of craquele Hagi ware is shown in Fig. 3 on the
preceding page.

Of the delightful combinations of colour to be
met with in the glazes of bowls, jars and water

FIG. 5. WATER JAR, TAKATORI WARE

pots it would take a bulky volume to treat in detail.
I will mention only a few by way of example.

In the province of Kaga towards the latter half
of the seventeenth century, a Kioto potter settled in
Ohimachi taking the name of Ohi. The pottery
made by him and his successors has a soft paste, and
is fashioned very much after the Raku
style. The colour of its glaze is a rich,
warm, translucent brown, simulating that of
brown Chinese amber. In some of the
earliest pieces there appear within the
glaze brilliant sparks of golden light, as
seen in Aventurine; but after careful exami-
nation these sparks seem to have been
caused, not as in the case of Aventurine
by tiny plates of mica, but by little fissures
within the glaze, which, catching the light
at certain angles, reflect it as in the case
of the opal. The effect is still further
heightened when the brown glaze is run
over a dull black glaze. It has altogether

FIG. 4. TEA BOWL, OHI WARE

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