One day my young acquaintance of Sakutajima called, and volunteered his company about the place. Of sundry excursions together, what dwells most vividly in my memory is the recollection of our entry for a few minutes (on what errand I forget) into a modest samurai household. The mistress was busy, with her maids, in little tea-garden, plucking the young leaves. She left off at sight of the visitors, entered the house, and having laid off her kerchief and donned a haori of slate-black silk, presented nace gs room:—sat conversing with her husband, us to tea, and treated-us with grave, pont courtesy, the charm of which I wish I could describe. A gaily-dressed daughter of twelve, whom I saw on the way out, had all her mother'e instinctive refinement, with just 3 trace of shyness. The little maidens of this age are by far the loveliest objects in Japan. deplorable. clrounatance whicl thas happened more than once, and will happen again, is where some eminent collector discovers that a piece of ' authentic Satsima of the very finest period," by which he sets extraordinary store, is only a Tokio or Kioto forgery, finished perhaps a week before he bought it.
Not that age has so much to do with the matter. The Satsuma potters did not always make this beautiful decorated ware, which is known among the Japatieso as nishiki de or brocaded" Satsuma, but learned the method within quite recent times from Kioto workers; so that the oldest, linens of what used to be known as "old" Satsuma in European collections have seldom as great an antiquity as fifty years. All the best work in this style was done, speaking roughly, within the frst sixty years of the present century. Since then, if we are to accept the dicta of great authorities, nothing of artistic value has appeared. kilns, T found certain heaviness in the Compared with the products of the Arita Satsuma ware. The examples on view at Tanoura were few in number and far less striking than those I saw next day at the Corean village. In both places considerable restraint was manifested in the decorations. The predominant subjects were flowers and diaper patterns. The human figure does not seem ever to be introduced. Those pretty jewelled vases glittering all over with warriors in armour and aureoled saints are all made at Awata, in Kioto, and now {generally go by their proper name. to leave, the salesman upwrapped w cloth of many folds, and took: out of it's cup, like those I had been' locking at in every respect save that the colours were singularly mellowed, and the seams of the glaze quite black. It was an example of "fine Jold Satsuma" matured by diligent stain-j ing.
Back at the hotel, my cicerone did not take much pressing to stay to dinner.
While I discussed my beefsteak, ho pecked and nibbled ata dozen quaint dishes. The raw fish which began his repast, the rice which finished it, the soy which flavoured everything, and the tea which washed it down, were not hard to recognise; but all the rest was more than-mysterious to me. If I were to represent the talk as remarkable for anything beyond dulness, I should not be telling the truth. That my guest was a bright, intelligent youth there could be.no doubt, nor that I was keen to profit by his discourse; but somehow we could not find common ground. Boredom hovered long in the air more than once, and before good-night was spoken the gulf that separates Occidental from Oriental minds found its symbol and counterpart in 9 yawn.
To the Corean village of Naeshirogawa was pleasant run of some hours, through a country very like that between Nagasaki and Tokitsu. 'The morning was' brilliant when-I set out. Scarlet azaleas flamed on all the green hill-sides, The fields were alive with peasants knee-deep in the mud, planting, rice; upon. the boundary-ridges heaps of lime dazzled in the sun. All unexpectedly it clouded over and set in to in. My runner soon presented a piteous tacle with a sodden straw hat flapping ut his ears and the dye of his blue tunic streaming like claret down the back of his legs.
Nacshirogawa is lonely, picturesque, and primitive," After the wars in Cores, three centuries ago, seventeen of the potter families carried away by the lord of Satsuma were settled in this quiet spot, where they have gone on making pottery for Shimadzusan till to-day, when they make it for all the world 98' well. 'These' big raw-boned men are of a type quite distinct from the Japanese, although there must have been much admixture of blood, and they have adopted the dress, Jangunge and customs of the new country.' I was shown over all the workshops and' kilns by the manager, who treated mo to a bottle of very special sake and some of his poutest conversation. Ho was an uncouth fi-gute, a little barbarous even, in his rough toilet, and would make a striking picture, I thought. But no sooner was the camera in position than his wife, good soul, must come along, and fall to brushing his hair, smoothing the folds of his robe and curling up his moustache. Finally she brought a beautiful brand-new boort and drew it over his shoulders, I could have slain her then and there without compunction, 'There was' considerable variety in the pieces on view. Many of the statuettes and figurines were as graceful and pleasing as such things, wrought ina rather unsuitable medium, can be. (Terra-cotta is the only fictile. material perfectly adapted to smal, sharp modeling, which is disagree-were not often happily inspired. - The ably blurred by " glaze.) The lager vases choicest pieees were, almost without oxception, of small censers, in particular, had all the airy little basket-ware lightness of the most fragile porcelain. Some specimens were free from any decoration; and-I was shown a number of bowls, Erowns, made for the Shimadzu household. lazed'in dull greenish blues or reddish critics may allege to the contrary, the In spite of what, collectors and superfine traditions of the art're: atill alive. Thad gone to Japan imbued with notions out of Books "about the atter amd irretrievable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.