Imari Some-Nishikide or Brocade Style Under-the-Glaze Blue Plate
98/99
XVII
Early Five-colour Imari Plate
100/101
XVIII
Japanese Border Designs
104/105
XIX
Early Imari Sometsuke, Blue and White Plate
106/107
XX
Nabeshima Sometsuke, Blue and White Plate
108/109
XXI
Japanese Border Designs
112/113
XXII
Modern Sometsuke, Blue and White Imari Plate
116/117
XXIII
Sometsuke or Under-the-glaze Blue and White
120/121
XXIV
Wave Designs
124/125
XXV
Green Kutani
130/131
XXVI
Old Kutani Plate
134/135
XXVII
Red Kaga Plate
136/137
XXVIII
Lotus Shaped Incense Burner made by Ninsei
140/141
XXIX
Kyoto-ware Plate
146/147
XXX
Japanese Border Designs
152/153
XXXI
Old Banko Wine Pot
154/155
XXXII
Chinese Designs
176/177
XXXIII
Five Colour Old Imari Bowl
178/179
XXXIV a
Old Japan Plate
182/183
XXXIV b
Reverse of Old Japan Plate
182/183
XXXV
Imari Sometsuke, Blue and White Plate
184/185
XXXVI
Old Imari Bowl
186/187
Longfellow's "Keramos"
Cradled and rocked in Eastern seas,
The islands of the Japanese
Beneath me lie; o'er lake and plain
The stork, the heron, and the crane
Through the clear realms of azure drift,
And on the hillside I can see
The villages of Imari,
Whose thronged and flaming workshops lift
Their twisted columns of smoke on high,
Cloud cloisters that in ruins lie
With sunshine streaming through each rift,
And broken arches of blue sky.
All the bright flowers that fill the land,
Ripple of waves on rock or sand,
The snow on Fujiyama's cone,
The midnight heaven so thickly sown
With constellations of bright stars,
The leaves that rustle, the reeds that make
A whisper by each stream and lake,
The saffron dawn, the sunset red,
Are painted on those lovely jars;
Again the skylark sings, again
The stork, the heron, and the crane
Float through the azure overhead,
The counterfeit and counterpart
Of nature reproduced in Art.
PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD
Japan has been called the cultural melting pot of the Orient. This is especially true in reference to ceramics. Greek ceramic art has died out; that of Persia belongs to history; China, where the ceramic art reached glorious perfection, has fallen on evil days and has little to teach us now. Only in Japan are there strong traces of that cultural stream still pursuing eastward outlets.
