of glazing, pottery design, indeed all art, followed an eastward course. Greece was the home of many arts and its god Keramos, who watched over its potters and clay workers, gave not only the name by which wares made of clay are known today but also many beautiful patterns to the potters of the world. Geometrical patterns which the Egyptian potters used in pre-Sumerian days three thousand years ago reappear in today's small decorative patterns. The Phoenicians gave us the first band decoration, the anchor chain, and conventionalized palm trees. The honeysuckle meander and lotus-rosette of the Proto-Corinthians and Ionians are found all over the world and in the modern designs of Japan today are motives of most varied national origin.
Designs from Greece, Persia and China, cultural relics of those countries, abide side by side in utmost harmony here in Japan, the cultural melting pot of the Orient. Grecian ceramic art has died out, that of Persia is a thing of the past, China where the ceramic art came to such glorious perfection has fallen on evil days and has nothing to teach us now. Only in Japan can be found traces of that cultural stream still pursuing its eastward course.
The migrations of the art of glazing and of design have been discussed at some length, we come now to the consideration of how to determine whether an article is of Chinese or Japanese origin. For this purpose it is absolutely necessary to touch and handle the thing in question for the sense of touch is more to be relied upon than that of sight in this case. Ceramic-connoisseurs have allowed themselves to be blindfolded and through their sense of touch alone have correctly determined the age of an article and the kiln at which it was made.
To be able to intelligently differentiate between Chinese and Japanese ceramics by design only really requires a considerable knowledge of Chinese art. But an easier approach to the subject, and sufficient for the average person, is to familiarize oneself with what is essentially Japanese and to use this knowledge as a foundation from which to progress. Most of the designs or Japanese ceramics came from China via Korea. Korea seems to have passed designs on practically unaltered and to have been very little affected by this operation; for Korean ceramic designs remain even more distinctly Korean than those of Japan are Japanese, while Japan continues to use and to adopt Chinese designs side by side with purely Japanese designs.
Korean influences are discernible in some Japanese wares, namely the mishima wares, although even here it is the method of developing the design rather than the design motive. It was through Korean potters' skill and ability rather than through Korean artists' designs that Korea played so great a role in facilitating the passage of Chinese ceramic art to Japan This may also be due to the fact that after the introduction of Chinese things by Korea the Japanese very quickly looked to China directly and sent students to study the arts there as well as invited Chinese teachers to Japan.
About the only purely Korean design that can be found on Japanese ceramics is that known as "unkaku" cloud and bird design-thin attenuated cranes flying among equally attenuated cloud forms.
Left to right—The three leaf design in a circle is the mon or crest of the Tokugawa family and is found on porcelain designed for them and on many export wares.
The mitsu tomoye, purely Japanese development. The Koreans have a similar design but with no spaces between the three comma-like objects). Its exact meaning is not known, it is of very ancient origin; it may express the universal idea of trinity. It is found painted or carved on objects used in both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples as well as on roof tiles of private store-houses.
The strange looking object with cord and tassel is a store-house key, used to symbolize wishes for great wealth.
The two circular figures of the crane and the tortoise are found on all types of ceramics.
The last is one form of noshi, the dried flesh of the abalone (awabi in Japanese) used on all presents. It is symbolic of food and a reminder to all Japanese that their forefathers were dependant on the bounty of the sea for their food. This form of noshi is found on the oldest Imari ware designed for use in Japan.
Designs that are purely Japanese in origin and development include the Ship of Good Fortune (takara bune) and the treasures it carries (takara mono); various modifications of the Japanese symbol used on gifts (noshi); the flaming pearl (hoshu) sometimes single, frequently three together; the three comma shapes in a circle (mitsu tomoye); certain popular food fishes (tat, katsuo) and shell fish (ebi, hamaguri); designs based on the markings on a snake's skin, fish scales and the carapace of the tortoise; the tortoise as pictured with a long tail (mino game); vegetables such as egg plants (nasu) turnip (kabu), red pepper pods (togarashi); the crests (mon) of many well known Japanese families, including the chrysanthemum crest of the Emperor (kiku no mon) and the paulownia-flower-and-leaves crest of the Empress (kiri no mon)', small pine seedings with the roots attached (waka matsu); the Seven Gods of Good Fortune together or separately (shichi fukujin); the six poets of old, one of them a woman (rokkasen); court ladies (tsubone); historical figures of warriors in armour; and bugaku and gagaku dancing figures.
Three court dancers; the male figures are bugaku dancers, the female is a gosechi mat dancer.
Chinese designs are drawn with a strength and verve that is seldom equalled by Japanese designs which tend to be more elegant and refined. Chinese ceramic designs were executed by master craftsmen, often dozens of men worked on one piece like the assembly line of modern motor-car manufacturing. Japanese designs are more often the result of the carefully, even lovingly, detailed work of a single potter (although Japanese potters since earliest times have been accustomed to specializing in a certain design or colour in endless repetition). There is practically no Chinese ceramic design that has not at sometime been copied by the Japanese potters. In general it may be said that the Chinese are more prone to use human figures than the Japanese; especially the eighteen arhats (rakan), gaunt old men seated in various attitudes of meditation; the eight sages, old men each carrying a symbolic object, frequently pictured in a bamboo grove (sen nin); Chinese children at play; or the beautiful ladies known to Europeans as "Lange Eleizen". Besides the numerous flower and bird combinations, the curly-haired lion-dog (kara shishi), the one horned kirin and the dragon (ryu), fabulous animals of Chinese lore, are frequently to be found on Japanese porcelains. A kind of bird of Paradise, purely a creature of Oriental imagination, known as hoo in Japan (which is sometimes mistakenly translated Phoenix); meander or arabesque patterns based on the honeysuckle, lotus or chrysanthemum; stylized mountain and wave designs known in Europe as the "Rock of Ages pattern"; a quite distinctive design called the cloud pattern; the scepter head (jui or jooi) pattern; the figure of the Buddhist teacher Daruma who in Japan becomes the subject of jokes and is drawn in most un-dignified positions and situations; representations of the peach, pomegranate and Citron, usually as repeat patterns in borders; are common to both China and Japan. The Chinese frequently incorporate the characters for good fortune, longevity, riches, etc. in the pattern as a type of decoration while the Japanese artist delights in distorting characters into a semblance of the thing itself. The eight sacred objects of Buddhism are found more often on Chinese wares, as also the symbolic objects of the eight sages. Houses and other architectural features so often found in Chinese porcelain designs are practically never found on Japanese wares. Here it may be well to mention that the "Willow Pattern" design so well known in Europe and America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries seems to have been totally unknown in Japan until within the last few years.
Stylized flame forms used on Chinese ceramics and more or less faithfully
