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178
THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO.
piece is modelled, direct my
artist to decorate it in the Hizen
style. If it is required to be very old, we stain it or bury it in
mud, which gives it an ancient appearance. Of course no
judge is ever deceived, but then," laughing, w everybody is not
a connoisseur."
His statement not only surprised but pained Sallie, who
said, r I suppose many of the fine Japanese things we bought
in America were forgeries."
f?
Not the fine things," glibly answered the potter.
:? We
cannot make really fine Satsuma or any other ware. In the
old time, when the potter belonged to his daimio (great lord),
he could be a month or a year making a vase or a small piece
of porcelain, and he put his whole soul in his work. Now, I
get a telegram from Yokohama, or may be from your honorable
country, ordering fifty dozen of one article and am told
to hurry up. Then again we have to work cheaply, as there is
more competition. Therefore, although we pretend to make
old things, not even a child is deceived by them."
" I have known a good many grown-up people to be,"
interposed Fitz.
tf
Novv show us how you make your imi-
tations."
The proprietor smiled, and took them into a second shed in
which over sixty potters were working at their wheels, circu-
lar disks of wood, that revolved on pivots.
:t You will now see how a vase is made," he said.
:f
The
workman crouches by his wheel, and has a lump of wet
porcelain-clay on his right hand." Addressing a potter who
was gaping at the visitors as though he had never seen a
foreigner, " vase."
Shomi, make a number sixteen flange-topped
The man took a lump of clay in his right hand, and starting
the disk with his left, threw some of the paste upon the appa-