**For an exhaustive analysis see Brinkley's China and Japan.

***See Conder's History of Japanese Costume; Vol. IX. of the
"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan."

LACQUER

It is generally conceded that the Japanese surpass all nations in the
art of making lacquer. They not only developed the processes to a
degree unknown to their original teacher, China, but they also
introduced artistic features of great beauty. Unfortunately, history
transmits the names of Jew masters in this line. We can only say that
in the days of Yoshimasa's shogunate, that is, during the second half
of the fifteenth century, several choice varieties began to be
manufactured, as the nashiji, the togidashi, the negoro-nuri, the
konrinji-nuri, the shunkei-nuri, the tsuishu, and the tsuikoku.
Choice specimens received from later generations the general epithet
Higashiyama-mono, in reference to the fact that they owed so much to
the patronage of Yoshimasa in his mansion at Higashi-yama.

PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE

To the Muromachi epoch belongs also the first manufacture of faience,
as distinguished from unglazed pottery, and of porcelain, as
distinguished from earthenware. The former innovation is ascribed--as
already noted--to Kato Shirozaemon, a native of Owari, who visited
China in 1223 and studied under the Sung ceramists; the latter, to
Shonzui, who also repaired to China in 1510, and, on his return, set
up a kiln at Arita, in Hizen, where he produced a small quantity of
porcelain, using materials obtained from China, as the existence of
Japanese supplies was not yet known. The faience industry found many
followers, but its products all bore the somewhat sombre impress of
the cha-no-yu (tea ceremonial) canons.

ARCHITECTURE

The architectural feature of the time was the erection of
tea-parlours according to the severe type of the cha-no-yu cult. Such
edifices were remarkable for simplicity and narrow dimensions. They
partook of the nature of toys rather than of practical residences,
being, in fact, nothing more than little chambers, entirely
undecorated, where a few devotees of the tea ceremonial could meet
and forget the world. As for grand structures like the "Silver
Pavilion" of Yoshimasa and the "Golden Pavilion" of Yoshimitsu, they
showed distinct traces of Ming influence, but with the exception of
elaborate interior decoration they do not call for special comment.

A large part of the work of the Japanese architect consi