ese art, and especially the
ceramic art, possesses, as I have before said, an individuality which
can only be spoiled, even if it be not destroyed, by adding on to or
mixing up with it the totally distinct art and art methods of Western
civilisation. Were this done it would become a bastard or a mongrel
art, and, as history affords abundant evidence, would in due course
lapse into a condition of utter decadence.

Quite a volume might be written on the subject of marks on Japanese
pottery and porcelain. These have long interested and frequently
misled the collector. They are of various kinds. Sometimes there is a
mark signifying the reign or part of the reign of an emperor, or the
name of a place at which the article was made, or, more frequently
still, the name of the particular potter whose handicraft it was.
Sometimes Chinese dates are found impressed on the article without any
regard to chronological correctness. Indeed, Chinese dates are to be
found on Japanese porcelain indicating a period long anterior to that
in which the manufacture of porcelain was known in Japan. These
spurious dates have proved pitfalls for collectors. The mark is
sometimes impressed with a seal or painted; occasionally it is merely
scratched. The investigation of these marks is a recondite study
assuredly full of interest, but, as I have said, prolific in pitfalls
for the unwary or the too-credulous.

CHAPTER XII

JAPANESE ART (_continued_)--SCULPTURE--METAL WORK--PAINTING

Probably of all the Japanese arts there is none more interesting or
instructive than that of sculpture in wood and ivory. The sculpture of
Japan undoubtedly had its origin in the service of the Buddhist
religion. That religion, as I have attempted to show, has always
utilised art in the decoration of its temples and shrines as well as
in the perpetuation of the image of Buddha himself. At the beginning
of the seventeenth century an edict was promulgated directing that
every house should contain a representation of Buddha, and, as the
result of this, the sculpture trade received a considerable impetus.
Tobacco was introduced into the country in the same century, and the
smoking thereof soon came greatly into vogue among the Japanese
people. Tobacco necessitated a pouch or bag to contain the same, and
this in turn induced or produced the manufacture of something
wherewith to attach the bag to the girdle. Hence the evolution of the
netsuke, now as famous in Euro