下関（門司）から博多・福岡・鳥栖・有田・佐世保経由で長崎へ

39. From Shimonoseki (Moji) via Hakata, Fukuoka, Tosu, Arita, and Sasebo to Nagasaki.

Nagasaki Main Line of the Imperial Government's Kyushu Railways.

166 M. Several good trains daily in about 5 hrs. For fares and other information consult the Rly. Time Table. From Moji, on the S. side of the Shimonoseki Strait, the train traverses Buzen and Chikuzen before entering Hizen Province. Unless one boards a Nagasaki car one may have to change at Tosu, where the Kagoshima Line branches southward.

Moji, a lively, progressive port (pop. 110,000) on the Kyushu side of the Shimonoseki Strait, is the N.E. terminus of the Kyushu extension of the Imperial Gov't Rlys.; contains the biggest cement plant in Japan, and is one of the largest shipping ports for coal (from Buzen and Chikuzen provinces) in the Empire. Nearly all the big ships that pass through the Strait coal up here, usually by man-power. A fine range of tall, wooded hills rises behind the city, and up their gentle slopes extend lines of streets and houses. Many delightful walks lead through these hills.

The Railway Station is near the ferry landing. Automobiles ply for hire, and trolley-cars connect the port with near-by places. A short distance beyond the big, new custom-house, is the fine, ferro-concrete Office Building of the great Nippon Yusen Kaisha (N.Y.K. line). It was completed in 1925 and is the handsomest structure in the city. The attractive water-front thronged with picturesque shipping, is nearly 4 miles long. Many fish caught in the Inland Sea are transshipped here.

The Koso-Hachiman Shrine, in the E. quarter of the port, is dedicated to the Empress Jingu, and is said to contain her helmet. The 2 bronze horses in the yard are good examples of this class of work. At the extreme E. end of the city is the delightfully picturesque *Mekari-Jinsha, dedicated, as its name implies, to mariners and sea-weed gatherers. Nearly every object in the shrine enclosure is plastered or hung with spit-ball prayers and petitions from wives and sweethearts whose husbands and lovers have gone down to the sea in ships. The situation of the shrine, at the foot of a hill on whose summit anciently a castle stood, is striking. The Strait here (called Hayatomo-no-seto) is quite narrow, and when fleets of junks crowd through it on a swift tide and before a stiff breeze, the sight is beautiful. It was in this Strait that the great Battle of the Clans, referred to hereinbefore, was fought.

The train hurries out through the suburbs to the shore of the sea where one may feast the eyes on the inspiriting sight of hundreds of ships of all classes - steamers, fore-and-aft and square-rigged sailors, mediaeval junks with bellying sails like the dorsal fins of huge sea-creatures, sampans, luggers, and what-not, standing in or out of the narrow strait and betimes courtesying to the strong tide-rip that ruffles its surface. Beyond the suburban town of Dairi there is a long sea-wall of fine granite and a fleet of tea-houses standing on spindly legs half in the water. Majestic old pine trees fringe the idyllic shore, and the silvery tentacles which the sea reaches in through the little towns are crowded with junks, lighters, and sampans. After passing (7 M.) Kokura Jct. (pop. 32,000), the starting-point for Beppu and the towns described in Rte. 41, the train flashes through several small towns embowered in fruit trees and overtopped by high-pitched temple-roofs. Many crude ship-building yards, where leaking old junks are being caulked and otherwise doctored, bead the shore, while a fairly good turnpike flanks the rly. Beyond (11 M.) Tobata, acres of coal-piles are seen with sooty workers running across them and loading the compressed

energy into junks whose masts are as many as trees in a forest. Coke-ovens are features of the neighborhood.

12 M. Yedamitsu. 13 M. Yawata. The huge plant at the right is the Imperial Steel Works (Seitetsu-jo) established in 1897 after the model of the Krupp Works. A dozen or more tall chimneys pour out clouds of choking gray-black smoke that rest like a pall above the landscape. Within the 245 acres are numerous factories, 25 M. of rly., many ore-piles, fire-brick kilns, and what-not, with 10,000 workmen. Bessemer and open-hearth steel products of many kinds are made here of magnetite, hematite, and limonite ores. Signs posted by the War Department warn travelers to refrain from taking photographs in the neighborhood. - From 16 M. Kurosaki a branch line runs to 7 M. Okura and later joins the main line at Kokura Jct. The rly. now deserts the sea and crosses paddy-fields dotted here and there with lotus-ponds. 19 M. Orio Jct. The branch line which turns off at the right goes to 6 M. Wakamatsu (pop. 28,000) a seaport whence much of the coal from Chikuzen and Buzen Provinces is exported. Another line, the Chikuho branch, runs S. via several coal-producing stations to (26 M.) Kami-Yamada, in the center of a region of a hundred or more producing mines. Coal is the shibboleth of the region, and scores of laden barges move slowly along the canals toward the sea.

The main line now climbs over a narrow ridge and continues across a rolling country where considerable rice is produced and where lotuses are cultivated for their edible roots. Vegetable-wax and persimmon trees fleck the hillsides. At 44 M. Kashii a branch line goes off to the right to 7 M. Saitozaki, on Hakata Bay, renowned as the place where the Empress Jingu started on her expedition to Korea 200 years after Christ was born! The sea hereabout, the Genkai Nada, is noted for its beauty. 47 M. Hakozaki has a Shinto temple, the Hachiman-gu, said to have been founded in 759, and dedicated to Ojin, the God of War. The grove of stalwart pines which surround it is marked by a great granite torii overlooking the sea. The lovely beach thence to Hakata is known as the Chiyo-no-Matsubara, or 'Pine Grove of a Thousand Generations,' from the ancient pines which flank it. 48 M. Yoshizuka. A few hundred yds. at the right, on a tall granite base, stands a splendid monument in bronze (33 ft. high; by Okazaki Sessei) of the Buddhist monk Nichiren (p. cci). The smaller (but taller) one at the left is of the (90th) Emperor Kameyama, clad in the quaint costume of his time. Both were erected in 1904 and both commemorate the great Mongol Invasion, which was predicted by Nichiren 3 years before it occurred.

49 M. Hakata (Inn: Matsushima-ya, ¥3, opposite the station), a clean and attractive port, though theoretically a city by itself is joined materially and politically to Fukuoka (Inn:

Sakae-ya, ¥2.50 to 4.50) a growing commercial port (capital of Chikuzen Province with 83,000 inhabs.) on the far side of the Naka River facing Hakata Bay, in lat. 33° 35' N. and long. 130° 25' E. of Greenwich. Formally the castle town of the Daimyo Kuroda, Fukuoka was the abode of many samurai, while Hakata played to a certain extent the part of a suburb, where the tradesmen and artisans dwelt. The twin cities have long been renowned for various woven silken stuffs known as Hakata-ori; for striped silk and cotton cloth called Hakata-jima; and for the well-known Takatori-yaki, a lustrous faience the art of making which is believed to have been taught here by Korean experts in the 16th cent. The sashes (obi) made locally are greatly prized for their quality. A lively intercourse was maintained with China in the early years of the Japanese Empire, and to the coast hereabout the redoubtable Kublai Khan, (Jap. Kopitsu-retsu) sent his Mongol hordes in the 13th cent. to ignominious defeat and death at the hands of the Shikken Hojo Tokimune, the chief official in the Kamakura shogunate at the time. The ruins of the stone barrier erected on the shore to protect the town from the Mongol attacks, as well as the tomb marking the place where hundreds of the slain corsairs were interred, are still shown.

The Mongol Invasion was precipitated by a Korean named Cho I, who found his way to Pekin, and having gained the ear of the piratical Kublai Khan hinted that the Mongol Power ought to demand the vassalage of Japan. The predatory Tartars had already overthrown the Sung (Jap: So) Dynasty, and nomad bands had spread as far as the Euphrates and Tigris, carrying death and devastation to what had once been the great Babylonian Empire. Kublai at once sent two ambassadors to Japan, but the mission was driven back by a tempest and accomplished nothing. In 1268, he sent another envoy, but Hojo Tokimune (the 6th Kamakura Shikken) was so displeased with the arrogant tenor of the note that he ignored it by a studied system of procrastination. In 1271, another embassy was sent with the same result, whereupon the enraged Khan ordered one of the provincial kings of Korea to build a thousand junks and to assemble 40,000 troops for the proposed invasion of the Island Empire. - In Nov., 1274 (at which period Marco Polo was residing at the court of Kublai Khan), the great Mongol Armada put to sea. The island of Tsushima was first reduced, and later Iki was attacked; the garrison sold their lives dearly, but they, as well as the people of Tsushima, experienced to the full the barbarities that in those times attended a Mongol victory. From Iki the adventurers proceeded directly to Hakozaki, which they promptly attacked. The discharges from the great slings and huge cross-bows employed by the Mongols made fearful havoc among the Japanese, armed only with their little bows and arrows. According to Kido-Muraco Poto (vol. ii, pp. 143-50): 'The trebuchets discharged stones, and were used to throw pots and barrels of combustible material, destined to set fire to the brattices or roofs of towers or to start a conflagration in the town which they were employed to bombard; each Tartar had a bow and 60 arrows; of these 30 were light, with small sharp points, whilst the other 30 were heavy, with large broad heads, which they shot at close quarters, and with which they inflicted great gashes on faces and arms, cut the enemy's bowstrings, and committed great havoc. When they had shot away their arrows they took to their swords, maces and lances, which they plied stoutly. But the great Kwanto bows of the Japanese were not idle; showers of hurtling, whistling, death-dealing arrows from sinewy arms fell upon the Mongols whenever the Japanese could get within

striking distance of their foes; some of them swam out to the fleet of junks, boarded them in a whirlwind of frenzy, and cut off the heads of the crews. To foil these cutting-out parties, the fleet ranged itself in a cordon and linked each vessel to the other with an iron chain; catapults, immense bow-guns shooting ponderous darts, and other bizarre engines of mediaeval warfare were mounted on their decks to sink attacking boats. But before the new weapons were in operation the daring Japanese had secured upward of 2000 Mongol heads, which they deposited on shore. Late in the afternoon they retired behind the rude fortification which had been erected on shore, to which they hung until new levies poured in from the surrounding country.

According to native annalists the Japanese were aided in their efforts to repel the Mongols by the direct intervention of the gods. The Emperor went in state to the high priest of the Shinto cult and bade him carry a petition to the Imperial shrine at Ise. No sooner were the Imperial wishes made known than the gods set immediately to work: A dreadful typhoon was loosened and it swept the Japanese coast with resistless force. The Mongols, somewhat versed in weather indications as well as in warfare, foresaw its approach and hurriedly embarked on board of their junks. To facilitate their temporary retreat they set fire to the great shrine at Hakozaki, and to several of the villages which fringed the bay. Soon the Japanese behind the Mizuki embankment saw the evening sky ruddy with the lurid glow of wildly leaping and rapidly spreading flames, announcing the ruin of the altars of their gods, and of their own hearths and homes. All through the darkness of the night they cowered shelterless behind the dyke, drenched with the terrible deluge of rain which preceded the 'Great Wind,' but when morning at last dawned they saw the vessels of the invaders' fleet running out through the mouth of Hakozaki Bay. Here the typhoon hit them with irresistible force: one ship with about a hundred men on board ran aground on Shiga Spit, which forms the N. horn of the haven; and these unfortunates were promptly captured, carried to Mizuki, and there put to the sword. Many of the helpless vessels foundered in the open sea. 'They were butted together like mad bulls, impaled on the rocks, dashed against the cliffs, or tossed on land like corks from the spray. Many were blown over till they careened and filled. Heavily freighted with human beings, they sunk by hundreds. The corpses were piled on shore, or floating on the water so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon. Some of the vessels of the survivors drifted to or were wrecked on Takashima, where they established themselves, and, cutting down trees, began building boats to reach Korea. Here they were attacked by the Japanese, and after a bloody struggle, were slain or driven into the sea to be drowned. When the remnants of the expedition reunited, it was found that its operations, so far, had cost the lives of 13,200 men.'

In 1275, the irrepressible Khan sent another mission to order the Japanese Emperor to repair to Pekin and to do obeisance, as the Koryu King had done. The men comprising this mission were sent to Kamakura, executed there on the beach, and their heads exposed on the public pillories. In 1280, yet another group of envoys met the same fate, and this so enraged the beligerent Khan that he followed them up by another huge Armada composed of 3500 junks and 100,000 men. The elements again proved their undoing. A storm arose from the west, and all the vessels made for the entrance of the harbor together. The tide was running very strong and the ships were carried along irresistibly in its grip. As they converged to a focus at the mouth of the harbor a terrible catastrophe occurred. The vessels were jammed together in the offing, and the bodies of men and broken timbers of the ships were heaped together in a solid mass so that a person could walk across from one point of land to another on the mass of wreckage. According to some accounts 3000 prisoners were massacred, only three being spared for the purpose of carrying an account of the fate of the expedition back to China. The Chinese annals say from 10,000 to 12,000 were made slaves. Great as had been the failure of this second attempt on Japan, Kublai at once began to concert measures for a third great armament, but the Mongols refused; they were tired of that sort of service.' (Murdoch.)

The entire neighborhood is studded with ancient temples and monuments. Japanese remember it for the battle of 1333 in which Kikuchi Taketoki, a loyal supporter of the unfortu-

nate Emperor Go-Daigo, was killed by the soldiers of Ashikaga Takauji. The traveler with time to spare may like to visit the (13 M.) Genbudo Cavern, a big cave which the sea has eaten out of a basaltic cliff and in which a heavy surf pounds with a reverberating roar. Small steamers ply across the lovely sea to the village of Keya-no-Oto (by which name the cavern is sometimes called). Near (3 M.) Najima, on the shore, are bits of a petrified tree which the ignorant believe once formed the masts of the junk which carried the mythical Empress Jingo to Korea. An electric tramway connects Hakata-Fukuoka with several surrounding towns. The Medical College is a branch of the Kyoto Imperial University. - The towns touched at by the short line of the Hakatawan Rly. Co. are of no interest to foreigners.

From Fukuoka the rly. curves and runs southward through a sparsely settled, indifferently cultivated region; the wild pampas-grass and the densely wooded hills impart a primeval aspect. A little cheap pottery is made in the monotonous villages. - 58 M. Futsukaichi is the point of departure for the (2 M., tram-car) historic Dazaifu (Inn: Izumiya, ¥2.50), known throughout Japan for its association with Sugawara-Michizane, the statesman and scholar who died there in exile.

Sugawara Michizane (b. 845; d. 903), a deeply learned, noble-minded man, rose to prominence during the brief reign of the (59th) Mikado Uda (887-97), over whom he exerted a strong influence. Because of this the Fujiwara Clan planned his downfall. He was accused of conspiring to dethrone the sovereign, and was banished to Dazaifu, where he soon died a miserable death - presumably by starvation. Soon after Michizane's deportation his enemies began to die one by one, and in these premature deaths the superstition of the time saw the intervention of a retributive and avenging Providence. The Emperor repented bitterly his conduct in sanctioning the decree of banishment, burnt all the documents in connection with the case - to the great inconvenience of subsequent historians - and restored Michizane posthumously to his former position. When a few years later the young Prince Imperial died, his early demise was ascribed to the curse of Michizane's angry shade, so to prevent his ghost from inflicting additional harm on the people a number of temples were erected to his memory and he was deified under the titles of Tenjin (Heaven man); Temmangu (Heavenly spirit, etc.). One of these temples (the Kitano Tenjin) stands in Kyoto; another at Kameido, in Tokyo, where he is revered as the God of Calligraphy. Children offer to his shrine the first examples of their handwriting, and deposit in receptacles made for them their worn-out writing-brushes. Michizane's portrait appears on one of the bills of the Bank of Japan. His shrine at Dazaifu (the Temmangu) stands amid some fine old camphor trees and was renovated in 1902, at the time of the millenary observance of his death. The preponderance of bronze bulls noted at this and similar shrines throughout the Empire symbolizes Michizane's humility. He is often pictured riding on one of these lowly beasts.

From the 6th cent. onward Dazaifu (lit., 'the military government') was the seat of the Kyushu administration. One of the first mints erected in Japan was established here in 760, and here, in 1182, the boy Emperor Antoku took refuge, but the revolt of Ogata Koreyoshi compelled him to pass into Nagato, where he met his death in the manner described at p. 646. The bashful plum tree (tobiume) to the right of the Temmangu Shrine, is crowned by a shrine consecrated to Michizane, who is said to have repaired hither often to turn his face toward Kyoto and venerate the Emperor who exiled him. Not far off are the Hot Springs of Musashi, where pilgrims to Dazaifu foregather.

At 67 M. Tosu, the main line of the rly. turns and runs due S. to Kumamoto and Kagoshima (Rte. 41), while ours continues across a green and partly cultivated country whose meager, volcanic soil is peculiarly suitable to the growth of luscious water-melons (suika). The land is dotted with thousands of vegetable-wax trees (Rhus succedanea; Jap. Haze-no-ki; an importation from the Loochoo Islands), which bear a close resemblance to big peach trees. [From the small clustered berries an excellent white candle-wax (ro) is expressed, which adds materially to the wealth of the island. In the autumn the leaves turn yellow, then red, and flame like those of the maple.] - Most of the ponds along the rly. are choked with lotuses, which present a magnificent spectacle in late summer. The country pikes are not as good as those of the main island, but are passable for motor-cars. Most of the jinrikishas which travel them are equipped with buff-colored tops - a concession to the southern sun which shines here with blinding intensity. 81 M. Saga (Inn: Eitokuya, opposite the station; ¥2.50), in Saga ken, with 36,000 inhabs., was until 1553 the castled seat of the Ryuzoji daimyos; thenceforward to 1868 it was the headquarters of the powerful Nabeshima family. In 1874, it acquired an unenviable fame for the reactionary spirit of certain of its rulers, but the civil war provoked by Eto Shimpei (aforetime Minister of Justice under the restored Imperial Gov't) was promptly checked, the leader with 10 others being executed and their heads pilloried.

86 M. Kubota, is the junction for a branch line which runs (out of the same station) to (25 M.) Karatsu (Inn: Hakataya, ¥2.50), a bustling port on Karatsu Bay, in Hizen Province, where coal and the well-known Karatsu porcelain are exported; there are extensive kilns in the neighborhood, and the coal is brought from the mines on the left bank of the picturesque Matsuura River (which runs through the town) about 6 M. from its mouth. Steamships leave at frequent intervals for Korean towns and ports on the Japan Sea. The bold, square-topped peak which rises (2638 ft.) above the bay (12 M. long; entrance 7 M. wide) is Uki-dake. Near the mouth of the river is a lovely beach (tram-car, 1 M.) called Niji-no-Matsubara from the splendid old pine trees which fringe it. The most popular of the bathing-resorts is Kaihin-in. At (6 M., boats) Nanatsu-gama ('Seven Kettles') there are caverns hollowed out by the action of the sea-water, and some striking basaltic cliffs with curious hexagonal rocks. The ruinous old castle in the town was built by Hideyoshi during the Korean War (1592-98), and was occupied by the ruling daimyos down to 1868.

Beyond 88 M. Ushizu the country is green and is well watered by numerous small rivers; the wide plains produce such abundant crops of rice that it is said the yield of one yr. is sufficient to support the sparse population for five yrs. Fine

clumps of evergreens dot the plains, and the hills which always rise somewhere near are covered to their summits with dense groves of a score or more varieties of trees, and huge but graceful ferns. The hills beyond 96 M. Kitagata contain coal. - 99 M. Takeo (Inn: Tokuyo-ya Hotel, etc., ¥3) nestles amid green hills from whose fiery bosom spurt hot ferruginous waters much resorted to by the ailing of both sexes - who mingle indiscriminately in the baths. These are at the foot of the hill, at the lower end of the town, 1/2 M. to the right of the station, near some pointed fantastic rocks among which sit several fatuous stone Buddhas. The quaint little town is embowered in tallow trees (Sapium sebiferum; Jap. Ro-no-ki; a Chinese importation), a small smooth tree with fruit-clusters like green olives and triple seeds inclosed in a fatty substance of which candles are made. The tall hill at the left of the station, with perpendicular rocks like cathedral spires, is Shiro-yama (Castle Mt.). - The train climbs into a labyrinth of green hills on whose densely wooded sides grow in inextricable confusion, hundreds of the semi-tropical trees and flowers for which Kyushu is noted - ferns and bamboos, oaks and camphor laurels, maples and cherries, and flowers innumerable.

109 M. Arita, a small town in a valley between hills aptly exemplifies the phrase, Hic natus ubique notus, for the name is known wherever porcelainists foregather. Here, and at (8 M. by rly. to the N.W.) Imari, the widely popular Arita-yaki is made in crude potteries small in comparison with their output and their fame. The station platform is usually piled high with cylindrical, straw-wrapped bundles awaiting shipment to the curio centers of Japan and abroad.

According to Dr. Rein the manufacture of Porcelain at Arita is generally traced to Gorodayu Shonsui, a potter of Ise Province, who lived at the beginning of the 16th cent. and was the first in Japan to manufacture porcelain proper as distinguished from pottery. Moved by the beauty and value of Chinese porcelain, which began to reach Japan at this time, he undertook a journey to King-te-tschin via Fuchow, and remained there 5 yrs. to learn the trade. Returning in 1514 he settled in the then insignificant town of Arita and prepared from the materials he had brought from China a number of coarse porcelain wares decorated under glaze with blue cobalt. When his stock of Chinese porcelain material was exhausted, and he found himself obliged to depend on domestic clay, he could make nothing but faience, as did his successors to the end of the century, with cobalt decoration under glaze. Ceramics received a new impulse here (and in many other parts of Japan) with the return of Hideyoshi's army from Korea (in 1598). Nabeshima Naoshige, the daimyo of Hizen Province, and one of the commanders of the Japanese troops in Korea, brought back with him several Korean potters, who settled first in the bathing-resort of Ureshino, but later in Arita. One of them, Risampei, discovered, in 1599, porcelain stone on the Idzumi-yama E. of Arita, and at once began the manufacture of porcelain in Japan. The use of red oxide of iron followed some yrs. after that of cobalt decoration under glaze (thought by some to have been brought out by the Dutch), and 2 yrs. later decoration on glaze was introduced by Higashijima Tokuemon and Sakaida Kakiemon, potters of Arita, who learned the process from the captain of a Chinese junk, at Nagasaki. The Dutch, as early as 1680, imported 'Old Hizen' from Nagasaki, and all the porcelain brought into Europe previous to 1854 by them is known as Arita, Imari, or Hizen ware -

the first name denoting the place of manufacture; the 2d, the neighboring shipping-port; the 3d, the province in which the two, together with Nagasaki, are situated. - For many yrs. the Arita industry was the most highly developed and the most conspicuous of all the Japanese potteries. The range of hills lying to the E. furnished inexhaustible quantities of porcelain stone of incomparable quality - a peculiar material from which pottery of the most varying forms is made, from the light and finest eggshell porcelain to the imposing vases 6 or more ft. high. It is a product of the transformation of the old volcanic rock which is found close by in an unchanged state as perlite breccia and trachyte (a compact rock with 2.5-2.7 specific gravity). Its color is a grayish white or soft yellow, resembling trachyte or felsite clay-stone. The best kind is almost pure kaolin, while in other places the rock is conglomerate, and is intersected by numerous small quartz veins, partly filled with very small quartz crystals, and in other portions with crystals of iron pyrites, which under the microscope appear distinctly in the form of dice and pyritohedrons. There are 3 kinds of this quarried porcelain stone: one white and entirely kaolinized, which also possesses the earthy character of kaolin; one blue and rich in quartz; and a third yellow, and containing iron.

For centuries Arita furnished the most highly valued wares of Japan; its porcelain was perfectly uniform, and besides adding considerable translucence to pure white, was hard enough for all the purposes of ordinary life. It burns so easily that decorative art has in its surface, as in that of faience, a fine field, and is aided also by the plastic character of the excellent material. The earlier pieces were chiefly large, urn-shaped, covered jars, or tsubo (a contraction of tsubogame), called tea-urns because they served originally for preserving tea; also of hemispherical dishes or deep bowls (domburi), and round, flat plates (sara). They were decorated with peonies and chrysanthemums, small landscapes, human figures in red and gold, with sometimes a little green. The use of blue, violet, yellow, and black muffle colors belongs to a later period. (Certain of Kakiemon's early masterpieces were of milk-white porcelain, generally with scanty designs in vitrifiable enamels. These delicate designs were too tame for the Dutch traders, who suggested that the potters should add enamel decoration over the glaze to pieces already decorated with blue under the glaze. 'There thus came into existence' (says Brinkley) 'the familiar Imari-yaki, the "Old Japan" of Western amateurs; the Nishiki-de or "Brocade Pattern" of the Japanese themselves. It was a brilliant ware, depending chiefly upon wealth of decoration and richness of coloring. Now nothing is rarer in enamel Imari porcelain than a good blue, and nothing is commoner than a specimen in which the decoration over the glaze gives evidence of great care and skill, while the blue designs under the glaze are blurred or of impure tone. In brilliancy, purity, variety, and accuracy of application, the enamels of the choice Imari specimens have never been surpassed. They were always painted with extreme care, their blue under glaze rich and clear, their red soft, uniform, and solid. Ranking first among the enamels found on the finest pieces is purple, a peculiar amethystine tinge, verging upon lilac. Then comes opaque yet lustrous green, the color of young onion sprouts, - beautiful enamel, much prized by the Japanese, who call it tampan (sulphate of copper). Then follows turquoise blue, and finally black, the first, however, being exceptional. Add to these red, grass-green, gold and blue (sous couverte), and the palette alike of the Arita and Nabeshima ceramists is exhausted. In old pieces of Imari both enameled and blue-and-white craquele is sometimes found. The craquele celadon, of which quantities now appear in the market under the name of Hizen-yaki, is a recent manufacture.'

The same authority warns collectors against elaborately modeled and highly decorated specimens of Imari porcelain which are placed upon the market by unprincipled dealers as examples of Kakiemon's work. There were several generations of Kakiemons, and the mere fact of ascribing a specimen to Kakiemon is sufficient to proclaim the ignorance or dishonesty of the description. As for the figures of richly robed females that have received this title in recent works on Japanese art, they are manifest forgeries. Exquisite specimens of enameled ware were produced at the Arita factories, but the workmen generally adhered to a custom handed down from the days of Tokuemon and Kakiemon, - instead of making their vases with their own

names or those of the year periods, they either copied Chinese seals and dates, or used a conventional ideograph or group of ideographs, quite useless for purposes of identification. The amateur is, therefore, without any easy guide to determine the age or maker of a piece. He must look only to the quality of the pâte, the brilliancy of the enamels, and the purity and intensity of the blue under the glaze. Any appearance of chalkiness in the clay indicates youth, and, as a general rule, the clearer and more metallic the ring of the biscuit, the greater the age of the piece. The color of the blue under the glaze is also a help. The tone is richest and most pleasing in specimens manufactured during the 18th cent.; in vases of earlier date it is often impure and blurred. To very choice, elaborate, and carefully finished examples of enameling it will generally be unsafe to assign a greater age than 150 yrs., and from what has been stated above, the amateur will see that the colors of the enamels afford some slight assistance: the red should be deep and even, with a dull, rather than a glossy surface; while lemon-yellow, purple, and black in combination are evidences at once of choice ware and of middle-period (1700-1830) manufacture. In the wares of the Kakiemon school there is found a cream-white surface sometimes almost equal to the ivory-white of Korea and China, and this color of the biscuit is another easily detected point. But specimens of this sort belong to the Nabeshima-yaki, rather than to genuine Imari-yaki. The biscuit of the latter, also, ought to be white, - the whiter the better, - but a perfectly pure white is seldom, if ever, found. This, however, may be said: that a surface showing a marked tinge of blue is not of fine quality, and that the more pronounced the tinge the less valuable the specimen. Examined attentively, the glaze of Imari-yaki presents the appearance of very fine muslin. It is pitted all over with microscopic points, which become more and more distinct as a later and less careful period of manufacture is approached. Spur-marks, 3 or 5 in number, the remains of little clay pillars upon which the specimen was supported in the furnace, are frequently found on the bottom of plates and other flat objects, something never seen on Chinese porcelain.' (Consult the Oriental Series, vol. 8.)

Westward from Arita the rly. traverses a semi-tropical region to 114 M. Mikawachi, known likewise for its potteries.

Few Japanese wares are better known to foreign collectors than the Egg-shell Porcelain (Usu-de-yaki, or 'thin-burned' ware) made here, but attributed to the Arita factories and called Hizen-ware. The best, most finely pulverized and purified material is used in its manufacture. The dishes and cups are turned quite thin on a sharpened wooden gauging-rod, then left upon it several days to dry in the open air, when, like the pieces of vases, they are further turned upon the wheel, though much more thoroughly, and again burned in cases. There are two chief varieties, both of great fineness and purity, and both of gossamer-like consistency. One is decorated with blue under the glaze; the other with red, gold, and sometimes light blue above the glaze. Figure subjects - warriors in armor or courtezans in elaborate drapery - constitute the general decoration, which is seldom executed with any conspicuous skill. The date of its first production cannot be fixed with absolute accuracy; but authorities believe that it was not manufactured before the latter part of the 18th cent. A pretty conceit in the ware made for export was to protect the more fragile wine-cups by envelopes of extraordinarily fine plaited basket-work (ajiro-gumi) made in Nagasaki - whither the cups were sent for sale, usually in nests of 3, 5, or 7.

115 M. Haiki is the point of departure for (5 M.) Sasebo (pop. 93,000), an important naval station (Inn: Aburaya, ¥3.50) in Nagasaki-ken with a fine land-locked harbor 1 1/4 M. long by 1 M. wide. - The rly. now curves broadly to the left and runs S.E. along the coast of the Gulf of Omura. Nondescript towns, salt-pits, and a good automobile road are conspicuous features. Beyond 130 M. Sonogi the shore is dotted with picturesque fishing-villages; on the sun-warmed slopes

of the hills pomegranates (zakuro) flaunt their flowers or their reddish-yellow fruit, and the deep scarlet leaves of the vegetable-wax trees form pleasing color-notes against the vivid green. - 137 M. Omura, a garrison town, was from the 12th cent. onward the family seat of the powerful Omura daimyos; the walls of their old feudal castle, in a fine garden overlooking the bay, still stand to their memory, while the thousands of picturesque tombstones on the sloping hillsides mark the graves of their retainers. The rly. now climbs up through a narrow valley splendidly terraced and sown to rice; an occasional banana tree (basho) advertises the semi-tropical character of the region. Beyond (144 M.) Isahaya (starting-point for Unzen, p. 669), a wasted river, the Hommyo-gawa, runs down through the ravine, to the sea, which soon comes into view. The line is now marked by many curves, tunnels, terraced hills, and massive retaining-walls. In many of the yards of the tiny houses splendid lotuses bloom riotously. Beyond (159 M.) Michino-o (with hot springs), the line leads down through a gradually widening valley, with a good auto road and many picturesque water-wheels. 162 M. Urakami is a suburb of (164 M.) Nagasaki, which, with its lovely, hill-encircled bay crowded with ships and sampans, is now reached.