The Chinese tea contests were adopted by the Japanese, who elaborated them into the curious ceremony known as _Cha no yu_, which later assumed a semi-political aspect. The Japanese _Cha jin_ (initiates of the tea ceremony) have always prized the Chien yao bowls, to which they gave the name _temmoku_, and Brinkley speaks of a great variety of Chien yao glazes which he saw in Japan. Of some he says that "on a ground of mirror black are seen shifting tints of purple and blue; reflections of deep green, like the glossy colour of the raven's wing; lines of soft silver, regular as hair." The tea-testing contests seem to have lost popularity in China at an early date, and late Ming writers took little interest in the partridge cups, which one[282] at least of them voted "very inferior." In Japan, on the other hand, the vogue of the tea ceremonies has continued unabated to modern times, and no doubt the Chien bowls were eagerly acquired by the Japanese æsthetes. Hence their rarity in China to-day. Moreover, the Japanese potters of Seto and elsewhere have copied them with astonishing cleverness, so that the best Seto imitations are exceedingly difficult to distinguish from the originals. The ordinary run of the Japanese copies, however, are recognised by a body of lighter tint and finer, more porcellanous texture, besides their general imitative character and the Japanese touch which is learnt by observation but is not easy to define in words. Though we hear nothing further of this Chien yao after the Yüan dynasty it is practically certain that the manufacture of pottery of some sort continued in the district. A small pot of buff stoneware with a translucent brown glaze (much thinner than that of the hare's fur bowls and without the purple tint or the golden brown markings) was found in a tomb near, Chien-ning Fu with an engraved slab dated 1560. The find was made by the Rev. H.S. Phillips, who presented the pot, with a rubbing of the inscription, to the British Museum.