In viewing their earliest ceramic productions, there is some difficulty in distinguishing them from those of China and Corea, and this difficulty is increased when we find upon their vases scenes from the court life of China, and a great deal of borrowed ornamentation. In both countries it is said that the ceramic art rose to its highest point in the sixteenth century, and then, we are told, declined. This date may, in the case of Japan, be safely advanced to the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Japan was even then not independent of its teachers, and suffered from the influences adverse to art which affected them. The Portuguese were the first nation to trade with Japan, and were expelled in 1637. The tolerant Japanese, who were willing to make room for any religion containing the seeds of good, could brook neither intolerance nor interference with their civil government. Portuguese intrigue accordingly led to expulsion and the massacre of forty thousand converts to Christianity. Specimens of “Christian” porcelain, made apparently by the Chinese for the persecuted of Japan, are still in existence, and may be seen in many American collections. After the Portuguese came the Dutch. Had the latter restricted themselves to trading in porcelain, it would have been better for Japanese art. Instead of doing so, they tried to imitate the native wares, and, which was far worse, commissioned the native artists to adopt European styles and to attempt to gratify the whims of European taste and fashion. We cannot wonder that art declined, but are rather led to be surprised that the decline was not more speedy and permanent. The points of difference between the porcelain of China and Japan may be briefly stated after the general features of Japanese art have been examined. It is to the American a peculiar art. It does not touch our admiration like the Greek for the truthful working out of its ideal forms, nor for the ideals themselves. It does not imbue us with a sense of the mysterious like that of Egypt. We can all admire its wonderful coloring and its perfection of finish; but besides these there is a fascination in the exuberant fancy, richness of invention, and happy blending of tints. The Japanese are true to nature, far more so than the Chinese; but they do not copy nature in every detail. In their best work we will often find that, with a peculiar delicacy, the artist merely indicates what an American or European artist would feel it incumbent upon him to represent. The former holds our attention by leaving it to the imagination to make his work complete. This will suggest what is actually the case--that, as a rule, form is secondary to color.