In porcelain, even to a more marked degree than in pottery, the peculiarities of Japanese art are noticeable. It brings before us, in their greatest perfection, the careful attention to finish, the harmonizing of the most minute detail with the general design, the boundless variety of form, and the general tendency to subordinate the latter to ornamentation and color. The porcelain is less capable of resisting heat than that of the Chinese. [Illustration: Fig. 128.--Japanese Porcelain Plaque. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)] The leading differences between the porcelains of the two countries are that the Japanese is of a purer white and finer quality, that its glaze has a bluish tint, that the Japanese forms are usually better, and that the extravagancies of Chinese decoration are toned down. The chief kinds of porcelain are the Hizen (also called Imari and Arita), the Owari, Kioto, Mino, and Kaga. That made at all these places, except Kaga, belongs chiefly to the kind called Blue Sometsuki, in which the body is decorated before glazing with painting in blue derived from cobalt. This is the leading ware for home consumption. Two of the largest and finest specimens that ever reached America were the immense vases and basins sent to the Centennial Exhibition. Reference has been made, under China, to the difference between the blue-and-white of Nankin and that of Japan, viz., that the white of the latter is purer and the blue less transparent. This may be accounted for in part by the inferiority of the cobaltiferous ore of Japan, a circumstance which has led to the importation of Chinese material, and in part by the preparation of the paste. After being thrown or moulded, dried and turned, the piece is covered with pure white clay, and then fired. The blue is afterward laid upon the clay coating, and the piece is then glazed and fired a second time. By the use of the _engobe_, the brilliancy of the blue is thought to be enhanced, and the purity of the white must certainly be heightened. The glaze is always felspathic, and is said to be less vitreous than that of China. Like the Chinese, who made a specific ware for the “Sea-devils”--a euphonious title under which all Europeans were classed--the Japanese export from Hizen the same kind of porcelain as that above described, but decorated with bright enamel colors on the glaze, and specially designed for the foreign trade. The preparation and application of the enamels have been described elsewhere. Paintings in relief are produced by first laying on the parts to be colored a white enamel of powdered glass and stone, and white-lead. This ware, once called “Gosai,” and now “Nishikide,” is made at Arita, and was taken to Nagasaki, and thence to the island of Desima, at the time when the old Dutch traders had their settlement there. It is, therefore, this porcelain that the Dutch first carried to Europe. That we may have a clear view of the early condition of the industry, we must bear in mind