JAPAN
the Taikō decided to import, for presentation to certain great temples, the finest keramic products obtainable in China, he had no hesitation in selecting vases of Lung-Chuang-yao, then the best céladon of the Chin-te-ching kilns. It need scarcely be added that in her own arts also, both pictorial and applied, Japan was largely guided by the dicta of the tea clubs. For their use and in obedience to their taste, her potters toiled through centuries to produce cups, bowls, ewers, and tiny jars covered with glazes which, while they testify great technical skill and often show glows and gleams of most attractive colours, are nevertheless sober almost to severity. It was also for their use and in obedience to their taste that her artists carried the stenography of painting to its extreme limits, making half-a-dozen strokes convey a wide range of impression. And it was also for their use and in obedience to their taste that her lacquerers and other art-artisans lavished a wealth of decorative effort on the least visible parts of an object, and gave infinite care to technical minutiæ which almost equal care is needed to appreciate. In fact, throughout the whole range of Japan's ethics and æsthetics the influence of the tea cult may be clearly traced. To it she owes much of the delicate grace and extraordinary refinement of detail that distinguish her art products; to it she owes much of the repose of manner, elaborate courtesy, and studied imperturbability of demeanour, that characterise her
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