JAPAN
cally inferior, but they were beyond the reach of any save the wealthiest people. In the sixteenth century Japan began to manufacture porcelain for herself, but nearly a hundred years elapsed before it became the rival of lacquer for table utensils. It is worth noting that in the Palace as well as in the mansions of noblemen and the barracks of soldiers, the most approved kind of wine-cup was a shallow bowl of unglazed red pottery, which was never used more than once by those that could afford such extravagance.
In spite of the nominally frugal habits of the military class, Kyōtō continued its career of luxury, especially from the days of the celebrated Ashikaga Shōgun, Yorimitsu (1368–1394). The date of this ruler's accession to power corresponds with that of the establishment of the Ming dynasty in China, and relations of exceptional intimacy were established between the two Empires, Japan recovering her old-time respect for the civilisation of her neighbour. But Yorimitsu imitated the extravagant sybaritism of the later Yuan Mongols rather than the austere self-denial of the early Ming sovereigns. Of him and of his fifth successor, Yoshimasa (1449–1472), it must be said that they squandered the State's resources on excesses of every kind, but it must also be said that their aesthetic impulses and munificent patronage of art conferred permanent benefit on their country.
Perhaps the truest explanation of Yoshimasa's
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