Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/132

 thinner the pâte the more highly was porcelain valued in the West. Then visiting Mikawachi, he urged the Hirado potters no longer to limit their manufacture of egg-shell ware to wine-cups and other diminutive utensils for Japanese use. The result of his advice was the blue-and-white egg-shell familiar to foreigners. Very little of it now remains in Japan, but at one time bowls, plates, and cups might be found without great difficulty. The ware was as thin as paper, and the decoration—blue sous couverte—was not only well executed but of pure, brilliant colour. This porcelain was almost invariably marked Zo-shun-tei Mi-ho-sei (made at the factory of Zoshun by Miho), a mark which began to be applied at Mikawachi, about 1825, to ware manufactured at the factory that owed its establishment to Hisatani's suggestion. The name of this enterprising potter, Hisatani Yojibei, is revered in Hizen to the present day. "Miho" was his artist name. His grandson, Hisatani Genichi, is now working.

Brief reference may be made to artists other than the above, whose names are best known in connection with the porcelain manufacture of Hizen.

The Sakaida family, founded by Sakaida Kakiemon (1615–1653), who in conjunction with Higashijima Tokuemon manufactured the first enamelled porcelain in Japan, is still extant, its present representative being Sakaida Shibunosuke, twelfth in descent from Kakiemon. Throughout the eleven generations between the first Kakiemon and ShibunosukuShibunosuke [sic], each representative of the family bore the same name—Sakaida Kakiemon. These potters, whenever they marked their wares, employed the ideographs Saka-kaki.

The Fukagawa family, founded by a potter whose second name is not known (about 1650). The present representative is Fukagawa Ezaiemon, who succeeded to the hereditary