Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/201

 gurated by the Korean Ameya, had become a favourite ware with the Kyōtō tea-clubs. The history of this Raku-yaki has already been given. It is referred to here only for the sake of summarising the keramic productions of Kyōtō at the beginning of the seventeenth century. They were: (i) red, unglazed pottery manufactured by Yasuchika and others; (2) the Raku-yaki, a coarse faience covered with black, yellow, white, or salmon-coloured glaze; (3) faience with fine pâte and glaze of dark chestnut colour or yellowish brown; (4) unglazed pottery having buff-coloured pâte of great fineness, and decorated with black and gold lacquer (manufactured at Fushimi and already described as Soshiro-yaki); and (5) faience having greyish pâte, a craquelé glaze, showing a slightly yellowish tinge, and decoration of sketchy character in blue or brown sous couverte. This last variety marks the transition from the comparatively rude to the refined and artistic stage of Kyōtō keramics. The blue decoration was called ai-e (ai signifies blue; e, a picture), and the brown was known as shiku-e (from shiku, the juice of the Diospyros kaki). As to the artists by whom the process of decorating faience with colours under the glaze was inaugurated in Kyōtō, tradition says little. It is tolerably well established that as early as the year 1510, factories existed at places called Shiru-dani and Komatsu-dani, near the temple Seikan-ji. The names of three potters, Otoroku, Otowaya, and Kiushichi, are associated with the faience produced there during the sixteenth century. Their pieces are described as possessing close pâte and tolerably fine crackle; and it is recorded that towards the close of the century designs in dark, impure blue, in black, and in brown began to be employed for deco-