Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/228

 Of these two specimens the first was prepared by a potter called Matsō, by mixing, in the proportion of 10 to 3, clay called Shiroye-tsuchi and sand, both obtained from Takayama, in Yamashiro province. The mixture when pulverised and washed formed the faience-mass. The pâte of the ware made from these materials was hard and of a yellowish colour. The second specimen was prepared by the well-known potter Tanzan, by mixing, in unascertained proportions, clays obtained from Yamashima and Hareyama in the environs of Kyōtō. The faience thus produced did not differ appreciably from that manufactured from the former mass.

It has been usual to distinguish between the productions of the Iwakura and the Awata factories, as though they invariably presented differences easily recognised. Such is not the case, however, for specimens of the one are sometimes absolutely indistinguishable from specimens of the other. Iwakura is a suburb of Kyōtō. Nothing is known of the pottery produced there prior to the time of Nomura Ninsei. His works first brought the place into notice. Specimens of faience said to have been manufactured by him at Iwakura are still preserved, and it is certain that from his time the Iwakura-yaki began to be one of the choicest wares of Kyōtō. In those early days it could be distinguished from its rival, the Awata-yaki, without much difficulty. The pâte of the former was finer in grain and lighter in colour than the pâte of the latter; the crackle was closer, and the body-colour mellower. These features became even more marked at a later period. Placing a specimen of Iwakura faience manufactured at the beginning of the seventeenth century side by side with a specimen of contemporaneous Awata ware, the glaze of the former would appear to be a light buff colour as compared with the greyish white of the latter; the