Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/229

 crackle of the one would seem scarcely perceptible in comparison with the crackle of the other, and the decoration of the Iwakura ware would be found appreciably chaster and less brilliant than that of the Awata. But from about the middle of the same century the Awata potters changed their materials or modified their methods to such an extent that these differences ceased to be constant and became occasional. Many pieces bearing the cachet of Kinkōzan, and undoubtedly potted at Awata, present all the features usually regarded as characteristic of the Iwakura-yaki. At present the Awata potters seem to have entirely abandoned whatever technical methods were formerly peculiar to their factory, and to have adopted the Iwakura fashions with strict fidelity. The amateur will easily understand, therefore, that in the absence of marks it may often be unsafe, as in such cases it is always unnecessary, to insist upon either of the terms Awata-yaki or Iwakura-yaki.

There appears to be no hope of obtaining any accurate information with respect to the Iwakura factory. It owed its origin to the fact that several potters who had carried on their trade in a district of Kyōtō called Oshikoji, were induced to remove to a less populous region owing to the remonstrances of their fellow citizens. Pottery kilns had often been the cause of conflagrations in Japan, and it is easily conceivable that when the keramic art began to be largely pursued in Kyōtō, a feeling of insecurity was engendered among persons living in the vicinity of the factories. Of the names of the artisans who under these circumstances migrated to the Iwakura suburb, no record is preserved. It is known only that they chose the place because of the accessibility of