Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/234

 where it still exists under the direction of Seibei's descendant, Nakamura Masagorō. When Seibei settled at Gojō-zaka, he called his factory "Ebiya," and by combining this with his own name there results "Ebisei," the appellation by which he is generally known. Ebisei was the first to manufacture utensils for the Cha-no-Yu at Gojō-zaka. He is also said to have carried to a point of considerable excellence a style of decoration inaugurated by Ninsei and subsequently employed at times by the Kyōmizu potters, namely, the application of vitrifiable enamels to the surface of unglazed pottery.

Among Ebisei's pupils were two potters of considerable renown, Eisen and Rokubei. Eisen was not a keramist by profession. He appears to have taken up the art as a pastime. He is especially remarkable as the first manufacturer of porcelain in Kyōtō. The circumstances under which this branch of keramics began to be pursued in the Imperial city are not recorded. Tradition says that Eisen's immediate purpose in travelling beyond the groove followed by his predecessors was the production of céladon, a ware which was yearly becoming more and more valuable in proportion as each fresh importation from the Middle Kingdom showed that the hands of the Chinese themselves had lost much of their old cunning. Eisen was not particularly successful in his céladons, but by degrees he developed great skill in producing enamelled porcelain after the style of the later Ming potters; that is to say, white heavy ware with somewhat rudely executed designs in green, red, and gold. Imitation was his forte. He evidently thought that the summit of success was to copy Chinese pieces with unerring fidelity; a not unnatural conception, seeing that Chi-