Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/235

 nese porcelain was the highest keramic achievement in the eye of Japanese connoisseurs of Eisen's time. The exact date of Eisen's first porcelain manufacture cannot be fixed, but there can be little error in placing it about the year 1760. Eisen stamped his name on some of his pieces, and wrote it on others with red enamel. Ebisei used the Kyōmizu mark only.

Rokubei, another distinguished pupil of Ebisei, was the son of a farmer. Kotō Rokuzaemon, of the province of Setsu. He was called Kuritarō in his youth, and subsequently Gusai. In the Kan-en era (1748–1750) he became Ebisei's pupil, and in 1764 he began to manufacture in his own account at Gojō-zaka. He received his art name, "Rokubei," from Prince Myōhōin, who, having invited Gusai to his mansion and caused him to manufacture some cups of black Raku faience, conferred on him the stamp Rokumei-in. A priest, Keishū, of the celebrated monastery of Tenriu-ji, wrote for Rokubei the ideograph "Sei," within a hexagon, and this also he used as a seal (Sei is the alternative pronunciation of Kyo, and is thus an abbreviation of "Kyōmizu"). Rokubei further employed the full cachet "Kyōmizu," which he obtained from his teacher Ebisei. He died in 1799 at the age of sixty-two. His forte lay in the direction of finely decorated faience. He excelled not only in the preparation and application of vitrifiable enamels, but also and principally in the refined character of his designs. Maruyama Okyō, the greatest master of the Realistic school of pictorial art, was then (1778) at the zenith of his fame. All the young painters of Kyōtō flocked to his atelier at Shijo, and his pictures were a theme of every-day talk in art circles. Rokubei was among Okyō's friends and admirers. He was