Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/236

 on equally good terms with the younger and scarcely less remarkable painter Gekkei (or Goshun), and he not only copied the motives of these masters, but sometimes persuaded them to decorate his faience with their own hands. It will be seen, therefore, that the artistic character of his ware brings him into the same class as his great successor of Awata, the second Dōhachi. Among the productions of both potters, especially Rokubei, there are occasionally found specimens of faience decorated with charmingly conceived and skilfully executed landscapes in blue sous couverte. These beautiful examples of keramic art, with their glossy, closely crackled glaze and highly artistic designs, may be ascribed to the influence of the Shijo school of painting.

Rokubei's son, Seisai, succeeded him, but being very young at the time of his father's death, he did not open a factory until the year 1811. Throughout the greater part of his life he pursued the methods of his father, confining himself to the manufacture of faience. From the first the potters of Gojō and Kyōmizu had devoted much attention to the preparation of coloured, semi-translucid glazes; as green, golden brown, black, purple, and iron red. These were sometimes used as monochromes to cover the whole surface of a piece; sometimes they enclosed medallions with floral designs, and sometimes they formed the ground for reserved designs in gold and other colours. In such fashions of decoration both Rokubei Gusai and Rokubei Seisai showed great proficiency. The latter, in his old age, turned his attention to the manufacture of blue-and-white porcelain, and produced many specimens of merit. It has to be noted, however, that makers of this class of ware in Kyōtō