Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/246

 bearing the characters '&#8203;Ka-hin Shi-riu&#8203;' was given to me, with injunction not to affix it indiscriminately. I also received a silver seal, with the characters 'Ei-raku,' for marking my private manufactures. What an occasion was it for me to be loaded with such high honours! What happiness to be admitted into the august presence of the Prince! Such good fortune is not met with twice in a thousand years. It redounds to the perpetual fame of our family." From the time of this visit the fame of Hōzen, or Eiraku as he was thenceforth commonly called, rapidly increased. He established himself at Kaseyama, in the neighbourhood of Nara, and manufactured all sorts of choice wares. In 1840 he was invited to Setsu by the Lord of Koriyama, and he there instructed the potters in various processes of their art, returning after a few months to Kaseyama. It had been for some time the fashion with the magnates of the Western capital to test the great potter's skill by asking him to copy chefs-d'œuvre of Chinese, Korean, and even Dutch origin, which had been handed down in their families for generations. Zengoro's success in these trials of skill is said to have been remarkable. It is recorded that a fire-box, secretly borrowed by the Chief Minister Takatsukasa from the custodians of the Kono-e heirlooms, was so perfectly imitated at the Eiraku workshop that the original and the imitation were not distinguishable. This feat procured for Zengoro another seal bearing the inscription Tokin-ken (the weighty potter); a mark which he used only on wares of the very highest character, and which is consequently very seldom met with.

From Prince Arisugawa he also received a document conferring the title of Itō-seimai (the