Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/253

 reputation for skill in preparing and applying coloured enamels, and for the delicacy of his designs in relief. The family is now represented by the third Seifū Yohei, whose art name is Baikei. He is a brother of Gokei, and succeeded to the business in 1878, Gokei's son being then only eight years of age. Seifū Yohei is a potter of great ability. He has studied painting under Tanomura Shōko, and has a wide circle of artist friends of whose designs he makes frequent use. His porcelain is admirable, both in technique and artistic qualities, and in many respects he ranks as one of his country's greatest potters. Further reference will be made to him in speaking of modern keramic developments.

Yosōbei, called also Iseya, a potter of Gojō-zaka, began to work in the Kyōwa era (1801–1803). He manufactured faience only, and his reputation rested on the severity and chastity of his decorative designs. He was succeeded by his son, whose art name was Chōwaken. The latter formed a partnership with Wake Kitei and his (Kitei's) nephew Kumakichi (called also Furōken Kamefu), and the three manufactured blue-and-white and enamelled porcelain of excellent quality. Chōwaken died in 1845. It is with his productions alone that the name of Yosōbei, or Yosō, is generally connected, his father's manufactures being scarcely known.

Kanzan Denshichi, a potter of Kyōmizu, is a native of Seto in Owari, where he studied the keramic art at an early age. Subsequently he travelled from one to another of the most noteworthy potteries throughout Japan, and having mastered their various processes, settled, in 1861, at Kyōmizu-zaka in Kyōtō. His earliest productions did not attract much attention,