Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/259

 the Shigaraki material, but at Gojō and Kyōmizu it is mixed with clays found in those vicinities, and also with clays obtained from Dainichi-yama, in the Otagi district of Yamashiro province, and from Kokagori, in Gōshu. With the glazing material two varieties of lixiviated wood-ash are mixed,—the ash of the Isu-no-ki, a hard black wood that grows in the province of Sasshu, and that of the evergreen oak (Nara-no-ki). It is impossible to determine the proportions in which these various materials are mixed. Different potters employ different processes and are naturally reticent as to their methods. The faience of Kyōtō offers a large variety of pâtes, from the hard, open-grained, reddish grey found in some of Ninsei's and Kenzan's pieces, to the close, white, and comparatively soft pâte of Kinkozan and Iwakura. The same may be said of the glaze, though in a lesser degree. Not only does its crackle vary in size and distinctness, but its colour passes from the cold grey of the representative old Awata-yaki, through the soft, glossy cream-white of Taizan, and the warm, yellowish ivory tint of Iwakura, to the peculiar pinkish grey of Ninsei and the Kyōmizu school.

The porcelain manufacture of Kyōtō is now an important industry, but some really choice specimens are produced. The export trade, however, is supplied by wholesale processes. Hundreds of vases and jars, rudely and gaudily decorated with impure blue under the glaze and crude pigments above it, are sent westward, to the great injury of the country's art reputation. The materials used in making this porcelain are the clay of Shigaraki, in Omi province, and the stone of Amakusa, an island off the west coast of Kiushu. These are mixed in the proportion of three to seven, or four to six, parts by volume. The Amakusa stone comes as ballast in junks, and the Shigaraki clay has to be transported by land. Thus the expense of manufacture is very considerable and the supply of materials uncertain.