Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/271

 of the Kutani pottery, like those of Okawachi (Nabeshima, in Hizen), were officially limited. The workmen, forbidden to dispose of their wares without permission, depended on the patronage of their feudal chief and his officers, and losing that patronage—for presumably they did lose it—had no choice but to abandon their trade. Another reason is that under feudal rulers intercourse between the people of Kaga province and those of other fiefs was exceptionally restricted. Devout Buddhists, and almost fanatical in their allegiance to the Monto sect, the Kaga folks had shown such recklessness in their contributions to the support of that sect's great monasteries in Kyōtō, that their lord deemed it prudent to interdict all export of merchandise, goods, chattels, or specie from the fief, except under official supervision. Such an embargo was not unlikely to check the development of the keramic art. At any rate, it was checked. Some seventy or eighty years after Goto Saijiro's return from Arita, the Kutani factory practically ceased to be active, and by 1750 the production of the beautiful specimens described above had almost, if not entirely, ceased. The potter's industry did not, indeed, thenceforth become extinct in the province, but its products were of a common, unattractive type.

Things remained thus until 1779, when a man called Honda Teikichi, a native of Hizen, came to Kanazawa, the chief town of Kaga. This Honda was an expert potter and had worked for a long time at the Arita factories. Falling under the displeasure of the local authorities, he was obliged to fly from his home, and after wandering through various parts of the Empire, he found refuge in the house of a potter of Kasuga-yama, in Kaga. Shortly afterwards, he