Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/280

 as the latter, in point of tone and richness, does not commend itself to refined taste. The potters themselves, appreciating the consequences of this monotony, have made resolute efforts, of late years, to revive the incomparably richer and more varied methods of the old Ao-Kutani. In this enterprise a leading part has been played by Takenouchi Kinshū,—called also Gaikyō, or Yusetsusai,—a man of gentle birth, who, having studied keramics under the potters Okura and Tsukatani, of Kutani, has succeeded, after years of experiment and innumerable failures, in reproducing the beautiful green, yellow, purple, and blue vitreous glazes of former times. Matsumoto Sahei, of Wakasugi, has also contributed materially to the success of this revival, and is further distinguished by the beauty of his designs, many of which are taken from the works of celebrated pictorial artists. Other keramists of note who have flourished since the abolition of feudalism are Ishida Heizō, Mifuji Bunzo, Fujikata Yasojō, Tsukuya Sen (called also Chikuzen), Okura Seishichi (called also Juraku), Asukai Kyoshi, Kawashiri Kahei, Matsubara Shinsuke, Wakafuji Genjiro, Hashimoto Hachibei, and Nakagawa Genzaemon. The decorators form a separate school.

In former times the potters of Kutani did not use their own names to mark their pieces. Sometimes they put the name of the factory (Kutani), but in the majority of cases they employed simply the ideograph "fuku," or "good fortune." The use of names for this purpose is comparatively recent: it does not date farther back than 1850, and is confined, for the most part, to elaborately decorated pieces of the red-and-gold type. The names are not stamped: they are