Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/305

 The effect is more bizarre than artistic. The ware is no longer produced. The custom of maintaining a private kiln was long observed by the princely family of Owari. In the grounds of their Yedo (Tōkyō) mansion, at Tōyama a small kiln stood until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

This is a variety of faience produced at Akazu from about the middle of the seventeenth century. It is of the flambé description, the most characteristic variety having vitreous, grey craquelé glaze streaked with blue showing shades of violet and buff.

Considering the productions of the Akazu potters, especially the Mifukai and Shuntai wares, it will be seen that a comparatively new departure was made by the potters of Owari at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Instead of confining themselves to the solid, lustrous glazes of the Tōshiro school, they turned also to vitreous, craquelé glazes of clear, bright colours, disposed in the flambé or splashed style. There is such a marked affinity between these manufactures and those of Karatsu, in Hizen (vide Karatsu-yaki) that the student is led to suspect imitation. In the annals of the neighbouring province Mino, it is related that a descendant of Katō Shirozaemon came from Seto to Kujiri in 1573, and that, some thirty years subsequently, his son and successor, Kagenobu, by a train of circumstances that will be related in connection with the Mino industry, acquired an intimate knowledge of the Karatsu methods. Reference to the story of the Mifukai-yaki (vide supra) shows that at this time Katō Tagemasa and his brother