Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/327

 dealers of Nagoya, twelve in number, by whom they were sold under the generic name of Seto-mono. There is a record that pottery was manufactured in Mino as far back as the beginning of the tenth century (Enki era, 901–922), and presented to the Imperial palace in Kyōtō, but nothing is known as to the character of the ware, and the connoisseur may fairly assume that it did not differ from the generally uninteresting and worthless products of the period. In the middle of the sixteenth century the family of Katō Shirozaemon of Seto was represented by Kageharu, of whose six sons the second, Yosōbei Kagemitzu, moved (1573) to Kujiri in Mino and established a kiln at the back of a hill on which stood the temple Seianji. His principal manufacture was faience having thick glaze of yellowish white colour and called Haku-yaku-de. A tea-jar of this ware is said to have been presented to the celebrated Oda Nobunaga, who bestowed on the maker a red stamp. Kagemitsu had three sons, Shirozaemon Kagenobu, Yazaemon Kageyori, and Taroemon Kagesada. He also employed Goroemon Kagetoyo (called afterwards Shoemon Kagetada), the second son of his elder brother. Kagenobu appears to have been a more skilled potter than his father. His manufactures attracted so much attention that the Prince of Owari bestowed on him the title of Chikugo-no-Kami. He also received a special order to manufacture faience for the ex-Emperor Goyōzei, who gave to the faience the name Asahi-yaki (morning-sun ware) of Chikugo. It continued to be faience of a rustic character, its thick brownish white, or yellowish white, glaze somewhat resembling a Korean product. About the year 1597 Mori Zenemon, a fugitive expert of Karatsu, in Hizen, came to