Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/341

 to visit Chikuzen, he was speedily taken under Tada-yuki's protection, and appointed, conjointly with Hachizo, to superintend the factory at Takatori. Previously to this event the Takatori-yaki potters, under the direction of Hachizo and Shinkuro, had applied only one coat of glaze to their pieces. They made no attempt to copy the multiple glazes of the Seto artists. But with Igarashi's advent a new era commenced, and the Takatori-yaki very soon rose to conspicuous eminence among Japanese ware for the lustre, variety, and general beauty of its glazes. The renowned Yao-pien-yao, or "transmutation ware," of China is said to have been at first taken as a model, but it is plain that the Japanese experts depended on their own methods of mixing colouring materials rather than on partially accidental effects of oxidisation. In point of colour a characteristic difference between the two wares is that, while some shade of blue enters largely into the composition of the common varieties of Chinese variegated glazes, the dominant tinge of the Japanese resembles dark amber. Very rich transparent brown, almost verging upon claret-colour, is also found, and occasionally the "iron-dust" glaze (Tungshu-hwa) of China was copied successfully. The pâte of all these better sorts was fine pipe-clay, sometimes not unlikely to be confounded with the clay of the Middle Kingdom. The potters confined themselves to working for the teaclubs, and achieved such renown in this branch of their art that the great Kobori Masakazu (1645) himself selected some of their best productions, and gave them names indicative of their peculiar merits; as, for example, "dyed river" (Some-gawa); "cross-fence" (Ogaku); "autumn evening" (Aki-no-yo),