Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/348

 time at Karatsu. Then, either of his own wish inspired by what he saw at the Karatsu factories, or in obedience to Katō Kiyomasa's commands, he revisited Korea and fully studied the potter's art. Returning to Japan in 1602, he was invited to Agano, in the province of Buzen, by Hosokawa Tadaoki. Establishing a factory there, he changed his name to Agano Kizō. In 1631 the province of Higo became the fief of the Hosokawa family, and Tadatoshi, the then representative of the family, moved his residence to Yatsushiro in that province. Thither he was followed by Kizō and two of his sons. They settled at Toyobara, and opened a factory where two varieties of ware were produced. The first was faience resembling the Koshiro-yaki mentioned above; its pâte being reddish brown, and its glaze mahogany with splashes, or clouds, of blue, black, and buff. The second, to which the name Yatsushiro-yaki has ever since been confined, had similar pâte, but more carefully manipulated and of finer texture, and diaphanous pearl-grey or warm brown glaze, uniform, lustrous, and finely crackled. The decoration, which consisted generally of storks flying among clouds, or of simple combinations of lines and diapers, was incised in the pâte, the incisions being filled with white slip and the glazing material run over the whole. This, one of the most delicate and æsthetic of all Japanese faiences, was a copy of the Korean ware known in Japan as Unkaku-de (clouds and storks pattern), to which, however, it is decidedly superior in delicacy and beauty of finish. But, on the other hand, neither the Yatsushiro-yaki nor its Korean progenitor compares favourably with the Chinese faience which is the original of both. Another variety of