Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/373

 the stone of Obata, has been analysed. Its composition is as follows:—

The modern faience manufactured at Matsumoto is of the Raku type; that is to say, a thick, soft-looking pottery with little lustre of surface and a wooden timbre. The fracture shows a yellowish tinge. The only pieces worthy of note from an artistic point of view have decoration in the Yatsushiro style; designs engraved in the paste are filled with white clay which retains its colour after baking.

Suo is the neighbouring province of Nagato, on the east, and is also included in the Yamaguchi Prefecture. Its keramic productions have never acquired any reputation, and are of modern date, the first kiln of which anything is known having been opened by Matsuō Tobei, at Hachido, in 1850. His faience, and indeed all the faience manufactured in the province, may be described as an inferior variety of Hagi-yaki. Of late years a potter called Yoshika Tosaku, of Nishi-no-ura, has begun to add red and green enamelled decoration to soft craquelé faience, made from materials found at Daido-mura. There are many kilns in the province, but their productions are to be classed as coarse porcelain and faience, of the same type as the wares of Nagato.

Kōchi is the capital of the province of Tosa. The oldest and best known ware manufactured in this