Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/375

 In 1679 this same Morita visited all the principal factories at Kyōtō, and in Owari, Mino, Tōtōmi, and elsewhere. Returning to Kōchi, he set himself to produce faience after Korean or Kyōtō models. He did not, however, use enamelled decoration, but preferred the severe style of the Shibu-e and confined himself to the manufacture of tea utensils. Among his pieces the most valued were cups with paintings of Sho-chiku-bai—pine-sprays, bamboos, and plum-blossoms—in black or dark brown sous couverte. Of his successors during the eighteenth century the best known were Mitsunaga, Mitsuyoshi, Mitsutsugu, and Mitsutane. Probably about the year 1760 bright green glazes, monochromatic or in combination with yellow, began to be applied. Associated with these is generally found plastic decoration—engraved or in relief. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Odo factory was moved to the neighbourhood of Nōchazan. Its productions thenceforth began to be called Nōchazan-yaki. Mention may be made here of a local tradition which says that, even before the time of Shōhaku, pottery was manufactured in Tosa from the clay of Nochazan, and that it was decorated with designs, engraved or in relief, copied from studies by the celebrated painter Kano Motonobu. Of this there is no trustworthy evidence. Owing to some reason which experts fail to explain, the potters of Imado, Tōkyō, also produced a faience to which the name of Odo-yaki, or Odo-yoki, was given. This is easily distinguished from the true Odo-yaki, having very soft pâte and a milk-white, waxy glaze—in quality resembling that of Kyōtō Raku ware—to which are applied somewhat archaic designs in dull blue. The commonest vari-