Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/377

 rial Yellow of China, but that he failed completely. Meanwhile, his fishing venture proving more and more unsatisfactory, he finally abandoned it, and shortly afterwards (1829), closed his shōyu manufactory also. Thenceforth the keramic industry occupied his sole attention. From 1830 to 1834 his experiments were unceasingly directed toward the production of the deep green and imperial yellow glazes of China, and success at last crowned his efforts. In 1834 he visited Kyōtō, and induced Ogata Shūhei to return with him to Awaji, where the two men worked together for two years. Specimens are occasionally found bearing their double stamp. Mimpei was now able to manufacture excellent stone-ware, covered with lustrous yellow and deep green glazes. But his resources were nearly exhausted. He had disposed of his father's estate and was in actual want. A relative, Yuzaemon, came to his assistance, presenting him first with forty acres of land, and afterwards with a considerable sum in cash. His younger brother, Tsunezaemon, then the head-man of the village, also converted all his available property into money, and handing this over to Mimpei, joined the latter's keramic industry. Thenceforth Mempei superintended the factory, and Tsunezaemon took charge of the kiln.

In 1838 Mimpei added greyish white glaze to his manufactures, and in the following year supplemented it by mirror black. He was now in the full tide of technical success. So thoroughly had he mastered the management of glazes that he could combine yellow, green, white, and claret-colour in regular patches, to imitate the curious "tortoise-shell" glaze Bekko-de) [sic] of Satsuma and Kyōtō (vide Zengoro) Hozen). [sic] His green and yellow glazes were lustrous