Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/384

 tion was confined to patches of red, varying in tone, after the fashion of the Korean Go-hon ware, or to a partial coat of some other glaze—generally impure white—running down into irregular edges like stalactites. Occasionally imitations are found of the so-called Cochin-Chinese faience, but they are rare and defective. The potter by whom the factory was opened (1644-1647), under the patronage of Kobori Masakazu, was named Okamura Jōsaku. He produced cups, bowls, and other small utensils which are still valued by the tea-clubs. The manufacture was discontinued at the death (about 1730) of Jōsaku's son. It owes its revival in recent times to an expert called Chōbei, but the modern ware finds no favour with connoisseurs. The reason assigned for their indifference is that the materials now used—which are obtained at Warada—show marked inferiority to those employed by the Okamura family. To ordinary critics there is little to choose between the two, both being equally unattractive.

This is faience identical with that of Asahi, and produced in the same distriet of Yamashiro, at a place called Tawara, near Uji, from about the middle to the close of the seventeenth century.

This ware derives its name from a barren hill called Akahada, which overlooks the little town of Gojō in Yamato. The district is one of peculiar keramic