Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/389

 productions are now known as Ko-Banko-yaki (old Banko ware). He died about the year 1795, at Kuwana, whither he had been recalled by Matsu-daira, lord of Etchiu, one of the most celebrated of modern virtuosi. Whatever special skill he possessed died with him, for, since he cultivated keramics entirely as a pastime, he neither took pupils nor imparted his art to his children.

Like all noted amateurs, Gozaemon would probably have found imitators in later times. Yet had it not been for an accident, his name would certainly be little remembered outside the circle of connoisseurs of whose somewhat archaic creed he was so obedient a disciple, and in whose hands his comparatively scanty productions remained. That accident was the discovery—about the year 1830—of a recipe which he had employed in the manufacture of his enamels. The document containing the precious formula had found its way into the possession of a dealer in bric-à-brac who lived at Kuwana, and whose son, Mori Yusetsu, had already gained some distinction as an imitator of Raku faience. Fully appreciating the value of the knowledge thus strangely acquired, Yusetsu immediately set himself to profit by it, and in order to give his counterfeit ware a greater semblance of authenticity, he persuaded Gozaemon's grandson, Gorobei, to sell him the Banko stamp. Thus the works of the Ise amateur were again brought into public notice, and that rather by a freak of fortune than by any public knowledge of their merits. Yusetsu, however, was saved from performing the ignoble rôle of a mere imitator by his quickness of observation; for, detecting that the Chinese artists—whose works, like Gozaemon, he took as his models—used moulds