Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/394

 antiquaries, unglazed pottery was produced at a place called Kagami-yama, in Omi, nineteen hundred years ago. At Oe, too, in the same vicinity, tradition says that a kiln was set up in the middle of the fifteenth century on the occasion of the visit of a Chinese keramist who called there en route for Owari. But all this is of small moment, since it is quite certain that no pieces of Zeze-yaki possessing any merit were produced before the middle of the seventeenth century. Of the ware turned out then and subsequently there are five varieties, viz., Oe, Seta, Kokubu, Barin, and Susume-ga-tani. The first three are known as Furu-Zeze, or Old Zeze, and the two last as Shin-Zeze, or New Zeze. That of Oe is the oldest of all. It consisted almost entirely of tea-utensils, resembling the old Seto pottery, and of such excellent finish that their reputation is scarcely second to that of Takatori masterpieces. Golden brown, russet, and purplish glazes, of remarkable lustre and richness, cover carefully manipulated dark grey and very fine pâte, and it seems not unlikely that the cessation of the manufacture alone prevented it from attaining a very high place among the keramic efforts of Japan. During Tadafusa's lifetime specimens of this Ōe-yaki were sent as presents to many nobles and virtuosi, so that the ware attained considerable reputation. But in the early part of the eighteenth century the factory was closed, for some unascertained reason, and its site is now a vegetable-garden.

The Seta-yaki dates from a period somewhat subsequent to that of Oe, which, for the rest, it resembles in almost every particular except that the workmanship is slightly inferior. The village of Seta, where it was manufactured, lies within a short distance of