Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/407

 wares of Kishiu). This is faience the manufacture of which was commenced by Hotta Sozaburo, in 1877, in Kōbe. At first the venture proved a commercial failure. The refractory nature of the local clays constituted an almost insuperable difficulty, and it became necessary to import materials, of which those obtained from Hizen gave the most satisfactory results. With any other pâte—and even with this, though in a less degree—the production of uniform glaze appeared to be little better than a matter of accident, so that sometimes among a hundred pieces stoved not one emerged without some serious defect. Such conditions were, of course, prohibitory, and before long Akamatsu Eiji, the only workman whose achievements were of much promise, was obliged to abandon the undertaking. Subsequently, however, the manufacture was revived on a larger scale and with a purely commercial aim. It was found that blue and purple glazes could be turned out in great quantities at a very trifling cost, and that America offered a ready market for such specimens. A tolerably flourishing trade accordingly sprang up, and from Kōbe were exported some thousands of pieces yearly, a great many of which were not free from gross blemishes—as, for example, serious faults in the pâte or solutions of continuity in the glaze—while the majority were crude, ill-fired, and unsatisfactory, only redeemed from hopeless mediocrity by their brilliant effect as decorative pieces and by the accidental skill sometimes displayed in the combinations of their colours. The latter, though rich and often lustrous, lacked uniformity, especially at the edges and other salient points, and could not bear comparison with the aubergine and turquoise-blues of Zengoro. The pâte had a chalky appearance, and the