Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/430

 in the form of pâte-sur-pâte to an unglazed surface, and sometimes enamelled in the ordinary method—was generally of a very artistic nature, the subjects being copied direct from the works of the celebrated painter Okyo. The best specimens of this period are stamped with the name of Nosaka, the only one of the Tamba workmen who seems to have marked his productions.

The province of Iga adjoins that of Omi, whence the Kyōtō potters have always procured so much of their materials. It is surrounded by mountains, among those on its north being the Nagano district, where Shigaraki clay is found (vide Shigaraki-yaki). The province is regarded with interest by Japanese virtuosi on account of the antiquity of its keramic productions. As long ago as the Tempyō-hōji era (759-764), a factory existed at Marubashira, in the Ahai district. Tradition says that the manufacture was interrupted from the middle of the ninth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, but it is certain that Miki-dokuri—bottles for sacrificial wine—of unglazed pottery were produced at Marubashira during the Enki era (901-922), for use at the bi-annual festival of Daijingu. There is also preserved in the collection of a well known Japanese dilettante a firebox of Iga pottery marked Shōtai ni-nen Ishiyamadera, that is to say, "the temple of Ishiyama, second year of the Shōtai era (899). Recent researches have further shown that the ware known as Ko-Iga-yaki (old Iga ware) was probably manufactured as long ago as the Kemmu era (1334-1336); and during the Kyōroku era (1528-1531), two experts,