Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/432

 brown, or brown streaked with green. In modern times the keramic products of Iga are confined to coarse vessels for every-day use. They are, for the most part, hard faience or stone-ware, having pâte identical with that of the Shigaraki-yaki and an impure yellowish glaze.

This ware derives its name from the place of its manufacture, Agano, in the Tagawa district of the province of Buzen. On the return of the expedition sent by the Taikō to Korea (1598), a potter named Sonkai was brought from Fusan by order of Katō Kiyomasa. This man and his sons erected a kiln at Agano (1602), and, as was naturally the case with the Korean workmen who came to Japan at that time, began to manufacture faience after the fashions of his country. No authentic specimens of his early work have been preserved. His name was subsequently changed to Juji Kizō, and he is generally spoken of by Japanese connoisseurs as Agano Kizō. He remained at Agano until 1631, when the feudal chief of the district, Hosokawa Tadayoshi, receiving the province of Higo as his fief, moved to Yatsushiro, and was followed thither by Kizō, his eldest son, Chōbei, and his third son, Tōshiro. The second son, Magozaemon Sonkiu, remained at Agano and carried on the manufacture. The expenses of the factory were entirely defrayed by the local government, Magozaemon and his descendants receiving a yearly pension in lieu of wages. The articles produced were not sold, being reserved solely for official use. A very few,