Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/433

 dating from the seventeenth century, are now extant. The pâte, which was fine and oily, resembling in these respects the pâte of Chinese pottery, was manufactured with materials found at Ichitsu and Natsuyoshi, in the same district. The glaze was thin and cleverly applied; its colour, lustrous brown with dark claret speckles or patches. In 1757 Magozaemon Sonko, seventh in descent from Kizō, obtained official permission to sell his wares, and the dimensions of the industry increased considerably. About this time, or shortly before, a curious variety of faience was produced. It had coarse, reddish gray pâte, and light claret-coloured glaze, granulated so as to resemble the skin of a lime. It is vulgarly known as Tachibanahada-yaki, because of its likeness to the skin of the orange tribe (tachibana). In 1804 the Agano-yaki assumed the character of Raku ware, the methods of the Kyōtō faience having been acquired by Magozaemon Sonsho, the then representative of the Kizō family, in obedience to the command of the chief of the district. Sonsho's success procured for him the privilege of riding on horseback and going about with an attendant. In 1834 the local government issued an edict forbidding the employment of any potter belonging to another fief, and this prohibition was not removed until 1872. The chief experts at present are Juji Kihachiro and Yoshida Hikoroku; both very inferior in skill to their predecessors of the feudal era. Among comparatively modern varieties of Agano-yaki there are (besides the Tachibana-hada-yaki), the Mokume-yaki, which has muddy yellow or claret glaze marked like the grain of wood (mokume), and the Shiro-te, which has greyish white pâte and glaze and is entirely without decoration. Of late very in-