Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/436

 mass, it certainly is not true of the ware itself, which has a crude, brittle, and chalky appearance, exceedingly ill suited to the elaborate plastic conceits with which the surface is loaded.

Porcelain is manufactured at Ota as well as faience, and, in addition to a quantity of specimens of both natures decorated after the fashion of the Tōkyō school, Miyagawa has turned out a good many porcelain vases in which surface-tints of skilfully graduated intensity produce effects at once rich and delicate. He and his son now stand almost at the head of Japanese keramists, and their works will be spoken of in the section on modern developments.

The composition of the Ota porcelain is that of the Kyōtō ware. It consists of six parts of Amakusa stone with four parts of Shigaraki clay, to which is added a small quantity of ashes obtained from Satsuma and Tosa—the same ashes being used for glazing purposes. The addition of ashes to the glazing mass is a custom prevailing in Kyōtō and other places, also, though the practice appears to be resorted to in the case of special manufactures only.

This is a species of Raku faience, interesting entirely for the sake of its first and only manufacturer, Nariaki, commonly called Rekkō, feudal chief of Mito in the province of Hitachi. A descendant of the renowned Iyeyasu, and one of the greatest nobles in Japan, Rekkō did not hesitate to manufacture with his own hands pieces of pottery which he bestowed upon his vassals. Near his castle in Mito was a Cha-