Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/57

 husband's death, and died in 1747. Her ware is known as Myoshu-yaki.

It is perhaps necessary to warn the student of Japanese keramics against an inference which may possibly be suggested by the fulness of this table as compared with the meagreness of available information in respect of the names and eras of potters at other factories. Two circumstances helped to secure for the Raku-yaki a degree of favour and notice to which it was not at all entitled by its merits. The first was the fact that it had received the approval of the great art critic, Sen no Rikiu; the second, that it was stamped with a seal bestowed by the most famous of all Japanese chieftains, the Taikō. It is true that the ware does not by any means rank among Japan's best keramic achievements, from a Western point of view. But the very features that detract from its