Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/58

 decorative aspect were those that recommended it to Rikiu as a type of the rustic simplicity which he desired to impose in the observances of his cult. The student's interest in the Raku-yaki is not solely derived from the place it occupies on the threshold of Japan's keramic industry. That, indeed, gives it historic importance. Katō Shirozaemon and his immediate successors produced ware of much greater technical beauty. Gorodayu Go-shonzui stands far above Chōjiro as a technical expert. But the pottery of Tōshiro and the porcelain of Shonzui represent comparatively isolated efforts; whereas the Raku-yaki marks the opening of an industrial era which continued throughout three centuries and gave to the world nearly all the exquisite works of art that have made Japan so famous. Moreover, the ware became a common product of domestic industry, and the Kyōtō Raku-yaki was but a fraction of that produced throughout the Empire.

The Taikō did not live to witness many signs of the progress that he had sought so vigorously to encourage. He died in 1598. In the matter of keramics, Kyōtō may be said to have disappointed his fostering efforts, and in order to trace the results of the command he issued to the leaders of the Korean expedition, it is necessary to turn to the south, the island of the Nine Provinces, where the fiefs of the most powerful among those chieftains lay.