Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/75

 the province formed. A number of the Korean immigrants had been placed at his disposal, and he caused four of them to build a factory called Hyakken-gama, in the neighbourhood of the Arita district. During the next few years the influence of these potters is distinctly traceable. Specimens of Hizen ware dating from the time of their advent show the peculiar white-slip decoration sous couverte which Korean keramists so much affected. But the quality of the ware had not undergone any improvement. The workmen were still unable to produce anything comparable with the excellent porcelain that had made Shonzui's reputation. Ignorant that in a hill within sight of their hamlet inexhaustible quantities of the much desired porcelain-stone were waiting to be used, they continued to employ the inferior clay of their old quarries.

The circumstances under which the true clay was discovered, though they mark an epoch of the greatest interest, are involved in some uncertainty. About the year 1620, a native of Toyotani, by name Takahara Goroshichi, arrived in Hizen. Of this man's early history nothing is known. Like Kato Shirozaemon and Shonzui Gorodayu, he seems to have conceived the idea of travelling, perhaps to China, in search of information, and, the fame of Shonzui's productions having reached him, he desired to make himself acquainted in the first place with the methods practised in Hizen. In that age intercourse between the vassals of different fiefs was difficult. Goroshichi was enabled to accomplish his purpose by the assistance of the priests at a temple called Shōten-ji in the province of Chikuzen. The potter to whom by their good offices he obtained an introduction was Sakaida