Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/76

 Kakiemon, then, apparently, the principal Japanese workman at Arita, and destined, with his descendants, to occupy a prominent place in the annals of his country's keramics. Goroshichi thenceforth worked at Kakiemon's kiln. Of his technical ability nothing is recorded, but tradition says that he chanced one day to find by the roadside a fragment of stone which seemed to possess exceptional qualities for keramic purposes. Following up this clew, he and Kakiemon discovered a hill called Izumi-yama, composed almost entirely of excellent porcelain-stone. If this tradition be accepted, the manufacture of true Japanese porcelain dates from about the year 1625. But other, and apparently more trustworthy, authorities declare the whole account apocryphal. According to them, the honour of the discovery belongs to Kanagai Risampei, one of the four Korean potters who worked at Hyakken-gama. It is, at any rate, certain that from the grave of Risampei, opened a few years ago, there were taken specimens of true porcelain, manufactured with Izumi-yama clay and decorated with blue under the glaze. Further and stronger testimony is afforded by researches conducted on the site of the Hyakken-gama factory. It is known that this factory was closed and that the workmen were transferred to Arita at least fifteen years before the arrival of Goroshichi in Hizen. Yet among the ruins of the Hyakken kiln there have been found fragments of true porcelain of Japanese origin. It may be taken, then, as sufficiently proved that the Korean, Kanagai Risampei, was the discoverer of Izumi-yama, with its immense stores of porcelain stone, and that the date of the discovery was about 1605.

Risampei's three comrades were Iwao, Momota,