478 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



town of Igano-mura, on the island of Awaji in Idzumi-nada (Bay 

 of 6saka),from a small factory erected in 1838 by Kashiu Mimpei, 

 whose son Sanpei now carries on the manufacture. 



The pottery industry of Owari, Mino, and Mikawa embraces 

 the border territory of these three provinces, and has developed 

 itself mostly at Seto, in north-eastern Owari, 5 ri from the capital 

 city Nagoya, so that this, like Arita in Hizen, may be considered 

 in age and the influence of its industry as the central point of this 

 second important pottery district of Japan. It is a hilly country, 

 extending to the passage of the Nakasendo from Shinano to Mino, 

 and to the boundary of Owari and Mikawa toward the sea over 

 the T6kai-d6. The decomposition products of granite and slate 

 mountains, principally quartzitic rubble, and white or mud-coloured 

 bald spots of clay, and a meagre vegetation of pine and bush forest, 

 cover the long extended, low range of hills, scarcely 2C0 meters 

 high. Only here and there are seen granite rocks and old slate 

 of blackish grey colour, which appear much oftener on the larger 

 stretches, and less soft as one draws near to the higher ridges on 

 the frontier. On the other hand, fossiliferous Neo-tertiary strata 

 are seen along the sides of these hills. 



Every stage of transition may be seen, from the well-preserved 

 granite, 7 miles and a half from Seto onwards, to the decomposi- 

 tion, kaolinising, and further transformation of felspar into many 

 clay deposits which appear on the hill slopes and in the valleys, or 

 are covered with boulders. Granite and kaolin, richly sprinkled 

 with quartz grains, form the principal groundwork of the ceramics 

 of this district. In Owari the industry is concentrated around 

 Seto, the manufacture having been carried on here for five hun- 

 dred years. Among its manifold products are various small 

 household articles, such as dishes and bowls for Sake, tea and 

 rice, teapots. Sake bottles, small flower-vases and flower-pots of 

 milk-white porcelain, tastefully decorated with blue cobalt paint- 

 ing both under and upon glaze. Fine large flower-pots are among 

 the largest and most beautiful articles which Seto furnishes. The 

 Royal Industrial Art Museum in Berlin has one of these. On 

 the outside a grape vine, with leaves and clusters, is raised in 

 white bas-relief on a deep blue ground, a piece of decoration of 

 fine effect. Seto-mono, as this beautiful ware is called, is well 

 known throughout the whole of Japan ; indeed, the expression is 

 often used as a generic name for all porcelain decorated in this 

 way, signifying the same as Some-tsuke. Fine Seto-mono and 

 Kiyomidzu-yaki approach each other so nearly that it is almost 

 impossible to distinguish between them.^ Seto porcelain is of a 

 more glassy nature than Arita ware, is also less tough, and more 

 easily broken. The porcelain biscuit is prepared in Seto of 10 

 parts Kairome-tsuchi, 8 parts Hon-ishi, 2 parts Chikura-ishi, and 

 2 parts Giyaman-ishi, the glaze of Hon-ishi, Giyaman-ishi, and 

 1 The analyses of their materials may be compared in Table D, III. and IV. 



