CERAMICS. 481 



and Philadelphia, the gold medal, as a recognition of the work of 

 the exhibitor. 



The Faience of Ota resembles porcelain very closely, and excels 

 all other Japanese Delft-ware in hardness and firmness. Its 

 colouring is somewhat between that of Satsuma and Awata-yaki ; 

 the factory, however, has produced no articles which are distin- 

 guished by polychromatic painting or which eclipse the better 

 products of Kagoshima and Awata. 



HONGO-YAKI. 



The town of Hongo, which gives its name to this porcelain, 

 is situated in the Aidzu-taira (Plain of Aidzu), in the province of 

 Iwashiro on the way from Sanno-toge to the capital Wakamatsu, 

 and about 5 miles distant from the latter. On the south side of the 

 village rises a hill, on which at least a dozen low furnaces with 

 their vaults following one upon another are ranged. Hard por- 

 celain is manufactured here and decorated with cobalt colour under 

 glaze ; the ware, however, cannot compare favourably with that of 

 Seto and Kiyomidzu in respect to fineness and decorative art. The 

 industry is limited almost exclusively to common, useful articles. 

 It uses neither felspar nor quartz, but finds a rich and valuable 

 material in the volcanic, old crystalline products of decomposition 

 at greater or less distance. Table B III. gives the composition 

 of one of these materials, the Tonokuchi-ishi, which I saw in the 

 neighbourhood of the Inawashiro Lake. The kaolins are found 

 generally in the vicinity of Hongo. In one of the factories the 

 material consists of 5 parts Shirojari, 3 parts Haguro, 3 parts 

 Dobiyama-tsuchi, and 2 parts Tonokuchi. It has a tint of yellow, 

 but burns to a pure white. 



KUTANI-YAKI, OR KaGA PORCELAIN. 



Although it is not known exactly in what year (the date 1650 

 A.D. is commonly accepted) the manufacture of this peculiar por- 

 celain, so highly prized on account of its decoration, began, its 

 history is nevertheless much older than that of most of the porce- 

 lains which Japan has furnished. Mayeda Toshiharu, the first 

 Daimio of Daishoji in Kaga, soon after coming into power in 1639 

 A.D., brought a potter from Kioto and commissioned him to seek 

 for materials for fine clay-wares. The industry began after such 

 materials had been found in Kutani-mura and elsewhere. The 

 successor of the prince, Mayeda Toshiaki, in order to advance the 

 work, sent a workman named Tamura Gonzayemon to Hizen, that 

 he might learn there the manufacture of porcelain. After his 

 return he erected the first porcelain furnace at Kutani-mura, 8 ri 

 south-east of Daishoji, in the neighbourhood of the place where 

 Kutani-ishi is found, of which we shall speak further on. Ac- 



II. 11 



