WARES OF HIZEN
with materials procured from Izumi-yama. It docs not appear that the wares of either of these two factories showed any remarkable excellence. At the middle of the century (1660), however, the feudal chief of the province, desiring to establish a factory for the production of choice porcelains, selected the district of Nishimatsu-ura, and caused the best workmen of Hirose and Ichinose to open a kiln at Okawachi (generally pronounced Okōchi). Up to this time wares for official use had been manufactured at Iwaya-gawa, but the latter factory was now closed and its experts were employed at Okawachi. The feudal chief of Hizen, by whose orders this change was made, was a liberal patron of art industries. He appropriated considerable sums for the support of the Okawachi factory, and he further adopted the very exceptional course of raising to shizoku rank any potters of conspicuous skill. Materials were procured from Arita, and the most stringent measures were adopted to prevent the sale of the pieces manufactured. It will readily be understood that ware produced under such auspices attained a very high standard of excellence. The Nabeshima-yaki, as the Okawachi manufactures were subsequently called, stands first among Japanese porcelains decorated with vitrifiable enamels.
The factory received the name of O-dogu-yama (the hill of the honourable ware). A retainer of the feudal chief, by name Soeda Kizaemon, who had studied keramic processes and who enjoyed the reputation of being a man of refined taste, was appointed superintendent of the factory, an office which was filled by his descendants for many generations. Other officials were associated with him, their instructions
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