JAPAN
At this point it becomes convenient to revert to the story of the remaining Korean potters who had accompanied Prince Yoshihiro. At first they settled in the district of Hioki, in Sasshū, establishing a factory at Shitana, and manufacturing wares of much the same character as those produced by Hōchiu and his comrades at Chōsa. But in the year 1603, for some reason not recorded, they removed to the Nawashiro district in the same province, closing the factory of Hioki, or Moto-tsubo-ya, as the place is now called. Among the Korean wares most highly esteemed in Japan there was a variety to which Japanese virtuosi had given the name of Koma-gai—written Kumagawa. This was faience having somewhat coarse, brown pâte, with lustrous, cream-coloured or buff glaze, very finely crackled and of considerable merit. Resembling in some respects the Chinese white Ting-yao of the Sung dynasty,—a ware eagerly sought after by the tea-clubs—the Koma-gai faience offered a model which Prince Yoshihiro was naturally anxious to see copied at his factories. His wish could not be complied with at first, owing to lack of suitable materials. Various essays were made by Boku Heii, the most skilled of the Korean experts, but so little success was achieved that in the year 1614 Prince Yoshihiro found it necessary to have a careful search made throughout his fief for suitable materials. The task was entrusted to Boku Heii. After an examination conducted with the utmost patience, Heii reported that the following materials were suited for manufacturing a faience of the desired nature: A species of white sand found at Kaseda; a stone for manufacturing glaze, found at Kionomine, in the same district; three varieties of
140
