WARES OF KYŌTŌ
opened at Shiru-dani and Komatsu-dani, as mentioned above. The reader knows that the names of three potters, Otoroku, Otowaya, and Kiushichi, who worked at the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, were associated with these factories. Their pieces are the original faience of Kyōtō; that is to say, ware having close pâte, tolerably regular crackle, and greyish or yellowish glaze. They also employed ai-e and shibu-e for decorative purposes. Doubtless because these early Seikanji productions are the prototypes of the true Kyōtō faience, they are sometimes called ko-Kyōmizu-yaki, or old ware of Kyōmizu. The term is not strictly correct, inasmuch as the Kyōmizu district had not yet become the keramic centre of Kyōtō. It attained that distinction subsequently. The names Seikanji-yaki and Otowa-yaki are more properly applied to this old faience of the Seikanji locality.
Ninsei worked chiefly at the factories of Mizoro, Awata, and Iwakura. These places, being of great importance in respect of Kyōtō wares, merit detailed notice. The Mizoro and Awata factories were both founded by descendants of the first Kyōtō potter, Minamoto no Yasuchika, who has been already mentioned. From the ninth century until the sixteenth there is no record of the history of his family. Descendants of Minamoto no Yasuchika (who lived during the second half of the ninth century) were:—
- 1. Unren-in Yasunari; lived at Kamo, in the northern port of Kyōtō, and subsequently established a kiln at Mizoro, or Gobosatsu, where he manufactured on-miki-dokuri, or wine-bottles for religious rites. Died 1530.
- 2. Yasubei; worked at Gobosatsu (Mizoro). Died 1568.
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