JAPAN
potters of the Yung-lo era (1403–1424) and their successors had manufactured very beautiful specimens of this nature. Tradition says, indeed, that Iida Hichiroemon owed his conception to a piece of Chinese porcelain which he saw among the heirlooms of a neighbouring temple. Other authorities connect his methods with the work of the great Kyoto keramist, Eiraku Zengoro, whose red-and-gold porcelain had been famous for several years before Hachiroemon's time. It has also been shown above that the idea of a red ground for designs in gold, silver, and coloured enamels was familiar to the original Kutani potters. The distinguishing feature of the style attributed to Hachiroemon, however, was that his decoration (on a red ground) was traced with gold alone, and there is no doubt that he was the first to introduce this style at the Kutani factory, though in Kyōtō it was tolerably familiar. It became very popular. Pieces decorated with the Hachiro-e (pictures by Hachiroemon) found a ready sale, and their manufacture was continued on a considerable scale for about twenty years.
Again summarising, it appears that, although the reproduction of the Ao-Kutani ware did not commence in the Nomi district of Kaga until 1843, dated from 1809 in the Enuma district. From 1779, therefore, until about 1865, the keramic manufactures of the province of Kaga were of three varieties in respect of decoration. There was, first, the ware of Honda Teikichi and his successors, produced at Wakasugi, in the Nōmi district; there was, secondly, the Ko-Kutani are, produced from 1790 till 1865 at the Kutani factory, and from 1843 1865 at Wakasugi, and there was finally the gold-and-red ware of
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