Chapter VII
MISCELLANEOUS WARES
KARATSU-YAKI
Reference has been made more than once in the preceding pages to the ware of Karatsu. A port on the northwest coast of Hizen, Karatsu, or Nagoya, may be said to have been the harbour of entry and exit for the greater part of the traffic between Japan, China, and Korea. It was here that the Taikō, in 1572, assembled his forces for the Korean expedition. More than a thousand years ago the little town possessed kilns, and was recognised as a place of some importance for the sake of its potteries. But there is no evidence that in those early days the outcome of its factories was in any respect above the generally low level of the potter's industry throughout Japan. The best specimens produced at the foot of Mount Karatsu in the ninth and tenth centuries were of coarse clay, dark and heavy, showing only an occasional trace of natural glaze. Their one feature of interest is that they were made on the wheel. Early in the eleventh century, however, some Korean potters are said to have found their way to Karatsu and settled there. The date of this event is somewhat apocryphal. If it be accepted, the student is obliged to admit that Katō Shirozaemon was not the "father of Japanese potters," and that,
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