EARLY WARES
at Fukakusa, but as she died shortly afterwards, he travelled to Kyōtō and the neighbouring districts, making everywhere experiments in pottery. This he did also in the districts Chita and Aichi of his native province, Owari, but nowhere did the results satisfy him. At last he came to the village of Seto, in the district Yamada of the same province. Here, to his surprise, he discovered the clay called Sobokai, and seeing that the aspect of the place was southerly, that the hills were high, the water pure, and the clay similar to that which he had brought from China, he opened a factory there, and to the end of his life never moved elsewhere. There is a tradition that the name Sobokai, which signifies "grandam's bosom," was given to the earth because Shirozæmon's grandmother, having found it at Amaike in Seto, carried some of it home in the bosom of her garment. Another tradition is that the whereabouts of the Sobokai was revealed to the Father of Pottery in a dream by the guardian divinity of Seto to whom he had prayed. This village of Seto was formerly included in the Yamada district, but now belongs to the district of Kasugai. In ancient times, also, it was doubtless a good place for the potter's industry, since various annals record that at a remote period the utensils for the Imperial Court were always procured from there. The knowledge of what had been done in this line before his time contributed to the success of the Father of Pottery. The site where his dwelling stood is called Nakajima. It lies among the rice plains eastward of the temple of Fukagawa in the village of Seto, and southward of Enchō-in. It is marked by a cryptomeria tree. In his later years the Father of Pottery handed over the factory to his son, and built, on the above site, a house for himself and his wife to end their days. The date of his death is not recorded. His tomb is known as the "Tumulusa of the Fifth Rank." To the left of the village of Seto there is a kiln formerly used by him. It is called Mashiro, but nothing known to have been made by his hand remains in Seto, except a lion, one of a pair used as weights for the curtains at the village temple. Inhabitants of the village whose name begins with the syllabic To are his descendants. A temple has been erected to his memory, and he is there worshipped under the titles of the "Prince of
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