Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 8/Chapter 5
Chapter V
WARES OF KAGA (ISHIKAWA) PREFECTURE
After the wares of Hizen, Satsuma, and Kyōtō there is no keramic production of Japan better known than the Kutani-yaki. The origin of this ware is attributed to Maeda Toshiharu, feudal lord of Daishōji, who is said to have discovered a bed of excellent porcelain stone at the foot of a hill called Dainichi, near the village of Kutani. This event occurred during the Keian era (1648–1651). Some authorities maintain that no keramic industry existed in Kaga previous to that time, and derive confirmation of their view from the isolated position of the province, lying as it does on the extreme west of Japan, and being separated by a lofty range of mountains from Kyōtō, the centre of luxury and art patronage. More accurate investigations show, however, that a pottery kiln had existed at Suizaka (now called Kurose), in the vicinity of Daishōji, for fully half a century before the time of Maeda Toshiharu. The wares produced there—Suizaka-yaki—were faience of the Seto type; that is to say, pottery of dark, coarse pâte, covered with mahogany coloured or reddish brown glaze. The change that Maeda Toshiharu sought to inaugurate was the manufacture of porcelain, an industry for which Hizen had already acquired an enviable reputation. The two best potters of Suizaka at that epoch were Tamura Gonzaemon and Goto Saijiro. Toshiharu directed these men to open a new kiln at Kutani, in the Enuma district of the province, and to employ the lately discovered porcelain stone of Dainichi. The essay was not successful, and gave so little promise that it was temporarily abandoned. During the Manji era (1658–1660) Maeda Toshiaki, the son and successor of Maeda Toshiharu, regretting the fate of the enterprise that his father had desired to establish, sent Goto Saijiro to Hizen for the purpose of studying the processes of porcelain manufacture. Goto made the journey, but found that the secrets of the art were guarded with the greatest jealousy at Arita. His only resource was to accept service in the household of a potter, and to behave as though he intended to become a permanent resident of the province. This he was able to accomplish, after three years' service, by marrying a woman of the place, after which his employer, who had countenanced the marriage, admitted him into the porcelain works. After four years of unremitting application. Goto, feeling that he had sufficiently mastered the processes of the art, deserted his wife and children and fled to Kaga, where he submitted to his prince a full report of the Arita methods.[1] After this event, which may be placed in the year 1664, Kutani potters rapidly attained a high standard of skill. The wares that they produced were of two kinds. The first, and more characteristic, was Ao-Kutani, so called from a deep green (ao) glaze, of great brilliancy and beauty, which was largely used in its decoration. Associated with this glaze were others, not less lustrous and full-toned,—yellow, purple, and soft Prussian blue. The glazes were applied so as to form diapers, scrolls, and floral designs; or they were simply run over patterns traced in black on the biscuit. The second class of ware was decorated somewhat after the Arita fashion, with this principal difference,—that the Kutani potters seldom employed blue under the glaze in conjunction with enamels, except in wholly subordinate positions. Their chief colours were green and red, supplemented by purple, yellow, blue (enamel), silver, and gold. The Kutani red was a specialty,—a peculiarly soft, subdued, opaque colour, varying from rich Indian red to russet brown. For designs the early potters had recourse to a well-known artist, Kuzumi Morikaga, of the Kano school, a pupil of the renowned Tanyu. From his sketches they copied miniature landscapes, flowers ruffled by the breeze, sparrows perched among plum-branches, and other glimpses of nature in her simplest garb. On some of their choice pieces the decoration is of a purely formal character,—diapers, scrolls, and medallions enclosing conventional symbols. On others it is essentially pictorial. Figure subjects are rarely found, except the well-known Chinese children (Karako). The amateur may be tolerably confident that specimens decorated with peacocks, masses of chrysanthemums and peonies, figures of wrinkled saints, brightly apparelled ladies, cocks upon drums, and so forth, belong to the manufactures of modern times.
It is doubtful whether the first place among Japanese enamelled porcelains does not belong to the Kutani-yaki. In wealth and profusion of ornament the Chrysanthemo-pæonienne family of Imari appeals more forcibly to Western taste, while the productions of the Kakiemon school are chaster and more delicate. But for decorative effect, combined with softness and artistic beauty, the Ao-Kutani has, perhaps, no equal. The transparency, purity, and richness of the enamels are not unique. In the best wares of Arita and even of Kyōtō these features are equally conspicuous. The charm of the Ao-Kutani is due primarily to the admirable harmony of its colours and to their skilful massing, and secondarily to the technical excellence shown in the manner of applying the enamels. The Kutani potter, in tracing his designs, used enamels with as much facility as though they were ordinary pigments, and balanced his masses of green, red, blue, purple, and yellow so perfectly that their harmony delights the sense of sight as keenly as the motive they served to depict appeals to the artistic instinct. Besides, Japan has the right to claim this decorative fashion as her own invention. Its origin has been sometimes attributed to the Kochi-yaki, or so-called faience of Cochin China. But the two have nothing in common beyond similarity in the colour and quality of their enamels. Still more marked is the difference between the Ao-kutani and every other porcelain of China or Japan. Thus the ware acquires additional interest as a genuine representative of Japanese taste.
The same is true, though to a less conspicuous extent, of the second family of Kutani ware,—the famille rouge, as it may not inaptly be called in contradistinction to the famille verte (Ao-kutani). The dominant decorative colour in this ware is red—rouge mat; varying from Indian red to russet. It is generally employed in diapers or scrolls separating medallions which contain floral compositions, landscapes, dragons, phœnixes, children at play, and so forth, in yellow, green, purple, and red enamels. Vases of this Ko-kutani (old Kutani) are scarcely ever found. Indeed, specimens of any shape are rare, but those most frequently met with are plates, small dishes (muko-dzuke or vegetable vessels), cups, saké bottles, censers, and incense-boxes (kō-go). They present a large variety of decorative designs, executed sometimes with consummate skill and always with artistic feeling. There is no difficulty in distinguishing these pieces from the enamelled porcelains of Arita or Nabeshima: the balance and softness of the colours; their tone; the subdued yet rich character of the decoration, and the comparative absence of gold and silver in combination with vitrifiable enamels, constitute familiar points of difference.
One class of old Kutani decoration, belonging to the famille rouge, must be specially mentioned. In this the whole surface of the piece is covered with red, to which are applied designs in gold, silver, light green, and, more rarely, purple and yellow enamels. It has been erroneously asserted, and is commonly believed, that the first employment of red as a ground for decorative designs belongs to a late period of the Kutani manufacture. Such is not the case. This fashion of decoration occurs on old and choice examples of the ware. But the character of the red differs essentially from that of the modern manufacture; the former being a soft, subdued colour, more like a bloom than an enamel; the latter a glossy and comparatively crude pigment. A further and readily appreciated distinction is that the gold and silver of the ancient decorators are almost entirely free from glitter. They present the appearance of virgin metals that have undergone the action of heat without subsequent burnishing. This is partly due to the oxidisation of age, but chiefly to the manner in which the metals were prepared and applied. The subdued richness and harmony of the result can hardly be over-praised.
It is stated above that blue sous couverte was seldom used in combination with enamels by the Kutani potters. The statement is intended to direct attention to a difference between the decorative methods of Arita and Kutani. At Arita, it will be remembered, masses of blue designs under the glaze were commonly combined with similarly profuse coloured ornamentation above it. At Kutani this fashion was not followed. Where blue sous couverte occurs, it is found only in subordinate positions, as on the under surface of plates or in the minor parts of a design. But specimens decorated entirely with blue under the glaze, though exceedingly rare, are sometimes met with. In these, as well as in the former class of cases, the tone of the blue is peculiar. It lacks the depth and richness of the best Hizen blues, and is equally removed from the delicate purity of the Hirado colour. It is, in fact, an inferior and somewhat muddy pigment, though not unredeemed by a certain softness and sobriety.
KAGA WARE MASSES
| Silica. | Alumina. | Iron Oxide. |
Lime, Potash, etc. |
Water. | |||
|
64.66 | 23.61 | 0.88 | 7.28 | 2.55 | ||
|
68.19 | 22.58 | 0.31 | 6.73 | 1.95 | ||
|
67.69 | 24.14 | 0.19 | 4.92 | 3.37 | ||
|
67.97 | 21.56 | 0.89 | 4.05 | 5.20 | ||
|
70.96 | 20.17 | 0.46 | 7.04 | 1.37 | ||
|
71.51 | 22.85 | 0.66 | 2.77 | 1.92 |
The six masses were all differently compounded. Specimen 1 was of clay found at Chikano-mura, Kaga, without any addition. The ware obtained from this mass was faience, having a tolerably white pâte, like that of inferior Arita porcelain, but not transparent. Specimen 2 was a mixture, in the proportion of 7 to 3, of clay from Gokokuji-mura and stone from Nabedani-mura, both in the province of Kaga. The ware obtained from this mass was porcelain, having a yellowish, slightly transparent pâte. Specimen 3 was a mixture similar to specimen 2, except that one part of the stone from Nabedani-mura was replaced by a stone from Onomura. The ware obtained from this mass was faience, having a yellowish-white pâte. Specimen 4 consisted entirely of clay from Hanida-mura, in Kaga. The ware obtained from it was stone-ware, having a pâte like that of the preceding specimen. Specimen 5 was a mixture of four parts stone from Gokokuji-mura, two parts stone from Nabedani-mura, and four parts stone from Aratani-mura. The ware obtained was close-grained, tolerably transparent porcelain, of bluish tint. Specimen 6 was a mixture of unascertained materials. It gave a porcelain very white and close-grained, but little transparent. The appearance of the fracture resembled that of European porcelain, being less granular and stony than Arita ware, and less lustrous than the porcelain of Owari.
Commenting on these analyses, Mr. Korschelt says: "It appears that in Kaga there are manufactured from the same raw materials two different articles: one a transparent porcelain; the other a faience, or stone-ware, of yellowish pâte and colourless glaze. Between the two, however, there are transitions so gradual as to be difficult of distinction. As the raw material of all seems to be the same kind of stone—no importance attaching to the fact that it is called clay sometimes—we must conclude that it depends upon the degree of heat whether the Kaga ware emerges from the oven a yellowish faience or stone-ware, or a white or bluish porcelain." Mr. Korschelt further observes: "The differences in the chemical composition of the Kaga wares are not greater, but rather less, than those in the wares of Arita, and both are manufactured from one raw material, a stone. But the analyses show that the porcelain stone of Kaga is not identical with the porcelain stone of Hizen. The former contains much less silica and much more clay-earth and alkalies than the latter." With regard, on the other hand, to the quantities of the constituents of Kaga wares, the following table will show that considerable differences exist:—
CONSTITUENTS OF KAGA WARE
| No. | Felspar. | Clay Substance. | Quartz. | ||||
| Specimen | 1. |
|
19.53 | 47.34 | 31.69 | ||
| Specimen | 2. |
|
20.51 | 45.51 | 32.82 | ||
| Specimen | 3. |
|
39.53 | 33.75 | 25.25 | ||
| Specimen | 4. |
|
41.89 | 27.34 | 29.81 | ||
| Specimen | 5. |
|
14.31 | 44.78 | 39.54 |
In preparing the glazing material, lixiviated ashes of Keyaki (Planecu Japonica) were mixed with the porcelain stones of Nabedani and Gokokuji. It is not to be assumed that all the materials entering into the above masses were known to the ancient potters of Kutani. Which of them they did know, and in what manner they employed them, there is unfortunately no hope of ascertaining now. A careful examination of Kutani specimens produced in the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century shows, however, four distinct varieties of ware. The first is stone-ware, heavy in proportion to its thickness, and of tolerably fine quality: its timbre poor, showing a large ratio of clayey substance; its colour grey, verging on brown, and its glaze impure white, often disfigured by minute pitting. The second is semi-porcelain, often no harder than faience, thin and light. The glaze of this variety, always soft and opaque and generally showing accidental crackle, is sometimes greyish white, and sometimes comparable to refined wax. The third is porcelain of dull timbre but fine texture, covered with milk-white, opaque glaze of remarkable purity, without crackle. Finally, there is egg-shell porcelain, softer than that of Hizen or Owari, and further distinguished by the lustreless aspect of its glaze. It would be misleading to lay down any hard and fast rule associating special fashions of decoration with these different varieties of biscuit and glaze. The connoisseur will generally find, however, that the pâte of the Ao-Kutani is stone-ware or semi-porcelain.
A theory credited by some amateurs is that Gorodayu Shonzui, after his return from China (1515), settled at Kutani, and there manufactured enamelled porcelain. There is no foundation for this idea except the recent discovery of a plate of old Kutani ware bearing Shonzui's mark. Very ample credulity is needed to draw from evidence so slender and deceptive a conclusion entirely at variance with fairly well authenticated annals. It ought to be mentioned that the Kutani experts of early days are credited with a monopoly of skill in preparing and applying a dead-leaf or chocolate-brown glaze of much depth and softness. It was copied from Chinese pieces, but the merit of reproducing it in Japan belongs to the Kutani factory.The popularity enjoyed by the early Kaga ware was deservedly great, but owing to some unrecorded cause the manufacture did not long continue. It must be confessed, indeed, that very little is known about the story of the potteries until comparatively recent times. No names of experts have been handed down by tradition, nor do the marks upon specimens offer information of this character. That ware of such technical excellence and artistic beauty should have failed to find a market is scarcely credible. The probable explanation of the early factory's short life, the explanation given by Japanese experts, is that the productions of the Kutani pottery, like those of Okawachi (Nabeshima, in Hizen), were officially limited. The workmen, forbidden to dispose of their wares without permission, depended on the patronage of their feudal chief and his officers, and losing that patronage—for presumably they did lose it—had no choice but to abandon their trade. Another reason is that under feudal rulers intercourse between the people of Kaga province and those of other fiefs was exceptionally restricted. Devout Buddhists, and almost fanatical in their allegiance to the Monto sect, the Kaga folks had shown such recklessness in their contributions to the support of that sect's great monasteries in Kyōtō, that their lord deemed it prudent to interdict all export of merchandise, goods, chattels, or specie from the fief, except under official supervision. Such an embargo was not unlikely to check the development of the keramic art. At any rate, it was checked. Some seventy or eighty years after Goto Saijiro's return from Arita, the Kutani factory practically ceased to be active, and by 1750 the production of the beautiful specimens described above had almost, if not entirely, ceased. The potter's industry did not, indeed, thenceforth become extinct in the province, but its products were of a common, unattractive type.
Things remained thus until 1779, when a man called Honda Teikichi, a native of Hizen, came to Kanazawa, the chief town of Kaga. This Honda was an expert potter and had worked for a long time at the Arita factories. Falling under the displeasure of the local authorities, he was obliged to fly from his home, and after wandering through various parts of the Empire, he found refuge in the house of a potter of Kasuga-yama, in Kaga. Shortly afterwards, he moved to Wakasugi, in the Nōmi district (Nōmi-gori) of the same province, and there became the guest of Hayashi Hachibei, the head-man of the village. It was in the neighbouring district of Enuma that the Kutani factory stood: the Nōmi district did not yet possess a kiln, and was supposed to be without keramic materials. Honda Teikichi proved that this supposition was erroneous. He discovered good porcelain stone at a hill called Rokubei-yama, near Wakasugi. The discovery induced Hayashi Hachibei to open a factory, where, under Teikichi's direction, enamelled porcelain was produced. The artist was assisted by three other experts: Torakichi of Kyōtō, Heisuke of Hirado, and Torakichi of Kumano. These four men carried on the manufacture with success. They did not, however, revive the methods of the old Kutani potters, choosing rather a style of decoration that resembled that of Imari but was less brilliant. To prepare and apply the beautiful enamels of the Ao-Kutani would evidently have overtaxed their ability. Teikichi died in 1819, having worked at Wakasugi for forty years. He left two sons, Seibei and Eikichi, who are said to have been expert potters. But in 1822 Hayashi Hachibei, the patron and capitalist of the factory, finding that the enterprise had ceased to be profitable, abandoned it. Ten years later (1832), a citizen of Kanazawa, by name Hashimoto Yasubei, re-opened the factory and placed it under the direction of three potters, Hachibei, Kyubei, and Chōjiro, who had been pupils of Teikichi. This revival was encouraged by the patronage of Maeda, ex-Daimyo of Kaga. In 1837 the industry received a further impulse through the discovery—by Hachibei—of porcelain stone at Niiyama, and pottery clay at Hachimaita, in the district of Hanasaka, Among the decorators who had worked in the former factory and whose services were retained by Hashimoto, was an artist of Kyōtō, named Yujiro, whose success in using enamels after the Imari style obtained for him the sobriquet of Akae-Yujiro (aka-e signifies painting with coloured enamels). In 1838, owing to conflagration, the factory was removed to Tsuchi-yama, in the same district. Seven years previously (1830), another factory had been established in the neighbourhood (at Ono-mura), by a farmer called Yabu Rokuemon, who engaged two of Teikichi's former pupils, Chōsuke and Gihei, to carry on the potter's work, and Kutani Shozo, Saida Dokan, and Kitaichya Heikichi as decorators. They used materials found at Gokokuji, at Nabedani, and at Sano, all in the immediate vicinity. Rokuemon conducted this enterprise until 1850, when he transferred the factory to one Zendayu, who managed the sale of its productions until 1860.
In 1824 Yujiro (mentioned above) had among his pupils two artisans, Ishida Heikichi and Kawashiri Shichibei, who are credited with having transmitted and improved his methods. A few years later (1830) two other potters attract attention. These are Matsumoto Kikusaburo and Awaya Genemon. The former appears to have undergone a very extensive training, having been the pupil successively of Saida Isaburo (otherwise called Dōkai), a potter of Sano (in the Nōmi district); of Kozaka Shirobei, an expert of Yoshikawa (in the same province); of Jōzan, director of the Sanda factory (in Sesshū); and of Shūhei, a well-known Kyōtō potter. Returning to Kaga from his last apprenticeship in Kyōtō, he settled at Komatsu, and there worked for many years, in partnership with Awaya Genemon and Sumiya Sakubei, to revive the methods of the old Ao-Kutani porcelain. The factory where these experiments were carried on, at Rendaiji (in the Nōmi district) was under Genemon's direction. From 1843 till 1850 Kikusaburo, Genemon, and Sakubei worked there; after which they opened another kiln at the neighbouring village of Motoe, and continued the same style of manufacture for three years longer. Matsumoto Kikusaburo then settled finally at Komatsu, and in 1867 handed his business over to his son Matsumoto Sahei. Referring to what has been said above, it will be seen that in 1830 a factory was established at Ono-mura by Yabu Rokuemon. Here, for the first time in Kaga, a kiln was built of the shape known as nabori-gama; that is to say, a number of vaulted chambers arranged, one above the other, on an inclined plane. This form of furnace was more economical for stoving small pieces than the round kiln (maru-gama) previously employed. Its superior facilities, the patronage of the local authorities, and the enterprise of the potters brought about a marked development of keramic industry in the Nōmi district. Between 1854 and 1859, when this impulse was at its height, there were factories at seven places—Wakasugi-mura, Yawata-mura, Ono-mura, Sano-mura, Yutani-mura, Wake-mura, and Tokuyama-mura—each possessing a nobori-gama of from five to twelve compartments, and the whole giving employment to over two hundred artisans.
Extracting salient facts from these somewhat confusing details, it appears that, after an interval of about thirty years' cessation, the keramic industry of Kaga was revived (1779) in the Nōmi district, by a fugitive potter (Honda Teikichi) of Hizen, who had the assistance of artists from Hirado, Kyōtō, and elsewhere; that the wares produced were of the Arita rather than the Kutani fashion; that in 1843 manufacture of the beautiful Ao-Kutani ware was successfully recommenced, chiefly through the exertions of an artist called Matsumoto Kikusaburo; that the industry grew in Nōmori-gori until (1855) there were seven factories employing two hundred artisans; and that the materials used were found at Gokokuji, Nabedani, Sano-mura, Ono-mura, and elsewhere.
Before speaking of the qualities of the wares produced in the Nōmi district, it is necessary to turn, for a moment to the Enuma district, where, as explained above, the original Kutani-yaki was manufactured. Here the revival of the industry did not take place until 1809, when Yoshida Denemon, a merchant of Daishōji, established a factory at Kutani. Two years later, with a view to greater facilities of access, the factory was removed to Yamashiro-mura, in the vicinity of Daishōji. Kutani porcelain stone, from Dainichi-yama, was employed, and the decorative methods of the old Ao-Kutani—green, purple, blue, and yellow enamels—were followed as closely as possible. The ware thus produced was commonly called Yoshida-yaki. Associated with Yoshida was an expert called Myamoto Uemon. These two men continued to work with success until 1840, when Uemon was succeeded by his son Riemon. About this time the factory obtained the services of an artist called Iida Hachiroemon, who effected a marked change in the decorative fashion of the ware by introducing a style known as Akaji-kinga, or gold designs on a red ground. It was not an original idea. The Chinese 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 the Hachiroemon kiln, dating from 1840. With regard to the first, it varied in quality from dense, somewhat coarse pâte—almost stone-ware—to thin and fine, but soft porcelain. The decoration bore a close resemblance to that of Arita enamelled ware, but there were less massing of colours and a freer use of scroll patterns and diapers in principal positions: gold was sparsely employed, and the general effect was subdued. With regard to the second, the revived Ko-Kutani, its pâte was soft, heavy stone-ware, having a dull timbre. The glazes, green, purple, blue, and yellow, were lustrous and pure, but not so rich as those of the old Ao-Kutani. Finally, the fashion of running these glazes over designs—diapers, arabesques, floral scrolls, and sometimes landscapes—traced in black, was eminently characteristic of the time. Specimens of this middle-period Ao-Kutani are tolerably easy to procure. They do duty with bric-à-brac vendors for "Old Kutani," from which, however, they are readily distinguishable by the greater softness of their pâte, the inferior richness of their enamels, the greyish tone of their glaze, and the comparatively thin, crude appearance of their red pigment. With regard to the third variety—the Hachiroe ware—it was of two kinds, porcelain and faience. The distinguishing feature of its decoration was the free use of red and gold. In some part of the design red was nearly always employed as a ground for floral scrolls or conventional patterns in gold. The faience, or semi-stone ware, of this period was covered with an opaque glaze of warm, ivory-like tint, and soft, grey appearance, showing accidental crackle. No similar glaze is to be found on any other ware of Japan. The decoration was more florid and elaborate than anything seen on old Kutani-yaki, though in this respect it still fell considerably short of the miniature painting of the modern school.
Hachiroemon died in 1849. Nine years later (1858), the two sons of the celebrated Kyōtō keramist Zengoro Hōzen—commonly called Eiraku—together with another Kyōtō artist, Ohashi Rakusen, were invited to Kaga by Maeda, chief of the fief. Of the two brothers one, Zengoro Wazen, remained six years at Kutani, and assisted in developing the decorative fashion—gold designs on a red ground—for which his father had been so famous. The difference between Wazen's style and Hachiroemon's was that in the former the whole piece—except, perhaps, the inner surface, where designs in blue sous couverte occasionally appear—was covered with red, serving as a ground for conventional patterns in gold; whereas in Hachiroemon's ware red was used for purposes of delineation quite as much as for a ground colour. Further, Wazen's red may be distinguished from Hachiroemon's by its greater body, yet lighter, coral-like tone. Pieces manufactured by Wazen, or under his directions, at Kutani are generally marked Kutani ni oite Eiraku tsukuru, which signifies, "Made by Eiraku at Kutani."
During the troublous years immediately preceding and following the abolition of the feudal system, that is to say, from about 1863 to 1869, the keramic industry of Kaga did not escape the general commercial depression. The factories in both the Enuma and Nōmi districts were either closed or kept open for the production of common utensils only. At this juncture an amateur of considerable means, Abe Omi, set himself resolutely to work to revive the decaying industry. In 1868 he caused a kiln to be erected within the enclosure of the ex-feudal chief's park, and engaged all the best-known potters of the district. It is unnecessary to recount the vicissitudes that overtook this enterprise. It cost its projector thirty thousand dollars, and reduced him to a position of exceedingly straitened means. But the benefit conferred on the keramic art by his exertions and sacrifices was very great. There are now (1885) upwards of 2,700 persons engaged, either technically or commercially, in the industry in Kaga province. Among them are 280 painters whose pupils number 520. Frequent efforts have been made by the authorities to improve the standard of the art, and large quantities of the ware are exported every year. There is a Pottery Association to which the principal manufacturers belong, and there is also a Society of Experts who watch the work and keep the potters supplied with good designs. Kaga porcelain has thus been brought into considerable favour. Table services of all kinds for Western use are produced in great numbers. They are porcelain of fair quality, and their invariable decoration is of the red-and-gold type. Medallions of various shapes enclose landscapes, floral compositions, figures or mythical animals, and are themselves surrounded by a red ground with golden designs traced on it. The execution is often of a very high character,—miniature painting which for delicacy and accuracy leaves nothing to be desired. Especially is this true of pieces having a multitude of tiny figures in gold depicted with microscopic fidelity on a solid red ground. But it must be confessed that the fashion lacks variety. One wearies of a perpetual glitter of gilding and massing of red pigment, more especially as the latter, in point of tone and richness, does not commend itself to refined taste. The potters themselves, appreciating the consequences of this monotony, have made resolute efforts, of late years, to revive the incomparably richer and more varied methods of the old Ao-Kutani. In this enterprise a leading part has been played by Takenouchi Kinshū,—called also Gaikyō, or Yusetsusai,—a man of gentle birth, who, having studied keramics under the potters Okura and Tsukatani, of Kutani, has succeeded, after years of experiment and innumerable failures, in reproducing the beautiful green, yellow, purple, and blue vitreous glazes of former times. Matsumoto Sahei, of Wakasugi, has also contributed materially to the success of this revival, and is further distinguished by the beauty of his designs, many of which are taken from the works of celebrated pictorial artists. Other keramists of note who have flourished since the abolition of feudalism are Ishida Heizō, Mifuji Bunzo, Fujikata Yasojō, Tsukuya Sen (called also Chikuzen), Okura Seishichi (called also Juraku), Asukai Kyoshi, Kawashiri Kahei, Matsubara Shinsuke, Wakafuji Genjiro, Hashimoto Hachibei, and Nakagawa Genzaemon. The decorators form a separate school.
In former times the potters of Kutani did not use their own names to mark their pieces. Sometimes they put the name of the factory (Kutani), but in the majority of cases they employed simply the ideograph "fuku," or "good fortune." The use of names for this purpose is comparatively recent: it does not date farther back than 1850, and is confined, for the most part, to elaborately decorated pieces of the red-and-gold type. The names are not stamped: they are written sometimes in gold, sometimes in red or black, and occasionally green enamel is run over the writing. They are the names of decorators, not of potters.
In addition to the wares mentioned above there was produced in the province of Kaga a faience called Ohi-yaki. It was of the Raku type. The factory stood in Ohi-machi, Kanazawa (the capital of Kaga), and its founder was Haji Chōzaemon. This man came of a very ancient family of potters. He was twenty-eighth in descent from Naga-mitsu Michiyasu, a retainer of the Emperor Kammu (782–805 A. D.), and twentieth in descent from Nagamitsu Yasutoshi, who, following the celebrated statesman Michizane into exile (905 A. D.), settled in the province of Kawachi, at the village of Haji, so called because it was inhabited chiefly by potters. Nagamitsu, being without resources, adopted the potter's trade and changed his family name to Haji (abbreviation of hani-shi, an ancient term for "potter"). His descendants continued to earn a livelihood by the manufacture of unglazed pottery, until the time of Haji Chōzaemon, who in the year 1657 visited Kyōtō, and learned the art of making Raku faience. Nine years later (1666) he was summoned to Kaga by Prince Maeda Saishō, and there, building a kiln in Ohi-machi, manufactured tea-utensils after designs furnished by the Chajin Senno Soshitsu. The Ohi ware, as it was then, and as it remained with very little change until recent times, need not occupy much attention. A faience with reddish brown, somewhat coarse pâte, considerably heavier than the Raku-yaki of Kyōtō, it only became interesting from an artistic point of view when used in the manufacture of figures,—deities, Rishi, or mythical animals,—some of which were modelled with boldness and skill. The glaze was semi-transparent, its colour varying from peculiar brownish amber (called by the Japanese ame-gusuri, or bean-jelly glaze), to dull black. The clays principally used for its manufacture were found at Kasuga-yama and Hōkōji-mura, in Kaga, and to these was added a white earth procured from the province of Etchū. Haji Chōzaemon changed his family name to "Ohi." The manufacture inaugurated by him was carried on by his descendants through six generations until the present time. The genealogy of the family runs thus:—
- 1. Hagi Chōzaemon; came from Kyōtō in 1666, and settling in Ohi-machi, changed his family name to "Ohi."
- 2. Ohi Chōzaemon; enjoyed the patronage of two successive chiefs of Kaga, Yoshitoshi and Munetatsu.
- 3. Ohi Kambei; died 1802.
- 4. Ohi Kambei; had the honour of making pottery in the presence of the Kaga chief, 1785, who conferred on him a pension of two rations of rice in perpetuity. In 1822 he was further rewarded with 500 me (416 lbs.) of silver. The following year he manufactured a Shishi (mythical lion) six feet high, and presented it to the chief, who ordered him to receive five gold Oban (about $150), and gave to each of the twenty-three coolies who carried the lion two hundred pieces of copper. Kambei died, 1839.
- 5. Ohi Kambei; received, in 1828, a grant of sixty tsubo (1 tsubo=36 square feet) of land for the purposes of his factory. He received a special commission to manufacture pottery for use at the city mansion of the Kaga family (Hongo, Yedo) on the occasion of the reception of the Tokugawa Shōgun, Ienari, and was handsomely rewarded. He was further commissioned to supply pottery every new year for use in the mansions of the Kaga family, and he executed various special commissions for the Kaga princesses. He died in 1856.
- 6. Ohi Sakutarō; continued to enjoy the special patronage of the Kaga family.
- 7. Ohi Michitada; had the honour of being admitted to the outer audience chamber of the Kaga mansion, and received various rewards from the Kaga family. He abandoned the potter's trade in 1869, after the fall of the feudal system, but resumed it in 1885, establishing his kiln at Kasugamachi.
Here, as in the case of the Raku-yaki of Kyōtō, it is necessary to caution the reader against basing any extravagant idea of the Ohi faience on the comparative accuracy of its records. Whenever in Japan any branch of industry has been the specialty of one family, it is always easy to compile such a table as the above. The Ohi-yaki was, in truth, an unattractive faience, only redeemed from utter homeliness by the occasional skill of its modellers and the peculiar amber-like colour and transparency of its glaze. Its annals are interesting, however, as showing the intimate nature of the patronage extended by families of feudal chiefs in Japan to the artists and artisans in their fiefs. The articles manufactured by the Ohi potters in former days were chiefly utensils for the Cha-no-Yu. These are still highly valued by Japanese connoisseurs. In the majority of cases the mark of the factory (Ohi) is stamped in the pâte.
During the present century Raku ware after the fashion of the Ohi-yaki has been manufactured by two families of Kaga potters besides that of Haji Chōzaemon. They are the family of Kato Nagatoshi, who established a kiln in Yamano-ue-machi, Kanazawa, 1856, and employed clays obtained at Hōkōji-mura, Yamano-ue-mura, Dangi-mura, and Ono-mura in the Nōmi district of Kaga; and the family of Hara Yosobei (called also Gozan), a Cha-jin, who, in 1862, built a kiln at Uguisu-dani, and produced ware that has been compared to the yellow Chien-yao (vide Chien-yao) of China. He employed clays from Aratani-mura, Nabetani-mura, Sano-mura, Utsu-yama, and Yamada-mura (all in Kaga), from Shigaraki, in Omi, and from Awata, in Kyōtō.
One other ware produced in the province of Kaga remains to be mentioned: a faience of great beauty, popularly but erroneously known as Ohi-yaki. The pâte is of the Raku type,—soft with a peculiarly dull timbre. The glaze is cream white, waxy, opaque, showing subdued lustre and finely crackled. But the charm of the ware lies in the enamelled decoration. It is difficult to conceive anything more admirable, from a technical point of view, than the manner in which the decoration is executed. The enamels, pure and lustrous, green, blue, yellow, purple, and red, are used with all the facility of ordinary pigments to depict landscapes, floral subjects, birds, diapers, scrolls, and so forth, with microscopic accuracy and charming taste. Only in some of the choicest specimens of Kyōtō faience, masterpieces by Eiraku, Shūhei, and their peers, can work be found of such infinite delicacy. The Kaga faience is further distinguished by metallic reflection; but, on the other hand, it is without the exquisite softness of the Kyōtō glaze. The originator of this beautiful ware was Kurin-ya Gembei, who constructed a kiln for the manufacture of Raku faience, in Edamachi, Kanazawa, in 1827. It is to Gembei's son, Awaya Genemon, however, that the credit belongs of bringing the manufacture to its highest point of excellence. This expert's name has already been mentioned. To him, working in conjunction with Matsumoto Kikusaburo at the Rendaiji factory, is due the revival of the Ao-kutani ware in the Nōmi district of Kaga. Simultaneously he carried on the manufacture of enamelled Raku faience—essentially a domestic industry—at his house in Edamachi. He flourished from 1843 to 1865, and left behind him some specimens which are now eagerly sought by connoisseurs. Genemon's mastery of the technique of his craft seems to have been very remarkable. He was noted for his extraordinary success as a potter of ro-buchi,—square frames used at Tea Ceremonials to form lips for fire-boxes. To produce faience of such a shape with mathematical accuracy was a feat quite beyond the strength of any but the most dextrous keramist. His skill as a decorator combined with his remarkable mastery of keramic processes may be seen to greatest advantage in faience writing-boxes (suzuri-bako) and writing-desks (kendai), which are as true and accurate as joiner's work. Genemon was succeeded by his son Aoki Eigorō, who, though not without skill, could not emulate his father's achievements. The manufacture, temporarily abandoned in 1862, was recently resumed. Eigoro now confines himself to decorative work. He is successful in the preparation and use of enamels, but the ware itself, being no longer a family specialty, falls palpably below the quality of the earlier faience.
It may be worth while to mention that the term Kaga-yaki (ware of Kaga) has, of late years, come to signify the red-and-gold porcelain of the province, as distinguished from the enamelled ware of Kutani. The distinction is purely capricious. All the varieties described above, whether porcelain or pottery, are properly included in the name Kaga-yaki.
- ↑ See Appendix, note 5.
Note 5.—The leading features of this story are repeated in the case of two or three potters.