WARES OF HIZEN
There is nothing in this account to suggest "rare specimens of porcelain." The fact is that, while the Portuguese were trading at the ports of Kiushiu, the manufacture of porcelain, such as they would have been likely to purchase, was not carried on either there or anywhere else in Japan. Gorodayu Go-shonzui, returning from China early in the sixteenth century, manufactured a few hundred pieces of blue-and-white porcelain with the materials which he had brought from the Po-yang Lake, and died before the first "black ship" sighted Tanegashima. It is most improbable that any of his pieces came into the hands of the Portuguese. Produced in quantities too small and at too great cost to become an article of ordinary commerce, the specimens cannot have possessed any attraction for traders whose headquarters were in the country from which Shonzui had derived his knowledge and his materials. After Shonzui's death his immediate successors were unable to manufacture anything but stone-ware, which certainly was not of such a nature as to invite the attention of European traders; and the same may be said of the first Japanese porcelain, properly so called, the production of which commenced more than half a century after the arrival of the Portuguese in Kiushiu.
Hizen is one of the fairest provinces in Japan. Its eastern and northern districts are occupied by hills of gentle contour, fertile valleys, and picturesque streams. Its western portion consists of a multitude of lovely islets, the principal of which is Hirado. It has six mineral springs and thirteen famous cascades, and its soil is exceptionally fertile. In olden times it was included, with the neighbouring province of Higo, in the district known as Hi-no-kuni, or the
41
