MISCELLANEOUS WARES
the same province of Chikuzen. Blue-and-white ware of fair quality is produced, but it scarcely rises to the level of an art manufacture.
WARES OF HIGO (KUMAMOTO PREFECTURE)
The principal province of Kiushiu is Higo, which lies to the south of Hizen. The feudal chief of this province at the end of the sixteenth century was the renowned warrior Katō Kiyomasa, who led the expedition of 1592 to Korea. Returning in 1598, he brought with him two Korean potters, and directed them to open a factory at the foot of a hill called Koshiro, near Minamiseki. The ware produced (Koshiro-yaki) was faience, or stone-ware, having flambé glazes resembling but inferior to those of the Chosa-yaki (vide Satsuma-yaki), and evidently copied from Chinese models. The factory was patronised by the feudal chiefs of the province. In 1670 an order was issued that specimens of the Koshiro-yaki should be regularly furnished to the house of Hosokawa. Subsequently, at an unrecorded date, the potters moved to the Hori-ike park in Minamiseki. The productions were thenceforth known as Shōfū-yaki. The present owner of the factory is Noda Matashichi, who carries on a considerable trade in coarse articles of daily use.
Another factory was established (1765) at Honto-baba by Okabe Tokuzō. Faience was manufactured there, having reddish brown pâte and mahogany glaze.
But the ware on which the keramic reputation of the province chiefly depends is the Yatsushiro-yaki. Among the Koreans brought to Japan by Katō Kyomasa was Sonkai, said to be a son of the governor of Fusan, in that country. Sonkai resided for a short
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