Page 60 - Japanese marks and seals on pottery, paper and other objects.

22 MARKS AND SEALS ON POTTERY.
found in conjunction with the names of the potters and

painters, and the words thus formed might be supposed to
be the name of the factory or workshop at which the wares
were made or decorated. But this reading is seldom correct
except in those cases where the characters ni oite, or oite,
meaning in or at, are also used, or when the word Shiujin (the
master) appears in the inscription. Occasionally, however,
words terminating with slia may be taken as being the
titles of factories, but in other cases it will generally be safer
to accept the names as those which it is customary in Japan
for the makers and painters to assume as their professional
cognomen. Two of the examples of oite given below are
written in the Chinese style, whilst in the third the
Japanese Kata-kana characters ni and te are added :

7
OITE. NI OITE. OIl'E.
Chinese styU\ Japanese style. Chmesc style.

AN.
A small house.

TEI.
A pavilion or summer house.

Ka^a.