Page 465 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

PROVINCE OF IWAKI 309

of the Ota potters, signing his work Heigen, made small pieces of light clay and glaze
which show considerable skill in design and modeling.
4185*. TooTHPiCK-HOLDER (figure holding open bag). H. 3 in. White clay, light buff t^_
glaze. Figure with white and brownish glaze. Heigen (imp.). 1878 4185

MATSUYAMA (Case 35)
In 1 860 an oven was built in the town of Matsuyama. The product consisted of
ordinary tea and kitchen utensils. The pieces are interesting, as showing the refine-
ment of a country potter aspiring only to make pottery for the people of the neighbor-
hood.
4186. Bottle. H. 5 J in. Bulbous body, long neck. Light reddish clay, olive-brown glaze
on neck and part of body. Remaining surface coarse granulated brown glaze. 1878
4l87' CoNDiMENT-HOLDER. D. 5 in. Light reddish clay, light olive-brown glaze with
darker brown overglaze. 1878
4188. FiRE-vESSEL. D. 4 J in. Light reddish-buff clay, light olive-brown glaze. Rough
drawing of flowers in white slip. 1878
YEDO BANKO
The originator of Yedo Banko was a potter who came from Kuwana, Ise. He
had learned the secrets of his art from Kyoto artists. The excellence of his work
attracted the attention of the Shogun, who invited him to Yedo, where an oven was
built for him at Kommemura. This was in 1761-63. In 1786 he returned to Kuwana.
The opinions are so various, and the accounts so conflicting as to the identity of his
Yedo work, that all the early pieces bearing the mark of Banko, either plain or in oval
or circular panel, are for the present classified under the province of Ise.

PROVINCE OF IWAKI

The pottery of this province is widely known through the rough lathe-
turned and subsequently finger-modeled bowls recognized as Soma. The
bowls usually bear as a decoration a tethered horse as well as the crest of
the house of Soma. The pieces are commonly signed with the impressed
marks of Soma, or Kaneshige, though many other marks occur on Soma

bowls. The information derived from Ninagawa's work and other Japa-
nese books has been scant to the last degree. Only recently have I been
able to get further accounts of the pottery of this province. Mr. Michi-
taro Hisa, a graduate of Harvard, and a native of Iwaki, wrote urgent
letters at my request to friends of his in Nakamura, inclosing at the
same time copies of the various marks found on Iwaki specimens in the