I had been working as a professional ceramist for ten years when I first heard about the potters' markets of mainland Europe.
The latter ceramist excelled also in the production of purple, green and yellow glazes, which he combined with admirable skill and taste.
The porcelain industry was inaugurated in 1807 by Tamikichi, a local ceramist, who had visited Hizen and spent three years there studying the necessary processes.
But its chief development took place under the direction of Igarashi J izaemon, an amateur ceramist, who, happening to visit Chikuzen about 1620, was taken under the protection of the chief of the fief and munificently treated.
It can scarcely be doubted that the true instincts of the ceramist will ultimately counsel him to confine his decoration over the glaze to vitrifiable enamels, with which the Chinese and Japanese potters of former times obtained such brilliant results.