In 1848, Maeda Toshihira 11th Lord of Daishoji Han asked Yamamoto Hikoemon
to built a kiln to manufacture ceramics for the exclusive usage of the Han.
Yamamoto was from Matsuyama in the village of Chokushi in Enuma Gun.
Matsuyama, Bunko, Hakomiya and Futatsu nashi districts are famous places for
tiles manufacturing since a long time and there is a lot of clay available
around these places.
Perhaps Yamamoto thought about this clay and had his kiln opened on this place.
Aoya Genuemon and Matsuya Kikusaburo were invited to join the kiln. They used
materials from the old places such as Kutani village and Suizaka, Chokushi
etc. and mainly made officials gifts which were used in the Han. They made
ceramics similar to Yoshidaya.
However in 1863, Maeda Toshika 14th Lord of Daishoji Han decided to sale the
kiln to private investors. The name was changed to Matsuyama Okami kiln. The
kiln was operated in 1868 by Kinoshita Naomasa from Koshi village.
They were mainly doing some-tsuke and ordinary Kutani. But a few years later
the best workers had left the kiln and it closed down in 1872. Okura Kiyoshichi,
Hamasaka Seigoro and Nishide Yoshiro became famous later in the kilns around
Yamashiro . Kitade Uyomon went to Sakaeya kiln. Finally Yamamoto Shoeomon
and Tono Sojiro went to Chokushi kiln.
People at that time called this kiln the good Matsuyama kiln. The ruin of
the kiln still exist today near Matsuyama at a small hill in the middle of
Hiranuma plain .
They had many good painters such as Aoya Genuemon , Matsuya Kikusaburo , Nakano
Chuji , however even so there were making good paint, as the color of the
clay is already tinted the final color looks darker. Matsuyama kiln has trained
many workers who became later good painters or even kiln owners and have continued
to work long after Meiji. Matsuyama wares look like Yoshidaya, but the basic
pottery is not Roki but Toki or Jiki (the temperature of transformation is
higher than Roki) and when comparing with Yoshidaya their color contains a
lot of yellow. Purple contains some red, yellow contains lot of red but almost
no blue, Prussian blue is similar. They also use gold with a high technic.
The under glazed wares are often marked Eiraku or Dai Nihon Kutani . The original
unpainted pottery from Matsuyama have a more colored green- gray than the
unpainted pottery from Yoshidaya. The color and style of original Matsuyama
look like Yoshidaya, but Matsuyama did not paint all surface of pottery.
As the final color of the pottery is well influenced by the original color
of the surface, generally Matsuyama colors are quite dark.The colors found
are not always uniform and yellow with some blue tendency, green with yellow
tendency or purple with red tendency are commonly found. Only for Prussian
blue the color of the pottery has no influence and is independent from the
color of the base.
As far as the designs are concerned, beside the pattern around the edge, there
are motifs inside generally such as Mountain and water, flower and birds,
persons.
The paint lines are different between Yoshidaya style (tessenbyo) which are
thin and clear and Matsuyama which are made with a brush and then look thicker
.