Ei River

…A potter from the mid-Edo period. He is said to be the founder of the revival of Kyo-yaki. He is said to be a descendant of the Eigawa family, who were naturalized Chinese (Ming) people, and was adopted into the Okuda family, who ran the pawnbroker Maruya, and took the maiden name Eigawa. His name was Yotoku, and he was commonly known as Moemon. He lived in Gojo-agaru, Daikoku-cho, south of Kennin-ji Temple, and was inspired by the Chinese interest in Nanga painting and sencha tea, which was popular at the time, and apparently began to aspire to become a potter around the Tenmei era (1781-89). He was the first to make full-scale porcelain in Kyo-yaki, and excelled in copying Chinese Kochi, old blue and white porcelain, old red porcelain, and gosu red porcelain, and he was particularly skilled at copying gosu red porcelain, and his works, which feature bold paintings in vivid red and green on rough white porcelain bodies, surpass those from China. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Eigawa" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…江戸中期の陶工。京焼中興の祖といわれる。中国(明)からの帰化人穎川氏の後裔といわれ，質商丸屋を営む奥田家に養子となり，旧姓穎川を号した。名は庸徳，通称茂右衛門。建仁寺の南，大黒町五条上ルに居住し，当時流行した南画や煎茶を中心とする中華趣味に触発され，天明年間(1781‐89)ころから製陶を志したらしい。京焼で初めて本格的な磁器焼造を手がけ，中国の交趾，古染付，古赤絵，呉須赤絵などの写しにすぐれ，とくに呉須赤絵写しは得意で，粗末な白磁胎に鮮やかな赤や緑で豪放な絵付けを施す作品は，中国のものをもしのいでいる。…

※「頴川」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報