The family of potters using the marks Kikkō  and Jusan ken has evidently puzzled the Japanese experts, probably for the reason that the classical collectors and tea-lovers did not consider the pottery of sufficient merit to be recorded; in which opinion they were justified. Nevertheless, I have been able to get from various sources a number of memoranda about the family, and they all differ. I found among Ninagawa's papers, for example, three different records of the family: one making three generations, another six, and another thirteen. Diligent inquiries fail to show that Kikkō  ever baked in Iyo, yet the records state that he had an oven there for a time. None of the accounts mention the fact that he was ever in Suo, and yet his Suo work is the most vigorous and artistic of all his efforts. With this conflicting material it may be stated that in the early part of the century a potter by the name of Jihei Toda, a native of Iyo, started an oven in Jusan, Osaka. Here was first used, in 1819, the mark Kikkō; how long he remained in Osaka is not known. Somewhere between 1831 and 1834 he had an oven in Iwakuni, Suo, and made hard yellow Nankin with incised decoration, and also Raku pottery, in which he used the impressed marks [Note: end  page 63 and begin page 64] Kikkō  and Jusan ken. (See Suo.) In 1835 he was pursuing his art in Susaka, Shinano. (See Shinano.) After this he went to Tokyo, and baked in an oven at Mukojima. He died in Tokyo in 1861. Now, whether this Kikkō  was the Kikkō  who was baking in Osaka in 1819, or the second or third generation from him, I have never been able to learn. At present a Raku pottery, with white glaze and round stamp of Kikkō, is being made in Tokyo, whether by a member of the family or a collateral branch is equally uncertain.

 593.  FLOATING TURTLE.  L. 6 ¾ in. Thin walls, scales incised. Light fawn clay. Back, yellowish-fawn glaze shaded with rich brown. Dark brown glossy glaze below, scales lined with white.          Kikkō (imp.).               1820

594-605.  Various forms of Kikkō  illustrating the variety of the work and the signatures of this oven.          594 Kikkō, 605 Jusan, 599 Kosui, Kosui ga and (?)      1820-50