It is recorded that about the year 1820 a fire, occurring at one of the Arita factories, destroyed nearly the whole hamlet. The potters were reduced to great straits, and had almost despaired of carrying on their industry, when one of their leaders, Hisatomi [sic Hisatani] Yojibei, assembled his comrades and suggested the expedient of manufacturing porcelain expressly for foreign markets. It is not to be inferred that the productions of Arita had hitherto been confined to Japanese use. They were unquestionably exported by the Dutch. But the pieces sent to Nagasaki with this object were the surplus rather than the staple of the manufacture. Hisatomi's [sic Hisatani's] idea was that an effort should be made to develop foreign sales, as no other prospect offered of recouping the losses caused by the fire. The potters adopted his counsel. A quantity of porcelain was soon ready for sale, but the question was how to sell it. The consent of Nabeshima, chief of Hizen, had to be first obtained; after which Hisatomi [sic Hisatani] himself proceeded to Nagasaki to manage the business. There, however, he found that the number of merchants permitted to engage in foreign trade was strictly limited to ten. These monopolists refused peremptorily to imperil the porcelain market by throwing on it a sudden profusion of Arita wares. Hisatomi [sic Hisatani] did not succumb to such adverse circumstances. He set himself down in Nagasaki, and after ten years of perseverance, varied only by differences in the degree of hardship endured, he succeeded in purchasing the privilege of one of the monopolists. During this interval of waiting he had time to study the tastes of European customers, as interpreted by the Dutch. He learned that the thinner the pate the more highly was porcelain valued in the West. Then visiting Mikawachi, he urged the Hirado potters no longer to limit their manufacture of egg-shell ware to wine-cups and other diminutive utensils for Japanese use. The result of his advice was the blue-and-white egg-shell familiar to foreigners. Very little of it now remains in Japan, but at one time bowls, plates, and cups might be found without great difficulty. The ware was as thin as paper, and the decoration — blue sous couverte — was not only well executed but of pure, brilliant colour. This porcelain was almost invariably marked Zo-shun-tei San-po [sic Mi-ho] -sei (made at the factory of Zoshun by Sanpo [sic Miho]), a mark which began to be applied at Mikawachi, about 1825, to ware manufactured at the factory that owed its establishment to Hisatomi's [sic Hisatani's] suggestion. The name of this enterprising potter, Hisatomi [sic Hisatani] Yojibei, is revered in Hizen to the present day. "Sanpo" [sic "Miho"] was his artist name. His grandson, Hisatomi [sic Hisatani] Genichi, is now working.

The Fukagawa family, founded by a potter whose second name is not known (about 1650). The present representative is Fukagawa Ezaiemon, who succeeded to the hereditary business in 1856. The factory occupied itself in the manufacture of wares for home use entirely until 1868, when, owing to the downfall of the feudal system and the withdrawal of baronial patronage, Japanese keramists were everywhere obliged to turn their attention to foreign markets. Ezaiemon opened a warehouse for the sale of Arita porcelain at Deshima, in Nagasaki. In 1876 he took the lead in establishing a keramic society called the Koran-sha. This name, which literally signifies " the company of the fragrant orchid," was that of a factory at which the Tsuji family had for many years been engaged in the manufacture of porcelain for official use. A spray of orchid flowers and leaves had long been a favourite mark on Arita ware (vide Marks and Seals). Tsuji Katsuzo, then head of the factory, joined the new association, and by the enterprise of these artists the manufacture of Arita porcelain began to recover much of its old excellence. They did not indeed succeed in preparing a fine phte and a lustrous, uniform glaze, equal to the work of the old potters; but their management of verifiable enamels and their fertility in decorative designs left little to be desired. In 1880 Tsuji seceded from the Koran-sha, in company with several other experts, and established a separate association, to which they gave the name of Seiji-sha (pure ware company). The original purpose of the Seiji-sha was to produce porcelain for export only, but it soon began to supply the home market also. The principal artists are Tsuji Katsuo, Tetsuka Kame-nosuke, Fukami Takeji, and Kawara Chujiro. Their work, already admirable, gives earnest of steady improvement. At a recent exhibition in Tokyo, vases in fine white biscuit with delicately executed designs in relief, and large pieces richly decorated with enamels of great brilliancy, established the Seiji-sha's title to be regarded as the leading factory in Arita. They are now working with machinery procured from France, and it is safe to predict that unless they revert to the degraded fashions of the years immediately succeeding the fall of feudalism, when Japanese artists generally fell into the error of pandering to the lowest form of Western taste, the Arita porcelain of the future will be equal in brilliancy and superior in decoration to the Imari-yaki of the past.