Japanese porcelain

First Porcelain

The first porcelain, which appeared in Japan, was brought from China, local production was not possible due to the absence of known deposits suitable for kaolin porcelain. These were found in Kyushu in Hizen province, near the village of Arita , which gave the name to the style of ceramics . The discoverer of deposits of raw materials called Lee Samphyun , Korean potter, who allegedly moved to Arita in 1616 and immediately discovered there kaolin deposits. Lee Samphyun is a real Korean potter who was brought from Korea by the ruler of the principality Saga Nabeshima Naosige and died in 1655, about which there is an entry in the temple of Ryusen-ji ( Jap. 龍泉 寺 ) ^[1] . At the same time, archaeological finds do not confirm the discovery of Samphyun: porcelain production in Japan began about 10 years earlier than indicated in the legend, although it is likely that Li Samphyun played an important role as the leading master of the emerging porcelain industry, along with numerous Korean craftsmen in Japan to work with porcelain ^{[2] [3]} .

The earliest examples of Japanese porcelain imitate Korean with blue underglaze painting ( jap. 染 付 somatsuke ) , or, rarely, Chinese coarsely worked porcelain items from the reign of the emperors Jiajing (1521–1567), Wanli (1572–1620) and Tianqi (1620—15 1627) intended for export ^{[2] [4]} . Ceramics made by Jiajing and Wanli were resold to Japan by the Portuguese, who believed that they would not be able to realize it in Europe because of poor quality ^[2] . The local pottery tradition also influenced the early porcelain (first of all, the products of the Minibori and Shino ) ^[2] .

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  Early porcelain, 1620s

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  Tools for the production of early porcelain

Start exporting

The demand for porcelain grew rapidly, and by the 1640s, there were already about 30 furnaces in Arita producing such ceramics. By this time, pottery management was already in operation, limiting logging for stoves ^[4] .

For the first 50 years, the Japanese porcelain industry worked almost exclusively on the domestic market, but then the situation changed to the exact opposite, and the Japanese potters produced porcelain for export in the second half of the 17th century, with high quality and in large quantities: individual orders reached hundreds of thousands of products. The only sign of mass production is the repeatability of the patterns and the violation of biological laws in them: on the export platter on the same branch can accommodate two flowers of completely different species ^[5] . The reason for the active import of the Netherlands from Japan was the destruction of the furnaces in China during the peasant war and the unrest that accompanied the decline of the Ming dynasty ^[6] .

The first export china was sent to Java in 1653, the destination was the pharmacy of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia ^[6] . Later, in the manufacture of export items for the Company, Japanese potters were guided by wooden blanks that were sent to them by customers ^[7] . Japanese ceramics were shipped by sea from Dejima also to Holland , India, Persia , Ceylon , Vietnam, Siam and other countries ^{[7] [6]} .

Soon began the production of porcelain " Kakiemon ", which was engaged in the Sacaida family. The founder of the dynasty was Sakida Kakiemon ( Jap. 酒井 田 柿 右衛門 ) , who named this style. The most characteristic products are kakiemon - porcelain with overglaze painting ( jap. 色 iroe ) , but products of the “sometsuke” (with blue underglaze painting) and white porcelain] ^[ white are also known ^[8] .

In the 1680s, the Dutch merchants returned to the Chinese suppliers who rebuilt new furnaces, and production volumes in Japan fell ^[6] .

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  Early Arita porcelain, 1640–1660

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  A cup, porcelain from Arita, 1660–1670s

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  Overglaze painting on porcelain, 18th century, nabshima style

After the Meiji Restoration

The terminology for naming varieties of Japanese porcelain is not well established. The most controversial issue is the definitions of the terms “arita” and “imari”: Arita is the name of a village in the vicinity of which many porcelain products were made; Imari is the port from which products made in Arita were exported ^[9] . Many sources call the phrase “arith artifacts” and “imari artifacts” synonymous with ^{[10] [11] [12]} , some argue that earlier cobalt patterns are characteristic of imari ceramics, and later multicolored ones for arites ^[13] ; others, on the contrary, indicate that imari are multi-colored items, and arita are white-blue ^[14] . In addition to the term “imari”, “Amari”, “Old-Japanese [ceramics]” and “Kakiemon” ^[12] were also used to refer to porcelain products from Arita in the West ^[12] . In this article, all the ceramics produced in Arita are referred to as “arita”, as it was done in the Grove Arts Dictionary of Oxford University Press .

Other types of early Japanese porcelain are kakiemon, nabeshima, kutani , Kyo (Kyoto).

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  Early porcelain-Arita, 1650—1670s

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  Arita style glasses

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  Arita Style Dish, 18th Century

Kakiemon

Kakiemon ( Jap. 柿 右衛門 ) - products of the family of Sakaid potters, named after the founder of the dynasty of ^[8] . According to legend, the secret of the most well-known type of surface decoration - a multi-colored overglaze painting - was passed on to the Sakaid family by a Chinese potter, who was accidentally encountered in the port of Nagasaki ^[15] .

Among the items of this style:

• pots (mainly with a somatsuke cobalt underglaze painting), made in Kami-Nangavarayama and Simo-Nangavarayama, or in public “Yorai-gama” stoves;
• products "somatsuke" with underglaze painting from the Matsugatane furnaces belonging to the Ogi clan ^[16] ;
• products with overglaze painted iroe ^[8] .

The differences between kakiemon and arita are as follows: the same clay is used to produce all the “arita” products, the products “kakiemon” are made of different types of clay depending on the purpose. On ceramics Arita there is a complex painting that covers almost the entire surface of the product, it is divided into sections with individual decorations, including a mixture of motifs, geometric figures , inanimate objects and background painting; painting on kakiemon not continuous, there are large gaps. On arita products, the painting of the inner surface is much more thorough and thinner than the outer one; various and bright colors are used. Kakiemon was usually decorated with a fixed set of colors, on it very often there is a contour line on the rim, uncharacteristic for aritas, as well as embossed decorations ^[16] .

Kakiemon massively exported to Europe, local potters imitated painting of this style; in particular, kakiemon influenced Meissen porcelain ^[8] .

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  Bowl with lid, style kakiemon

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  Caciemon style elephant

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  Kakeemon stove building

Nabeshima

Nabesimaki style products ( Jap. 鍋 島 焼 き ) were produced in Okavatiyama furnaces ( Jap. 大川 内 山 ) under the control of the . Porcelain nabeshima is mainly known for multi-colored products with overglaze painting, iroe ( Jap. 色 絵 ) , but the masters of this type also made somatsuke and celadons ^[17] .

The painting on nabsime often resembles textile; at the early stage, the masters of this porcelain borrowed ornaments from fabrics; later flowers-birds became the dominant style ^[17] .

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  Plate, late 17th century

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  Dish in the form of three pots, 1680-1720

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  Plate, 1680-1720

Kutani

The pottery center in the village of Kutani (included in the city of ) has been producing porcelain since the 17th century, the first porcelain objects made in 1640–1660 were mostly heavy dishes with large overglaze paintings of predominantly green, magenta, and yellow colors ^[15] ; products of the period 1650-1750 were dishes and bowls of various kinds - white porcelain, somatsuke and celadon . A well-known kyo master, Aoki Mokubei, worked in Kutani ^[18] .

After the decline during the Meiji restoration, the “old” style of Kutani was revived ^[18] .

Kyo

The term “Kyo ceramics” ( Japanese 京 焼 き Kyo: yaks , literally “Kyoto ceramics”) also includes porcelain products. Experimentation with porcelain began in Kyoto in the 18th century, the beginning of the prolonged use of kaolin dates back to the 1780s, when began to produce his famous painted porcelain ( Jap. 呉 須 赤 絵 Akae ) . Other well-known masters of Kyoto porcelain are the Eyraku family: and ^[19] .

• Richard Louis Edmonds, et al. Japan, §IX: Ceramics . - Oxford University Press . - (Grove Art Online). (subscription required)
• William R. Sargent. Blue-and-white ceramic . - Oxford University Press , 2016. - (Grove Art Online). (subscription required)
• Hiroko Nishida. Kakiemon ware . - Oxford University Press , 2008. - (Grove Art Online). (subscription required)
• Hiroko Nishida. Nabeshima . - Oxford University Press , 2008. - (Grove Art Online). (subscription required)
• Bruce A. Coats, et al. Kyoto . - Oxford University Press , 2008. - (Grove Art Online). (subscription required)
• Richard L. Wilson. Kutani . - Oxford University Press , 2008. - (Grove Art Online). (subscription required)
• Lerner M. , Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York NY). Blue & White: Early Japanese Export Ware . - Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978. - 72 p.
• This is the first half of the seventeenth century . - Clarendon Press, 1996. - 156 p. - (Oxford Oriental monographs).
• Nagatake Takeshi. Classic Japanese Porcelain: Imari and Kakiemon (English) . - Kodansha International, 2003. - p. 71-72. - ISBN 9784770029522 .
• Nietupski P. , O'Mara J. , Ames RT , Amoloza TO , Graham PJ , Kita S. , Kolenda H. , Kucera KJ , Laing EJ , Mickel SL , others. Reading Asian Art and Artifacts: Windows to Asia on American College Campuses (English) . - Lehigh University Press, 2011. - ISBN 9781611460728 .
• Sandon, John. Antique Porcelain (eng.) . - Antique Collectors' Club, 1997. - (Starting to collect series). - ISBN 9781851492428 .
• Imari ware (English) . Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (22 April 2010). The appeal date is February 22, 2017.
• Campbell Gordon. The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts (English) . - Oxford University Press, 2006. - p. 29. - ISBN 9780195189483 .
• Rotondo-McCord Lisa E. Imari: Japanese Porcelain for European Palaces: from the Freda and Ralph Lupin Collection (eng.) . - New Orleans Museum of Art, 1997. - p. 12. - ISBN 9780894940606 .
• Japanese pottery // Encyclopædia Britannica . - Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012.