Japanese pottery and porcelain
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Japanese pottery and porcelain(陶芸, Jp. tōgei; also 焼きもの, Jp. yakimono), one of the country's oldest art forms, dates back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, blue and white ware, and enamel wares.
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[editar] Introduction
Japanese ceramic history has many distinguished potter names, and some were artist-potter, e.g. Honami Koetsu, Ogata Kenzan, and Aoki Mokubei. On the other hand, Chinese ceramic history has seldom recorded potter personalities, except for Yixing ware. Japanese anonymous kilns also have flourished throughout ages and influenced alternately with the personalities. In 20th century, Ceramic Industries (e.g. Noritake, Toto Ltd.) grew. Another aspect is the continuing popularity of unglazed high-fired stone wares even after porcelain became popular. Since 4th century, Japanese pottery and porcelain was often influenced by Chinese, and sometimes through Korean pottery. Japanese transformed and translated Chinese prototype into a uniquely Japanese creation, and the results were distinctly Japanese in character.
[editar] History to 19th century
In the Neolithic period (ca. 11th millennium BC), the earliest soft earthenware was made, and in 6th millennium BC typical coil-made, decorated by hand-impressed rope patterns Jōmon ware appeared (Early Jōmon period). Jōmon ware developed flamboyant style in height and simplified itself in later Jōmon period. The pottery was molded of clay rope and baked in open fire. In about 4-3rd century B.C, Yayoi style earthenware appeared, which had simple pattern or no pattern. Jōmon, Yayoi, and later Haji ware shared the process and had different design style.
Eventually (in the 3rd to 4th centuries A.D.), probably southern Korea immigrant potters brought an anagama kiln(roofed tunnel kiln on hillside) and a potter wheel. The kiln could produce stoneware(Sue ware) fired at high temperatures(over 1000℃) which sometimes embellished with accidental natural ash glaze. Contemporary Haji ware and Haniwa(Funeral Sculpture Object) were earthenware like Yayoi.
Despite three color lead glaze technique was introduced to Japan from Tang dynasty China in 8th century, only official kilns produced simple green lead glazed for temples in Heian period. Until 17th century, unglazed stonewares were popular which were for the heavy-duty daily requirements of a largely agrarian society, and funerary jars, storage jars, and a variety of kitchen pots typify the bulk of the production. Some of the kilns improved their characteristics and are called “Six old kilns”: Sigaraki, Tamba, Bizen, Tokoname, Echizen, and Seto. Among them Seto (Aichi prefecture) kiln had glaze technique. According to legend, Katō Shirozaemon Kagemasa(also known as Tōshirō) studied ceramic technique in China and brought high fired glazed ceramic to Seto in 1223. Seto kiln primarily imitated chinese ceramics as substitute of chinese product. It developed various glaze: ash, iron black, feldspar white, and copper green. The wares were so widely used that Seto-mono (Product in Seto) became the generic term for ceramics in Japan. Seto kiln also produced unglazed stoneware. In late 16th century, many Seto potters moved to Mino province (Gifu Prefecture) from civil wars battlefield, where they produced glazed potteries, so-called Ki-Seto (Yellow Seto), Shino, Seto-Guro (Black Seto) and Oribe wares.
From mid 11th century to 16th century Japan imported many chinese celadon, white porcelains, and blue and white wares. Japan also imported some korean potteries, and Thailand and Vietnamese ceramics. These chinese ceramics were regarded as high-class items, which upper classes used in tea ceremony. Japanese ordered Japanese taste ceramics to Chinese kilns. In late 16th century leading tea masters changed taste and praised simple Korean tea bowls and domestic wares than Chinese. Patronized by the teamaster Sen no Rikyū, Raku family supplied glazed earthenware tea bowls. Mino, Bizen, Shigaraki, Iga (close to Shigaraki), and other domestic kilns also supplied tea utensils. Artist-potter Honami Kōetsu made several teabowls as his masterpiece. The overlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Korean campaigns (1592-93 and 1597-98) in order to conquer China were dubbed the "ceramic wars," because as a result the immigration and abduction of Korean potters appeared to be a major factor in the wars. These potters set foundations of Satsuma, Hagi, Karatsu, Takatori, Agano and Arita kilns with better status than in Korea. One of them:Yi Sam-pyeong discovered raw material of porcelain in Arita and produced first true porcelain in Japan.
In 1640s, rebellions in China and wars between Ming dynasty and the Manchus damaged many kilns and in 1656-1684 Qing dynasty government stopped trade. Chinese potter refugees offered Arita kilns more refined porcelain technique and enamel glaze method. In 1650, Dutch East India Company looked for porcelains for Europe in Japan. At that time, Arita kilns like Kakiemon kiln could supply enough qualified porcelains to Dutch East India Company. In 1659- 1757 Arita kilns export enormous porcelains to Europe and Asia. China kilns and Europe kilns imitated them. Arita kilns also supplied domestic utensils as so-called Ko-Kutani enamel ware. In 1675, the local load Nabeshima family who ruled Arita established the official kiln to offer top quality enamelware porcelains for upper classes in Japan, which are called Nabeshima ware. After 1757, Arita kilns supplied to domestic uses, only. Because Imari is the shipping port, the porcelains (Export or Domestic) are called Ko-Imari (old Imari).
In 17th century, in Kyoto, the culture center city, kilns produced lead glazed pottery after South China Pottery. Among them Nonomura Ninsei invented overglazed enamel method and improved refined Japanese taste design under temple patronage. His discipline artist Ogata Kenzan produced more personal pottery and made another height in Kyōyaki(Kyoto ceramic). Their works were models for later Kyōyaki. Although porcelain was introduced by Okuda Eisen in Kyōyaki, overglazed pottery has still flourished. Aoki Mokubei, Ninami Dōhati( both disciplines of Okuda Eisen) and Eiraku Hozen expanded repertory of Kyōyaki.
In late 18th to early 19th century, porcelain raw material was discovered in other areas(e.g. Amakusa) and traded domestically, and potters moved more freely. Local loads and merchants established many new kilns (e.g. Kameyama kiln, Tobe kiln) for economical profit, and old kilns as Seto restarted as porcelain kilns. These many kilns are called “New Kilns” and popularized porcelains for average people in Japan with Arita kiln.
[editar] 20th Century to present day
Interest in the humble art of the village potter was revived in a folk movement of the 1920s by such master potters as Shoji Hamada and Kawai Kajiro. These artists studied traditional glazing techniques to preserve native wares in danger of disappearing. A number of institutions came under the aegis of the Cultural Properties Protection Division. The kilns at Tamba, overlooking Kobe, continued to produce the daily wares used in the Tokugawa period, while adding modern shapes. Most of the village wares were made anonymously by local potters for utilitarian purposes. Local styles, whether native or imported, tended to be continued without alteration into the present. In Kyūshū, kilns set up by Korean potters in the 16th century, such as at Koishibara and its offshoot at Onta, perpetuated 16th-century Korean peasant wares. In Okinawa, the production of village ware continued under several leading masters, with Kaneshiro Jiro honored as a mukei bunkazai.
The modern masters of the traditional kilns still bring the ancient formulas in pottery and porcelain to new heights of achievement at Shiga, Ige, Karatsu, Hagi, and Bizen. Yamamoto Masao of Bizen and Miwa Kyusetsu of Hagi were designated as living cultural treasures (mukei bunkazai 無形文化財). Only a half-dozen potters were so honored by 1989, either as representatives of famous kiln wares or as creators of superlative techniques in glazing or decoration; two groups were designated for preserving the wares of distinguished ancient kilns.
In the old capital of Kyoto, the Raku family continued to produce the rough tea bowls that had so delighted Hideyoshi. At Mino, continued to reconstruct the classic formulas of Momoyama-era Seto-type tea wares at Mino, such as the Oribe copper-green glaze and Shino ware's prized milky glaze. Artist potters experimented endlessly at the Kyoto and Tokyo arts universities to recreate traditional porcelain and its decorations under such ceramic teachers as Fujimoto Yoshimichi, a mukei bunkazai. Ancient porcelain kilns around Arita in Kyūshū were still maintained by the lineage of Sakaida Kakiemon XIV and Imaizumi Imaemon XIII, hereditary porcelain makers to the Nabeshima clan; both were heads of groups designated mukei bunkazai (see Kakiemon and Imari porcelain).
In contrast, by the end of the 1980s, many master potters no longer worked at major or ancient kilns, but were making classic wares in various parts of Japan. In Tokyo, a notable example is Tsuji Seimei, who brought his clay from Shiga but potted in the Tokyo area. A number of artists were engaged in reconstructing Chinese styles of decoration or glazes, especially the blue-green celadon and the watery-green qingbai. One of the most beloved Chinese glazes in Japan is the chocolate-brown tenmoku glaze that covered the peasant tea bowls brought back from Southern Song China (in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries) by Zen monks. For their Japanese users, these chocolate-brown wares embodied the Zen aesthetic of wabi (rustic simplicity). In the United States, a notable example of the use of tenmoku glazes may be found in the innovative crystalline pots thrown by Japanese-born artist Hideaki Miyamura.
[editar] Styles of Japanese pottery
- Arita-yaki – Produced in Saga. Introduced by Korean potters at the beginning of the Edo Period.
Also called Imari-yaki.
- Bizen-yaki – Produced in Okayama. Also called Inbe-yaki. A reddish-brown pottery, which is believed to have originated in the 6th century.
- Hagi-yaki – Produced in Yamaguchi. Since it is burned at a relatively low temperature, it is fragile and transmits the warmth of its contents quickly.
- Karatsu-yaki – Produced in Saga. The most produced pottery in western Japan. Believed to have started in the 16th century. Greatly influenced by Korean potters.
- Kutani-yaki – Produced in Ishikawa.
- Mino-yaki – Produced in Gifu. Includes Shino-yaki, Oribe-yaki, Setoguro, and Ki-Seto.
- Onda-yaki – Produced in Kyūshū. Produced by families and passed on only to their own children. The outstanding fact is that they still produce it without electricity.
- Ōtani-yaki, a large type of pottery produced in Naruto, Tokushima.
- Raku-yaki – Produced in Kyoto. There is a proverb of the hierarchy of ceramic styles used for tea ceremony: 'First, Raku(-yaki). Second, Hagi. Third, Karatsu.'
- Ryumonji-yaki – Produced in Kagoshima. Started by Korean potters about four hundred years ago.
- Satsuma-yaki – Produced in Kyūshū and other areas. Started by Korean potters about four hundred years ago.
- Seto-yaki – Produced in Aichi. The most produced Japanese pottery in Japan. Sometimes, the term Seto-yaki (or Seto-mono) stands for all Japanese pottery.
- Shigaraki-yaki – Produced in Shiga. One of the oldest styles in Japan. Famous for tanuki pottery pieces.
- Souma-yaki – Produced in Fukushima. Image of a horse (uma or koma), which is very popular in this area, is the main pattern. Therefore, it is sometimes called Soumakoma-Yaki.
- Tamba-yaki – Produced in Hyōgo. Also called Tatekui-yaki. One of the six oldest kinds in Japan.
- Tokoname-yaki – Produced in Aichi. Most are flower vases, rice bowls, teacup.
- Tobe-yaki – Produced in Shikoku. Most are thick porcelain table ware with blue cobalt paintings.
- Yokkaichi-Banko-yaki –Produced in Mie. Most are teacups, teapots, flower vases, and Sake vessels. Believed to have originated in the 19th century.
[editar] See also
[editar] References
- Henry Trubner, Japanese Ceramics: A Brief History, in Seattle Art Museum, Ceramic Art of Japan, 1972.
- Tsuneko S. Sadao and Stephanie Wada, Discovering the Arts of japan: A historical Overview, 2003
- This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. – Japan
[editar] External links
- Japan Cultural Profile - national cultural portal for Japan created by Visiting Arts/Japan Foundation
- Bizen Gallery Aoyama is a gallery specializing in contemporary Bizen pottery located in Tokyo. We introduce famous Bizen artists' works and ship to you.
- Satsuma Ware, from Traditional Crafts of Japanwikipedia:et:Jaapani keraamika
