History of Ceramics (CER 4910 /6910)

THE CERAMICS OF JAPAN


Japan has had a long and rich ceramic tradition. Its proximity to China and Korea as well as the unique requirements of Japanese culture has created an interesting body of ceramic ware.

JOMON (5000 BC -200 BC) (and 500AD in Northern Japan). The Jomon culture was a hunting and gathering culture possibly from Siberia that inhabited Japan from 5000BC and whose descendents, the Ainu, still live in remote sections of Northern Japan.

Ceramics: Hand-built coiled unglazed low-fire pottery with incised and carved surfaces. Thousands of Jomon vessels found throughout Japan. Earliest vessels (dated 10,000 BC H and M Munsterburg p. 13 and 7,000 or 3000 BC (Egami, p.14) is pointed in shape and marked with incised rope patterns (jomon) and is similar to vessels found in Siberia.

Middle Jomon had bold ornate incised and carved patterns on the surface and lips of tall vessels sometimes in the shape of snakes or including human faces.

Middle Jomon figurines (Dogu) are 2" to 7" in height, all female and found in domestic sites.

 YAYOI (200 BC - 200 AD) were Mongolians who came through Korea and first landed in Kyushu. Introduced wet-rice cultivation and gradually supplanted the indigenous Jomon culture. These are the ancestors of the present day Japanese. Ceramics: Wheel thrown low-fire work that had simple and functional forms such as pots, plates and jars. Bottoms of the jars often narrower than the mouth. Similar to prehistoric Korean ware.
    TUMULUS PERIOD (300-600 AD) reflects another change in the Japanese culture. Huge "keyhole" tumuli were built for the remains of the Emperor. Buried within were objects related to North Asian equestrian cultures and showed an emergence of a war-like class society.
        Ceramics: Haniwa figurines (haniwa means earthenware placed in a circle) were earthenware figurines in the form of soldiers, horses, dancing men and women, and architectural models placed around the outside of the tomb on bamboo posts in order to separate the burial ground from the outside world.

Sue ware was named after the Korean group that settled in Japan. High fired, hard bodied ware decorated with greenish natural ash glazes.

Introduced the ana-gama kiln, the wood fired hillside kiln with separate chambers, able to reach 1200 C.

 ASUKA (552-646) AND NARA (646-794) Buddhist missionaries and Chinese craftsmen were invited to come and introduce Chinese culture to Japan. At this time China had the most advanced culture in the world. Asuka and then Nara became the capital Japan. At Nara, Tang Dynasty craftsmen built the great Buddhist temple complex (now the oldest wooden buildings in the world.)
    Ceramics: Colored glazes were introduced

For a while the three colored glazes of the Tang were popular but then died out.

Sue pottery with its simple ash glaze continued to be produced, was the common ware throughout the country.

 KAMAKURA (1185-1333) The military dictatorship of Minamoto Yoritomo moved the capital to Kamakura and renewed contact with China.

Ceramics: The Japanese ceramic industry was established at Seto near Nagoya.

Yellow Seto was made in imitation of Chinese celadon (and is still being made)

Old Seto was green, brown and black brown glazed ware that was distributed all over Japan

Temmoku glaze was brought from China by Toshiro in 1223. He settled in Seto and began to make temmoku tea jars. His family continued the tradition for 27 generations until 1900.

Bizen and Shigaraki kilns were also established during this time.

 MUROMACHI (1334-1573) AND MOMOYAMA (1573-1615) Chinese Zen Buddhist monks introduced the tea ceremony (cha-no-yu) into Japan. The nobility took it up and popularized it and the tea ceremony has affected aspects of Japanese culture ever since. There was a concern with wabi, the peaceful, simple, rustic, subdued, restraint aesthetic of the Zen tea master that is reflected in the various ceramic utensils used in the ceremony including the tea bowl (chawan), the tea jar (chaki) and the water jar (mizusashi).
    Ceramics: Great demand for tea ware led to an increase in production. Shino: Name derived from the tea master Shino Shoshin who admired the creamy glaze with abstract designs of flowers, plants, etc. done in brown oxides.

Oribe: Named after the tea master, Furuta Oribe, unique for boldly painted designs and a green glaze that covers part of the surface.

Raku: Name derives from a golden seal given by the Shogun to a family of potters in Kyoto who were asked to make tea bowls for the first tea master, Rikyo. (The 14th generation of the family that can use the raku seal continues today). The tea bowls were made by hand and fired at a very low temperature. The irregularities of the rim and foot as well as the texture of the glaze are appreciated.

Bizen: "Essence of the wabi spirit. High fired red stoneware that has no glaze and depends upon the firing of the kiln for surface variations

Shigaraski: Coarse clay that is partially covered in a thick greenish glaze that drips down the sides of the pots.
 

 Ceramics: Porcelain clay was discovered near Arita in Kyushu by Korean potter. Arita became the center of porcelain production and Imari was the name of the port where it was shipped out by the Dutch East India Co. Greatly admired, collected and copied in Europe. Imari: was mass produced either blue and white like the Ming Blue and White Ware or colored with overglaze enamels. Red was especially popular.

Kakimon: (kaki is the word for persimmon) is the most refined of Japanese porcelain and is created by an individual family of potters now in the 13th generation. Delicate designs of flowers are painted in red, blue, green, yellow and black enamel overglazes.

Nabeshima: was the individual personal pottery of the Daimyo of Saga and not for sale. Most famous for its painted picture ware.

Kutani: Made in Kanazawa on the north side of Honshu.
 

  EDO (1615-1868): With the Tokugawa Shogunate coming to power, the capital was moved from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). Ceramics: Emergence of Kyoto as a center of ceramics (Kyo-yaki) as well as the emergence of the individual artists / potters who began to sign their names. Ninsei: 17th Century painter and potter who studied ceramics at Seto before coming to Kyoto. Wrote a book on glazes and was the first to applied the colored enamels of porcelain to stoneware.

Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) is considered Japan's greatest ceramic artist. He studied poetry, tea ceremony, calligraphy and Zen philosophy before he took up pottery. Was inspired by Ninsei, set up his own kiln near Kyoto. Most famous for his square plates and his creative calligraphic designs. Successors to his style called themselves Kenzan by copying his designs, colors and even the signature of the master. The 6th Kenzan was the teacher of Bernard Leach.

 MEIJI (1868-1912), SHOWA (1926-1990): Ceramics: Cheap porcelain from the Arita area becomes the staple ceramic ware in the urban centers while small family kilns in the countryside continue to supply the needs of the rural areas in the traditional wares. Some kilns do both production ware and individual traditional pottery. There is still a great demand for Imari porcelain and the cha-no-yu tea ware done in the traditional old styles and forms.

Folk Art: Main center is the town of Mashiko, north of Tokyo and the home of Hamada Shoji (1894-1979). Hamada combines Japanese folk pottery, Korean ceramics and English slipware (working at St. Ives with Leach), never signs his work and rarely makes tea ceremony utensils but prefers objects of common use.

 Bibliography:

Cooper, Emmanuel, A History of World Pottery, Radnor: 1991.

Egami, Namio, The Beginnings of Japanese Art, New York: 1973.

Koyama, Fujio, Yu Fujiwara, Bizen, Okayama: 1970

Munsterberg, Hugo, The Ceramic Art of Japan, Rutland: 1964

Munsterberg, Hugo and Marjorie, World Ceramics, New York: 1998.

Peterson, Susan, Shoji Hamada, New York: 1995.

Wilson, Richard, The Art of Ogata Kenzan, New York: 1991.
 
 

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