Arita ware
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Dish_with_Design_of_River%2C_Weirs%2C_and_Maple_Leaves_LACMA_M.2007.175.jpg/220px-Dish_with_Design_of_River%2C_Weirs%2C_and_Maple_Leaves_LACMA_M.2007.175.jpg)
Arita ware (Japanese:
In English usage "Arita ware" was traditionally used for the export wares in blue and white porcelain, mostly copying Chinese styles. The wares with added overglaze colours were called Imari ware or (a sub-group) Kakiemon. It is now recognized that the same kilns often made more than one of these types, and "Arita ware" is more often used as a term for all of them.[1] The brightly coloured Kutani ware is another type that is now recognised as coming from around Arita as well as the Kutani itself, and "Kutani-type" is used as a stylistic description.
History
[edit]According to tradition, the Korean potter Yi Sam-pyeong (d. 1655), or Kanagae Sanbee (
The first porcelain made in Japan followed the discovery of porcelain clay near Arita near the end of the 16th century. A number of kilns opened up in the area, and a considerable variety of styles were made, the Japanese export porcelain destined for Europe often using Western shapes and Chinese decoration.[3][6] Early wares used underglaze blue decoration, but by the mid-17th century Arita was in the forefront as Japan developed overglaze "enamelled" decoration in a range of bright colours.[7]
Between the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century they were extensively exported to Europe, travelling initially from Arita's port of Imari, Saga to the Dutch East India Company's outpost at Nagasaki. The type called kin-rande was especially popular and is therefore known in the West also as Imari ware (
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Japanese_-_Incense_Burner_%28%22Koro%22%29_with_Domestic_Scenes_-_Walters_49475_-_Three_Quarter_View_B.jpg/220px-Japanese_-_Incense_Burner_%28%22Koro%22%29_with_Domestic_Scenes_-_Walters_49475_-_Three_Quarter_View_B.jpg)
Nabeshima ware was an Arita product, with overglaze decoration of a very high quality, produced for the Nabeshima Lords of the Saga Domain from the late 17th century into the 19th, with the first half of the 18th century considered the finest period. It was never exported at the time.[9] Kakiemon is a term that generates further confusion, being the name of a family, one or more kilns, and a brightly-coloured overglaze style broadly imitating Chinese wares. The style originated with the family, whose kilns were the main producers of it, but other kilns also made it, and the Kakiemon kilns made other styles. It was also widely imitated in Europe, and sometimes in China.[10]
Evidence from modern excavation of kiln-sites shows that much of the Kutani ware, supposedly from Honshu island, was in fact made around Arita. This was largely made for export to southeast Asian markets.[11] The kilns in Arita also produced plain white Hakuji porcelain,[7] often imitating the Chinese equivalent Dehua porcelain.
One of the patterns used is Karako (
Contemporary Arita ware ceramists
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Impey (1990), 71-73
- ^ "Arita, Imari and Karatsu. Explore the villages of ceramics. | JAPAN Monthly Web Magazine". Japan-magazine.jnto.go.jp. Archived from the original on 2016-09-17. Retrieved 2016-09-13.
- ^ a b Larking, Matthew (2016-05-21). "Arita ware: Traditional Japanese porcelain has an international history". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2016-09-13.
- ^ Komiya Kiyora
小宮 木代 良 , "tōso" gensetsu no rekishiteki zentei 「陶 祖 」言説 の歴史 的 前提 , Nitchō kōryū to sōkoku no rekisi日 朝 交流 と相克 の歴史 , pp. 363-381, 2009. - ^ Komiya Kiyora
小宮 木代 良 , "tōso" gensetsu no seiritsu to tenkai 「陶 祖 」言説 の成立 と展開 (The origins and expansion of the story of Touso, the first ceramist), Kyūshū Shigaku九州 史学 , No. 153, pp. 49-74, 2009. - ^ "Japan Pottery Net / Ceramics's profile | Arita Ware". Japanpotterynet.com. Archived from the original on 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2016-09-13.
- ^ a b Smith, Harris, & Clark, 163-165; Ford & Impey, 61-118; Watson, 260-261
- ^ Impey (1990), 74-75, 75 quoted
- ^ Impey (1990), 78-79
- ^ Impey (1990), 75-77
- ^ Impey (1990), 77-78
- ^ "About". YUKI HAYAMA (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-03-17.
References
[edit]- Ford, Barbara Brennan, and Oliver R. Impey, Japanese Art from the Gerry Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, Metropolitan Museum of Art, fully online
- Impey, Oliver (1990), in Battie, David, ed., Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Porcelain, 1990, Conran Octopus. ISBN 1850292515
- Smith, Lawrence, Harris, Victor and Clark, Timothy, Japanese Art: Masterpieces in the British Museum, 1990, British Museum Publications, ISBN 0714114464
- Watson, William ed., The Great Japan Exhibition: Art of the Edo Period 1600–1868, 1981, Royal Academy of Arts/Weidenfeld & Nicolson
External links
[edit] Media related to Arita ware at Wikimedia Commons
- 2016/ project by Saga Prefecture as part of the Arita Porcelain 400th Anniversary Project
- Arita Episode2 by Saga Prefecture
- Homepage of Arita Yazaemon Kiln