Introduction
My project is on Japanese porcelain. I chose to do my project on Japanese porcelain because the style of the article has always caught my attention. Ihave been collecting porcelain dolls for over three years now. I thought it would be facsinating if I learned about the different styles, names and designs for Japanese porcelain.
In my project I will discuss forms of Japanese porcelain, some history, a few pictures, a map,how porcelain is made and the influence the porcelain style had on other countries. The Japanese style of porcelain is beautiful in many ways. The topic I chose wasn't hard to find information on but putting it together was a handful. The origins of porcelain were founded in the early vitreous stoneware of the Chinese Han dynasty, some two hundred years ago.Porcelain is a high form of arts.
Crackled Wares
While stated in that general, Chinese celadons are both plain and crackled, Korean caledons are mostly crackled and Japanese are crackled, there are many exceptions to this rule. Crackles are produced in glazes by deliberate selection of foundation biscuit and glazes which contract differently when subjected to a given temperature. At one time it was thought in Europe that crackles were produced by plunging the article in cold water but it is known differently now.
The Crabs Claw Crackle has long branching crackles, like branching twigs. The cracks are thin and deep, formed by fissures or breaks in the glaze.
The earth worm crackle has long cracks also, but the cracks curve and wind about and while they are not all paralell, they do not branch out as the crab claw crackle does. The cracks themselves are wider and appear to have been made by the glaze pulling apart in the baking process.
In Japan the best celadons are not crackled, but Japanese potters are exceedingly skilled in the manipulation of this form of decoration on other wares. They prefer a small round crack with no heavy cracks. The artist-potter Nansei produced a fine crfackle distinctly characteristic, made of tiny round forms as regular and as even as a bee-comb.The crackle of Awata nad Satsuma, two manufactueres of crackle ware, are much alike but the Awatra crackle had long branching lines and the crackled surface forms, though small, are angular and irregular in size and shape. The crackle of the Satsuma wares constitutes their chief claim to beauty. The glaze on both the Awata and Satsuma wares is thin and glassy if compared with a celadon glaze but the fine crackle breaks the surface into thousands of tiny planes and produces a soft effect.
A Sketch Of Crackled Wares
Sanda Wares
The celadons produced at Sanda are concidered the best of the Japanese celadons, and they compare favourably with those of China. The kilns were established about 1788 by a potter named Kanda Sobeiat Minowa-mura in Settsu. At first this potter made sometsuke, under-glaze blue and white, and employed potters from Arita for this. In 1801 he found a local stone suitable for making celadon glazes and called a pupil of the great Eisen, named Kamesuke, to
produce them for him.
One Colour Wares
The Japanese do not seem to be praticularly fond of one colour porcelains or glazed pottery. With the exception of the blue-green celadon that is used for small bowls, cake dishes, incense burners and figure ornamentsfor the tokonoma; and course white flower vases and incense burners for funeral furniture, they almost naver make articles of unbroken, unmottled colour. When they make a one colour glazed article the colour will always be disturbed, dark when the glaze settles thickest and lighter where the glaze is thinner.
Even their cheapest most commonplace earthenware or crockery utensils will have a dab of colour.
Flower vases, flower pots and hibachi made of green glaze resembling true celadon are produced throughout Japan. The same wares made of beautiful dark blue, thick glaze are made in Kyoto.
Low standard, or slabs, called "dai" are made with a dark purplish-blue glaze are produced only in Hirado.
Tokonoma figures of human figures, animals and birds of good omen(lion and crane for example) and fruits are made with brown, dark bluish-green or tanish white glaze are produced chiefly at Bizen.
Picture Of One Colour Wares
History
In the 17th and 18th centuries many factories sprang up making a very fine quality of porcelain. Best known among these are Arita, Nabeshima and Kutani wares. Most significant for his work was the potter Kakiemon. His spare and stylized paintings on porcelains of a few blossoms or a flowering tree wich a bird or a legendary animal were copied by the Germans, French and English. These nations were captured by the Japanese porcelains imported by the dutch tradors.
Kakiemon
The Kakiemon was made by the Sakaida of whome twelve members are recorded as working between the early 17th century and the end of the 19th century. Originally inspired by the greatly esteemed porcelain of Chinese Ming, Japanese wares gradually developed their own character.
The porcelain was of a fine milk white, the surface of which was decorated but not obscured by exquisitely balanced off-center designs. Dishes, bowls and plates were frequently in octoagonal and fluted forms which oncealed the warping, sometimes occuring in tfeh firing, better than cicular wares. Pieces were decoratged with birds, animals ,figures and flowers. Both the form and painting of the Kakiemon were a great influence on early European porcelain.
A Picture Of Kakaiemons work
A plate with flower decoration designed by Kakiemon.
A Map Of Japanese Porcelain
Conclusion
From my project I have learned that Japanese porcelain is different than ours. Japanese porcelain is important to them in a few ways. Unlike us Japanese have many different articles of porcelain in their homes. There are over four different factories were men and wemen produce vairious articles of porcelain.
Japanese porcelain is very beautiful in style and design. The arts of Japan have long appealed to the Western lover of the beautiful, but it isonly during the last thirty years or so that a more generalappreciation has spread from the cultured artist, such as Whistler, to the wider public.
Buddhism brought the Japanese knowledge of most of the arts, and they certainly appear to have learned the craft of porcelain production from China or Korea, or from China through Korea. I have learned the most important facts on Japanese porcelain by researching this topic. I hope you enjoyed reading about Japanese porcelain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Aldridge, Eileen Porcelain,Grosset & Dunlop, New York, c. 1970
- Comptons New Media, Inc. Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia, " Japan"
- Gorman, Hazel H. Japanese and ORiental Ceramics, Charles E. Tuttle.Company,Rutland
- Vermont & TOkyo Japan c. 1971
- Mew, Egan Japanese Porcelain, DOdd Mead & Co., New YOrk c. 1972
- World Book Atlas Japan, c. 1994