No.115 A Witness to History

Pieces from the Chinese Ceramics Collection

Tenmoku tea bowl 13th century	Bowl with design of banana plants, underglaze blue Latter half of 15th-16th century	Plate with design of lion and ball, blue and white Latter half of 15th-16th century

I am sure that many readers looking at this blue-and-white porcelain bowl and plate will think: "I had breakfast this morning from dishes much like these". Blue-and-white porcelain (underglaze blue) is probably the favorite type of pottery used for tableware in Japan. Adopted for popular use in the second half of the 15th century, blue-and-white ware has been a constant and much-loved part of everyday life ever since.
Of the many and various foreign imports which entered Japan in the Medieval Ages, ceramics from neighboring China were particularly numerous. These included not only items of daily use which have been excavated in large numbers from all medieval sites but also pieces known as 'karamono': precious Chinese objects which were highly sought after in Japan as prestigious symbols of wealth and authority.
Specifically, karamono included white porcelain Ding ware from Hebei province, qingbai and Blue and White from the Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi, celadon from the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang, and tenmoku bowls from the Jian kilns in Fujian. All of these items were used in the formal Japanese reception room (zashiki) for the arts of tea ceremony, flower arrangement and incense burning, thus shaping the traditional Japanese aesthetic which was established in the Kamakura period and remained largely unchanged for many years.
A contrasting style of ceramics, however, developed in the Quanzhou region of Fujian province where 'tricolor Huanan ware' was decorated with colorful combinations of green, yellow, blue and purple glazes. Huanan ware became extremely fashionable during the transitional period from the medieval to the early-modern era, inspiring new multi-colored Japanese ceramics like Ki-Seto and Oribe ware.

Masatoshi Ono
Archaeology Department, National Museum of Japanese History

Large vase with peony design, celadon 14th century		Striped sake jar, celadon 13th-14th century
		Dish with design of lobsters, fish and seaweed Tricolor Huanan ware, early 17th century
		Jar with peony design, tricolor Huanan ware Late 16th century