POTTERY FROM KYUSHU Special Features CERAMICS IN KYUSHU Special Mingeikan Exhibition April 5 through June 26, 2005 Kyushu is the largest island southwest of mainland Japan, geographically close to the Korean peninnsula and southeast Asian countries. It is an area rich with a multitude of potting traditions, often influenced by techniques and traditions that arrived via Korea. The peoples' kilns, versus the samura-clan-owned "official" kilns, developed as a common commercial culture with families and villages working together to produce stable revenue in between farming. Potting in some areas became the sole family and village trade. Each local kiln developed a distinct tradition of color, form and technique, reflecting the culture and nature of their everyday lives. On display are items of simplicity and fortitude, austerity and hardihood, all in the realm of what the founder of the Nihon Mingeikan, Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961) called "healthy beauty." The outstanding aeshetic, nurtured from the creation of everyday pots, dating back from the Edo Era (17th to 19th centuries) to the early Showa Period (20th century). Periods will be shown. Those of notice are Ko-Imari ware, blue and white porcelain predating the colorful Imari ware that was later made exclusively for export, as well as Karatsu and Nisai-Garatsu ware with magnanimous motifs, Onta ware with fine chattered and brush-tapped patterns, Shodai ware with distinct bluish ash glaze and splash patterns, Naeshirogawa ware inheriting the tradition of the "official" Satsuma kilns, and Hirasa porcelain. KILNS IN KYUSHU Large Plate, 17th Century Blue and White Porcelain, Imari  Diameter 47.7 cm Karatsu Ware, 17th Century Pot, Iron Glaze Pattern  Diameter 21.5 cm Shodai Ware, 18th Century Jar, Iron Glaze and White Slip Pattern  Height 52.5 cm Shodai-yaki takes its name from Mt. Shodai (Arao City, Kumamoto Prefecture) where the indigenous clay has a rich iron content, perfect for sturdy pottery. Kilns in the area date back to the Nara (710 - 794 AD) and Heian (794 - 1192 AD) periods when there were about 100 Sueki kilns. During the "Pottery Wars" between 1592 - 1598 AD, Korean potters were captured, or willingly came, to Japan at the end of the 16th century and established various kilns under local daimyo rulers. 4. Buddhist Flower Vase, Unglazed Earthenware Tanegashima, Height 14.2 cm, 18th Century 5. Sake Bottle, Iron Glaze with Drizzled Copper Glaze Nishijinmachi, Height 28.2 cm, 20th Century 6. Large Bowl, Copper Glaze, Finger-Wiped Pattern Hizen, Diameter 50.0 cm, 17th Century 7. Jar, Applied Clay Ornament Naeshirogawa, Height 26.5 cm, 18th Century 8. Casserole, Slip Pattern Noma, Diameter 15.5 cm, 20th Century 9. Buddhist Flower Vase, White Porcelain  Hirasa, Height 25.7 cm, 19th Century   LEARN MORE ARITA. Center of Japan's porcelain industry. Arita is located in Saga Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu. First porcelain deposits in Japan were discovered here. Porcelain techniques introduced by Korean potters in 17th century; see "Nabeshima" below. Arita ware was made primarily for export, and often use overglaze enamel pigments.   IMARI WARE. Imari Porcelain, Ko-Imari (lit. "old Imari") Porcelain produced in Arita was typically shipped to other Japanese cities and elsewhere in Asia and Europe from the port city of Imari. Arita porcelain is thus also called "Imari" ware. Naming conventions for porcelain are sometimes difficult to grasp. For example, the first porcelain made in Japan is called "Old Imari Porcelain - Arita Ware."   NABESHIMA. In the early 1600s, Nabeshima Naoshige, the feudal lord of the Saga Clan, brought a group of Korean potters to Japan, including the potter Ri Sampei (Yi Sam-p'young; 1579-1655), who in 1616 discovered a superior white-stoned clay at Izumiyama (Izumi Mountain, Arita). Wares fired with this earth are called "hakuji" (white porcelain). Some say this was the beginning of Arita Ware. As porcelain grew in popularity, the Nabeshima Clan took steps to keep their production and decorating techniques a closely guarded secret. They were aided in this effort by the Tokugawa Shogunate and other feudal lords, who commissioned the Nabeshima Clan to make porcelain for only the elite classes -- the sale of Nabeshima ware to commoners was actually forbidden, and the number of kilns and wheels was strictily limited by law.   PORCELAIN. Called "jiki" in Japanese, porcelain was introduced to Japan in the 17th century by Korean potters, and was influenced greatly by Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) porcelain techniques. In the next two centuries in Japan, the growing popularity of porcelain -- plus the widespread introduction of mass-produced ceramic ware -- caused the traditional single-chamber anagama to be largely abandoned in favor of porcelain kilns and the multi-chambered noborigama (the latter is better suited for large-scale ceramic production than is the anagama).   Japanese Porcelain Guidebook www.e-yakimono.net/guide/html/porcelain.html   Koreans Who Potted in Kyushu www.e-yakimono.net/html/koreans-who-potted-in-kyushu-j.html   Kobayashi Togo -- Korean Yi Dynasty Pottery www.e-yakimono.net/html/t-kobayashi.html   Korean Influence on Japanese Pottery -- Hagi Ware www.e-yakimono.net/html/hagi-er.html   Shodai Ware and Shodai Kilns www.e-yakimono.net/html/shodai-yaki.html