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Porcelains for the
Japanese Feudal Lords
The two great names in Japanese
porcelain are Kutani and Nabeshima. These wares were made for the
exclusive use of the feudal lords (daimyo) of their respective
fiefdoms - the wares were not sold commercially and the secrets
of their glazes and clay composition were closely guarded. In the
case of Kutani ware, the patron daimyo clan was the Maeda family
of Kaga Province (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture), on the west
coast of Japan's main island of Honshu.
Kutani porcelain can be divided into
two categories: Old Kutani (Kokutani) ware of the seventeenth
century, and revival Kutani ware of the nineteenth-century.
Because nineteenth-century Kutani ware was produced in the area of
Kutani, it had been assumed that seventeenth-century Old Kutani
ware was produced in the same region. Recent archaeological
evidence, however, has overturned that assumption. It is now
believed that Old Kutani ware was specially commissioned by the
Maeda daimyo from the Arita (or Imari) kilns of Hizen Province
(modern Nagasaki Prefecture) in the south island of Kyushu, and
that when the ware was revived one hundred and fifty years later,
it was produced within the Maeda fiefdom in the Kutani area. In
any event, the far rarer Old Kutani is distinguishable from
nineteenth-century revival Kutani by the freedom of its designs,
the exceptional colors of its overglaze enamels, and the quality
of its porcelain clay.
Old Kutani ware itself can be divided
into two categories: Chinese-style ware made in the 1640s, and
Japanese-style ware of the 1650s. The former is closely modeled on
Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) ceramics of the Shonzui type, in
which the design is broken up into a landscape or figural scene in
the middle with a decorative band around the rim. The band
consists of an overall unified design that takes full advantage of
the entire surface of the plate.
Old
Kutani Wares as a Trade Item
Recent excavations have shown that
Old Kutani plates like the one in the collection of the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art - which have a blue-colored, glazed
exterior as well as a completely covered interior with no white
left in the design - were popular items for export by Chinese
and Dutch traders to Southeast Asia, especially to Indonesia. The
National Museum of Jakarta has in its collection a group of Old
Kutani pieces excavated in Jakarta.
Ceramic
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