NEWSLETTER : November 2005 - Edition Number 142
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
From the President
Circle Diary
What's on??
Ceramic Tile Stoves
Netsuke: A Treasure in the Palm of the Hand
Hirado Porcelain
From the President
This is my last report for 2005, our 21st year, we have had some very special events to celebrate and we have two yet to happen. The day at Cranlana, the Myer Foundation home, will be very exciting. The collection inside is particularly interesting with Chinese porcelain, Chinese hard-stone carving (jade, lapis lazurai and quartz) and English and Continental porcelain. Outside there is a lovely garden to wander. Our last event for the year is our Christmas party at The International of Brighton. We are very pleased that the price has stayed the same for the last two years. It is a very happy night and I hope that both old and new members are able to come and share in the function. There is a booking form included with this newsletter.
The day at the Geelong Art Gallery was very well attended and the exhibition ‘Painted Porcelain’ was loved by everyone. Geoffrey Edwards, the gallery’s Director, showed people through the traveling art exhibition of Australians painting Venice while I explained the porcelain exhibition.
Our November meeting will be very interesting. Diana Williams comes from Canberra and was invited to be ‘artist in residence’ at Jingdezhen in China in both 2004 and 2005. She will speak about her experiences of working with the master and show the work she produced as a result.
The programme for next year is in the process of being planned and we have two interstate visitors in the first half of the year. Ian Murray, the author of one of the latest books on English glass, will speak on English Eighteenth Century Glass at the February meeting and Terry Lockart, eminent English scholar and past President of the Northern Ceramic Society of England, will speak on the Derivation of Eighteenth Creamware at the May meeting.
There will be two exhibitions that will be mounted in 2006 and 2007 by the Ceramics and Glass Circle.
The Circle undertook in 2001 to develop four exhibitions Como Historic House and Garden. The last of these exhibitions will occur in August 2006 and will be a joint venture with Como as it is the 100th anniversary of the marriage of Miss Connie Armitage and Captain Fitzpatrick and the 50th anniversary of the formation of the National Trust. The wedding feast was a grand afternoon tea so we are looking for afternoon tea sets of the 18th, 19th or early 20th centuries. These will be used within the exhibition that will be opened on August 1st and run for three months.
The Circle’s major exhibition will have the theme of Japanese 17th, 18th and 19th century painted porcelain as well as showing Continental and English look copies. This exhibition will mount at Hamilton Art Gallery and open on September 20th, 2006, move to Melbourne in January 2007 and then to Woollongong in April, 2007. It will finish in July 2007.
If any member owns pieces suitable for either exhibition and would be willing to lend them, please ring me and I will set up a time to start the process.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Cranlana and the Christmas Dinner and hope all of you have happy and safe holiday season.
Patricia Begg O.A.M.
President, November 2005
Circle Diary
November 2005 Meeting
On Tuesday 8th November, 7.30 pm, Diana Williams will present a lecture on her time spent in Jingdezhen, China, working with one of the master carvers and decorators and the work she produced as a result of this experience.
December Special Event
On Sunday 4th December, a visit to the garden and ceramics collection at Cranlana has been arranged. A booking form was enclosed with your previous Newsletter.
December 2005 Meeting
On Tuesday, 13th December the Circle’s Annual Christmas Dinner will be held at the same venue as previous years. This promises to be another enjoyable evening mixing good food, good wine and good company in a most convivial setting. A booking form is enclosed.
Venue:
The International of Brighton
81 Bay Street, Brighton
The President thanking Geoffrey Edwards at the Geelong Art Gallery viewing
What's on??
At the Geelong Gallery
Little Malop Street, Geelong
Painted Porcelain – decorated British ceramics 1750 - 1850
Based on the Gallery’s holdings of richly decorated porcelains representing the major factories, styles and decorators of this period.
30th September to 27th November 2005
At the Immigration Museum
400 Flinders Street, Melbourne
GREEK TREASURES from the Benaki Museum in Athens
This features over 160 objects including exquisite ceramics, embroidered textiles, figurines, oil paintings and Byzantine icons.
Until 28th May, 2006
At the Hamilton Art Gallery
Brown Street, Hamilton
East Meets West
Oriental influences on European ceramics.
5th October – 27th November 2005
At East & West Art
665 High Street, East Kew
Phil Elson: A Solo Exhibition
Phil views the bowl not only as a functional form but also as an object of beauty. After 25 years of honing his skills, this body of work shows Phil’s complete mastery o over the form and a further development into the realm of glazes. Using Southern Ice and Superior White porcelains in conjunction with influences from traditional Asian glazes, Phil has developed some “rare earth” colours including beautiful pale mauves and greys. He is constantly trying to introduce more quality and colour into his glazes.
5th November until 30th November 2005
The April 2005 meeting of the Circle featured three talks by Circle members Jo Armstrong, Chris Begg and Ray Kendall. The talks by Jo and Ray have already been published. We conclude with the talk by Chris Begg:
Ceramic Tile Stoves
The use of fire to heat our living space is millenniums of years old. In relatively recent times the Greeks in 350 BC and then the Romans used hollow floor tiles to duct hot and cold air through their houses, the heat being produced by and external furnace. There are examples of these in archaeological sites in England, such as at Lullingstone in Kent, and in Europe at Pompeii and Paestum.
The use of an enclosed stove has been in existence for many centuries. The reasons for enclosing the fire in a stove include:
- It is safer
- It creates less mess
- The stove acts as a heat bank.
It was primarily this last reason that led to the re-development of the ceramic tiled stove from the 15th century in central Europe probably in either Germany or Holland. In Scandinavia in the 18th century, with their long cold winters, the rate the forests were being depleted became a significant concern. In 1767 two members of the Swedish aristocracy, Baron Carl Cronstedt and Baron Fabian Wrede were commissioned by the King to develop a stove design that burned small amounts of fuel quickly and at a very high temperature. It was necessary to retain the heat rather than allow it to go straight up the chimney. The high temperature was necessary to minimise the amount of ash and maximize the amount of heat energy produced.
The Kakkelovn ceramic stove that they designed, collected the heat in a stone store above the fire box, the stone then acted like a modern night storage heater, its covering of tiles continuing to radiate heat into the room long after the fire had gone out. Some of the more sophisticated designs had up to six flues that were closed off after the fire had gone out in order to retain the heat. To obtain a quick high temperature fire, up to 1100 °C, the wood was specially prepared. The wood of Birch and Willow was suitable. After being cut it was stored for two seasons, the first season on the wet or weather side of the house, and for the second season on the dry side. Over 90% of the houses in Finland have a ceramic stove as well as many of the big houses and palaces of Europe
Stove made in Switzerland in 1680
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
They are often placed in the corner of a room and can be fed fuel from the front or, as is the case of many of the stately homes, from a passage at the rear. This method of fuelling meant that the staff was not seen and there was less mess in the living area.
Germany, Austria and Switzerland were the main countries to manufacture stoves in the 18th century. The tiled surfaces of the stoves added to the storage capacity of the heat bank and provided a medium for decoration, the higher the relief of the decoration the better the heat capacity and the better the heat radiation. The surrounding wall space and floor was also often tiled so as to extend the heat bank, this being the case for cast iron stoves that provided great competition for the ceramic stove. German stove tiles were typically made in high relief, often with figurative scenes and they were covered in rich dark glazes.
Stove in Schomisrom Palace Vienna
19th Century
In contrast, the stove tiles made in Switzerland and Austria adopted the maiolica technique of the 16th century. The tin-glazed tiles were most famously produced in Winterthur in Switzerland and were often painted in polychrome with complex figurative scenes. Whilst oil and gas heating replaced the ceramic stove in the mid 20th century there is now a significant environmental push to reintroduce the use of wood and hence the re-emergence of the ceramic tiled stove, particularly in America and Canada. It is the decorative tiles and stove architecture that are of interest to us tonight.
German Stove made in 1577 by Hans Krant
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Chris then showed a number of slides illustrating the use of tiles and the development of the ceramic tile stove. These commenced with slides of tiles and terracotta drainage pipes from Roman sites in both Italy and England and moved on to a series of tiles decorated in high relief from the 15th to the mid-17th centuries on display in the National Gallery, Copenhagen. One fascinating slide was of a mould from which a ceramic high relief tile had been made. Some of the tiles were decorated with images depicting the stages of life, whilst another showed “Temperance” from a tile series depicting the Virtues.Examples of German ceramic tile stoves were shown from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from the Palace of the Prince-Bishop’s of Ratisbon as well as several examples from the various rooms of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. From the Pitti Palace in Florence came a stove from a bedroom of the Royal Apartments and dating to c.1780. A French Faience fireplace of c.1770, housed in the Sevres Museum, Paris was contrasted with a modern stove of c.1920 made in Dresden to conclude a most informative presentation.
NETSUKE: A TREASURE IN THE PALM OF THE HAND
A transcript of the lecture given by Eva Sweet at the CGCA Warburton 2005 study weekend.
NETSUKE (derivation: NE = root, TSKE = to attach) are miniature carvings, used from the 15th century until the middle of the 19th century, as part of traditional Japanese costume. During the 15th century and onwards, Japanese clothing had no pockets, so small articles were tucked into the sash or Obi. As they had a tendency to fall through and get lost, a netsuke, or counterbalance began to be used. At first, small pieces of stone, wood or bone with a hole to pass a thread through were used, the other end being attached to the sagemono, or hanging things, such as a money purse or a medicine box.
By the late 16th and early 17th centuries, they had become round discs, often beautifully carved and decorated, used by aristocrats and samurai as fashion accessories, who attached them to tiny decorated boxes – inro – which held medicines or personal seals and red ink pads. By this time the netsuke had become status symbols, with the style and value denoting the wealth and social position of the person wearing it.
There are now five main types of netsuke:
- Katabori – three dimensional, carved in the round
- Manju – named for the rice cake – round, flat and usually thick
- Ryusa – round, heavily carved and reticulated, often hollowed-out inside so that one can see through it
- Kagamibuta – a bowl shape with a metal lid to be used as an ash tray
- Sashi – an elongated Katabori
All netsuke have holes – hematoshi – through which to pass the cord, which must be correctly positioned at the centre of gravity to carry the weight of the sagemono and so that the best side of the netsuke faces away from the wearer. The exit hole for the cord is usually the smaller of the two, and the knot of the cord should tuck inside it. The carver will often use a natural space in the carving of the netsuke instead of carving specific holes.
The inro – a small compartmented box – is made in sections and held together with a cord which runs up the sides to the netsuke. A sliding bead – ojime – is used to close and tighten the box.
The golden age of netsuke was between 1780 and 1850. Most of the best carvers lived in Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and Edo (Tokyo) which had the wealthiest of the aristocrats and merchants. Most of the subjects tell a story or a myth, fable or scenes from everyday life. Religion, history, sumo, Kabuki and Noh theatre were also the subjects for netsuke, as were animals, fruit, insects, benign and ferocious gods, flowers and household goods etc. The materials used were ivory, wood, tortoiseshell, metal and ceramics, with very few of the early pieces being signed.
With the arrival of Commodore Perry and the American Fleet in 1853, Japan, which had been isolated from the rest of the world for 150 years, reopened to the West, and the Japanese began to wear Western clothing, with pockets. Cigarettes took over from the Japanese pipe, pipecase, kagamibuta and tobacco pouch – which would have been worn together as a sagemono - and inro and netsuke lost favour as accessories, but started to become collector’s pieces.
With the opening up to the West, Japan began to exhibit at the Great Exhibitions in Europe and a wave of Japonisme swept over Europe. Huge numbers of commercial netsuke began to be carved, not for use, but as collector’s items, which saw the decline of much of the previous artistry. Many of these are now sold all over the world and are widely collected. There were however still artist carvers working in Japan who carved for the Japanese market, and these were of a much higher quality and are those now sought after by collectors.
Netsuke are still being carved today, and many are carved by true craftsmen. A really good netsuke can take up to a month to carve and there are netsuke collectors all over the world who meet regularly to discuss different carvers and schools of carving, and to admire the collections of others. It is like any other type of collecting – a very, very pleasant disease!
Hirado Porcelain
This is a transcript of the lecture given by George Smith at the CGCA Warburton 2005 study weekend.
Hirado is located in the North West corner of the westernmost island of Kyushu and is close to Korea and China. Hirado porcelain is probably the least known and least studied of Japanese porcelains. It is certainly much less well known than the production of Arita, Okawachiyama, or Kutani kilns. As far as I know, there are only 3 recent English books available, which give more than a passing mention to Hirado and I could find only one which was devoted solely to Hirado (Luis Lawrence; Hirado ,1997Prince of Porcelains. Art Media Resources 1997). Until the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century Hirado was the domain of the Matsuura/Matsura family. There is some dispute about the name’s origin. Lawrence considers the name derives from ‘matsuro’ meaning a backward area, whilst others state that it comes from ‘matsu’ (pine) and ‘ura’ (bay), which is how it is now written in Japanese. Being a romantic, I favour the pine bay explanation.
The family can be traced to Toru Minamoto (822 – 895 AD), the 20th son of the Saga emperor. He and his son Noboru, who died in 918 AD, were civil servants at the Kyoto court. The third generation turned warriors, as were all subsequent generations until the Meiji Restoration in 1867, when the Shogun submitted his resignation to the Mikado (Emperor). They are now in the 41st generation, with Akira, born in 1941.
The family established itself in Kyushu when Hirashi (8th generation) was appointed military governor of Matsuura, Sonogi and Iki. He adopted the family name Matsuura and the mulberry leaf as the family mon (crest). The 11th generation, Tamatsu, established himself on Hirado Island in 1225, building a castle in which the family lived for 700 years. His domains covered not just Hirado-shima, but extended as far as a few miles from Arita in the east and southward as far as Amakusa Island. The family played a leading role in repelling a Chinese/Mongol (Yuan Dynasty) invasion of Kyushu in 1274. Kublai Khan was the leader of the invaders, using Chinese and Korean troops. Matsuura did have some assistance from a storm (the Kami- kaze, or ‘holy wind’), which wrecked much of the invasion fleet.
In the late 12th century, a Buddhist monk, Eisei, returning from China, set himself up in Hirado. He introduced not only Zen Buddhism into Japan but also established the cultivation of tea. Tea has become a most important element of Japanese culture and the tea ceremony has become the driving force behind much Japanese pottery production.
The military success and spiritual endeavours of the Matsuura clan helped to further enhance the standing of the family and its influence. Hirado was a centre for trade with South East Asia (Indochina, Malaya and the Philippines) as well as China and Korea. When the Europeans arrived in the mid 16th century, first the Portuguese, then the Spanish, Dutch and English they traded with some of the Daimyo in Western Kyushu, but all of them operated at least in part through Hirado. Some of the more well known visitors from Europe included St. Francis Xavier, who arrived in 1550 with the Portuguese and William Adams of Shogun fame, who arrived on a Dutch vessel and died in Hirado in 1620, having acted as foreign affairs advisor and ship builder to the Shogun. Matsuura Takenobu increased trade profits when he allowed European missionaries in and reaped a significant increase in trade and import duties. He also learned the use of firearms and their manufacture, being able to cast cannon and matchlock rifles.
Hideyoshi Tokugawa when establishing the shogunate in the 1580’s sought Matsuura Shigenobu to join a campaign against the Satsuma Daimyo and after victory Hideyoshi turned to Shigenobu for help in an invasion of Korea. It was successful, with Shigenobu providing counsel and troops. In 1596 he stayed on in Korea in command of the garrison. He remained there until Hideyoshi died in 1598. Many of the returning generals brought back artists including potters from Korea. Shigenobu settled a number of them on Hirado, establishing the Nakano kiln. Most used local clays and produced wares close to those made in Korea under the Yi dynasty with a coarse brown body overlaid with a whitish slip and brown oxide designs. Nakano also used local clay, which fired to a light brown, which was painted in underglaze blue and covered with a whitish slip. The brown crackle of this ware makes this slip appear a pale milk coffee colour.
Water dropper in the form of a rabbit
Hirado, Meiji Period. Length: 8.8 cm.
The founding potter was Koseki Tonroku. He was given the art name Imamura Yajibei. The Imamura family was associated with Hirado pottery right through to the 20th century. Of course porcelain was unable to be made until kaolin clay was found at Izumiyama in about 1614. Izumiyama is about halfway between Arita and Okawachiyama and by early 1620 porcelain was made in the Nabeshima daimyo’s fiefdom, where Hirado potters had no access.
Following a revolt by Japanese Christians, urged on by Spanish missionaries, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun, issued edicts banning foreigners from coming to Japan and Japanese from going overseas. He even went as far as restricting the design of fishing boats so as to make them incapable of going too far off shore. He also restricted trade with foreigners to Hirado and the Deshima enclave of Nagasaki. By 1640 foreign trade at Hirado was also forbidden, significantly reducing the finances of the Matsuura family.
In 1622 a deposit of good quality clay was discovered at Mikawachi, in Hirado territory, about 5 km from Arita and over 60 km from Hirado Island. In that year, on the order of Takanobu Matsuura, a kiln was opened there. This newfound clay had a high iron content, which left traces of red on unglazed areas and it tended to turn the glaze a blue – grey colour. It is understood that both the clays used at Arita and Mikawachi were of similar condition and resulted in the same wares being produced. Around that time many famous kilns were established in the area such as Kakiemon and the first Nabeshima kilns.
In 1637 M. Takanobu built a villa in Mikawachi and ordered the second generation Imamura, Sannojo to move from Nakano and supervise the Mikawachi kilns. He invited potters from surrounding districts, producing mainly Karatsu style wares, and he also brought in painters to decorate these wares. Records exist of a number of these people. Takenobu died that year and was succeeded by his son, Chinshin, then 15 years old.
The establishment of the Shogunate had brought relative peace and stability to Japan and Chinshin was fortunate to enjoy these benefits. He was the head of a most powerful and wealthy family and gained a reputation as a diplomat with expertise in both domestic and foreign affairs, the latter largely due to the fact that Will Adams had been granted an estate there. He continued at Hirado Castle, as his principal residence, but finished the work his father began at Mikawachi.
One of the problems however, with the Shoguns closure of foreign trade, was the absence of imports and especially that of fine Chinese porcelain, which was keenly sought after by the sake- drinking cultured elite. This fact stimulated the development of Japanese efforts to find Kaolin clay and improve kilns and potting techniques. Hideyoshi, the late Shogun, had been a major patron of the arts, who also developed a great interest in the tea ceremony. He used that to promote his political interests and encouraged others to participate by giving tea utensils as rewards for service. He also patronised the tea master Sen no Rikyu, who in turn instructed him in the aesthetic of the service.
Utensils used were made simply and based on Korean and Chinese originals. In a short time, the utensils developed a distinctly Japanese character. Porcelain was little used except as occasional pieces of underglaze blue Ming ware, mainly water jars, or to a lesser extent, Shokei Imari. The ceremony became so popular that no daimyo could not practice it and learn the correct etiquette. They competed with each other in the elegance of their tea pavilions, utensils and their skill at entertaining. This created a great stimulus for potters whose status was raised from artisan to artist.
In 1650, Chinshin moved the last of the Nakano potters to the “Hirado Prefecture Official Kiln” at Mikawachi. In 1662, the efforts to find a source of Kaolin clay bore fruit when deposits were discovered within the Hirado fiefdom at Amakusa Island some 90 km south of Mikawachi. This was not a great location as the transportation of the stone required digging out, loading onto ships, transport to the mainland and then carriage of 10 km to Mikawachi. The clay then was purified by sedimentation after which only about 6% of the original clay was usable. The clay was white, much whiter than that of Izumiyama and contained almost no grit. Experimentation showed that the best results were obtained by mixing the Amakusa and Izumiyama clays.
The first Mikawachi kiln was closed in 1668 having produced blue/white underglaze ware. It was replaced by a bigger kiln at Mikawachi- Higashi (east), which remained the centre of production for the next 250 years until early in Emperor Showa’s (Hirohito’s) reign. The production of this new kiln represented a major improvement in quality. The new kilns used the services of the official court painters as well as porcelain decorators.
Chinshin was intimately involved in this new venture. He was also a poet and he formed his own school of tea ceremony, the “Chinshu-ryu” or Warrior’s tea ceremony much practiced amongst Samurai. He wrote that martial arts and cultural pursuits are the two main areas of creativity a warrior should pursue. The school is still maintained today and promoted by the 41st generation of the family. The production of the Matsuura kilns like that of the Nabeshima kilns was reserved for the daimyos and their households. It was also given away as presents to favoured guests and presented to the Shogun during the required bi-annual visits to Edo.
The late 1600s saw big improvements in the quality of output in all the Kyushu kilns through technical changes. At Mikawachi they started using a primary firing to dry out the biscuit, which resulted in a great reduction of kiln losses and is also said to have improved the whiteness of the paste. The production at that time was primarily blue and white. With the use of the new processes some white ware was also created. In 1699 Chinshin commissioned a special order, which he presented to the Imperial Court at Kyoto. He died aged 82, in 1703 – a major figure in the development of Japanese ceramics.
Dating Hirado Porcelain
There are few dated Hirado pieces produced in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in Western possession. There is only one vase, stoneware verging on porcelain, in the collection of the Tsuragamine Castle Museum on Hirado Island, inscribed in underglaze blue “10th year of Geiwa (1624) made by Oyomada Sakei”.
Only seven 18th century dated pieces are known. One is a set of small porcelain bowls inscribed as being made in 1723. They are blue and white, painted on the obverse side with a spray of chrysanthemum and on the reverse with peaches and scrolling branches. They are thinly potted and have wavy runs. The blue is softer than that used on Arita porcelain of the same type. Another set exists dated 1759. Using these as a benchmark as well as contemporary Arita ware, assumptions on the dates of other pieces can be made. The difference between Arita and Hirado ware are the purity of the paste and the softness of colour of the latter. Similar dishes exist with the same characteristics as the above dated pieces, but with the obverse or front painted with landscapes, different flowers and the Matsuura mon. Glazes also have a slight yellow/green tinge.
One of the most popular Hirado designs, boys playing under pine trees, a popular Ming motif, was at that time reinvented by court painter Katayama Shoshun. It is still popular on Mikawachi porcelain today. The story about the higher number of boys indicating higher quality porcelain is an invention, as known pieces show. It seems that the space available determined the number of boys painted.
There must have been much information interchange between the Arita and the Mikawachi potters, so it is not surprising that the origin of some pieces is disputed. There are also pieces in European collections that appeared in the early 18th century, which makes dating possible. An example of this is in the Saxon Court Collection of the early 18th century.
Three-dimensional modelling of weights used to hold down the cloth covers of gifts and for knobs on jar lids in the form of animals or humans started appearing in the late 18th century. The tendency of Amakusa clay to hold its shape and not run made it particularly suitable for such sculptured work. Later developments include piercing of lanterns, reticulation and relief and incision work. Fukugawa, who took over the Mikawachi kilns around 1900, uses such animal knobs for some of his commercial incense burners even now.
There exist relatively large collections of 19th century pieces inscribed with marks, which allow them to be accurately dated. There is also a collection of 30 pieces of Hirado ware collected together with about 7000 assorted items of Japonica at the Museum of Ethnology at Leyden (Netherlands). They represent the efforts of Dr. Von Siebold, who removed them from Japan in 1828 when he finished his first tour of duty at Deshima between 1823 and 1828.
Hirado quality at its best is outstanding both in potting and decorating. Up until the 1820s all production was for the use of the Matsuuras and their household. However, the quality varied somewhat as the very top of the range was reserved for the daimyo and his family, with his retinue using pieces of lesser quality, though still good enough for me to desire all of them.
In 1828 a typhoon struck Arita destroying the potteries and reducing production to a trickle. The Dutch looked for alternative production sources and chose next-door Mikawachi, which had been unaffected by the storm. To fill the void, the Hirado Trading Company was established at Mikawachi and production increased significantly with about 300 people working there between 1830 and 1847. It also required changes in output. Previously, all production was for use in Japanese households and included vases, bowls, ornaments and tea utensils. The VOC wanted products made for European tastes. Much of it was eggshell porcelain decorated in overglaze enamels outside Mikawachi. The Matsuura family at that stage had been feeling the financial effects of being cut off from trade by the transfer of all trade to Nagasaki under the control of the Shogun. In 1843 they withdrew their formal patronage of the kilns but they continued to commission work, as required, as is reported in the Manchester Guardian in 1891.
From 1843 all products of the kilns were available to all buyers. This also, over time, changed the character of the products, from conservative household wares to more elaborate shapes and embellishments. In the second half of the 19th century Mikawachi developed “presentation pieces”, relatively large pieces elaborately decorated with sculptured animals and much unrelated painted decoration. Many of these are signed with the potter’s name and the words “Dai Nikon” or “Great Japan” which is largely a Meiji phenomenon. There are also examples of altar garnitures. One illustrated (presently in the possession of the Kurzman family) is an underglaze blue and white with exquisite reticulation. Each item is said to be signed differently. While they are beautiful, they really seem to be too elaborate to fit comfortably into Japan. They almost appear to be like Victorian Chinoiserie pieces. There is uncertainty whether these pieces were meant for export to Europe or China.
The Meiji Period was the peak of potting techniques in Mikawachi, demonstrating an impressive ability to produce lightweight, thin pots, but conversely also a deviation from traditional Japanese tastes.
In 1870, the Fukugawa Company of Arita, which is still operating today, and which I believe also owns Koransha, was known to be operating in Hirado. Some examples of Hirado ware with Fukugawa’s trademark Mount Fuji sign exist. There is a possibility that the Hirado kilns produced blanks for Fukugawa to decorate. However, Nancy Schiffer reports that around 1900 the Fukugawa company bought out the complete stock of Hirado ware, marked it with it’s own trade mark and sold it. It is also suggested that Fukugawa absorbed the Hirado kilns into his own operation.
Today, there are still kilns operating in Mikawachi. In the late 1990s, there was a World Ceramic Exposition in Saga prefecture. Whilst visiting my daughter in Sasebo, in the prefecture adjacent to Mikawachi, I got off the train to look at a porcelain fair there. They still appear to be making traditional Hirado patterns.
Before closing this chapter on the history of Hirado, I would also suggest that if you get a chance to visit New York or Baltimore, there are two major collections of Hirado porcelain there. The New York collection is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was established by a gift of 69 pieces by an American named Charles Stewart Smith, unfortunately no relation of mine, who bought a large portion of the collection of Capt. F. Brinkley, a long term resident of Japan, in 1892. Mrs. V Everitt Macy, as in the department store, bought a group of 42 pieces from the same Captain Brinkley. In her will the collection was left to the Metropolitan Museum where it has been since 1923.
The other collection is the work of William Walters of Baltimore (railways), who began collecting artworks in the 1850s. He was the first American to build a collection of Oriental Art works. His son, Henry Walters, continued acquiring ceramics. The entire Walters collection, which includes 98 pieces of Hirado-yaki, is housed in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.
There is a connection between Hirado and Australia. The City of Matsuura in the former Daimyo’s domain is the location of the biggest coal fired power station in Japan. It is the sister city of Mackay in Queensland, from where the coal is shipped.
Historical Periods of Japan
| 1559–1598 | Azuchi Momoyama | Nobunaga / Hideyoshi |
| 1603–1867 | Edo (Tokyo) | Tokugawa Shogunate |
| 1868–1912 | Meiji | Enlightened Rule |
| 1913–1926 | Taisho Period | Great Righteousness |
| 1926–1989 | Showa | Enlightened Peace (Hirohito) |
| 1989–to date | Heisei | Peace Everywhere (Akihito) |