Arita / Table of Contents Studies in Japanese Porcelain
Arita is a quiet, idyllic town with some 20,000 inhabitants. Hidden among rice felds and surrounded by mountains and forests, Arita is part of the Saga Prefecture, located on the island of Kyushu in southwest Japan. Four centuries ago, Arita must have looked very much as it does today. Farmers worked the felds from spring to autumn and returned to the town in winter. About this time, a small community of potters started to develop and it wasn t long before they discovered the area s exceptionally pure porcelain stone. This discovery, coupled with the skill of the craftsmen, would set the course of Arita s fate: by the seventeenth century, Arita had become the epicentre of global mass porcelain production. The year 1616 marks the beginning of Arita porcelain, as from this date a story of high drama unfolds, involving samurais, common people and craftsmen a story of battles won and lost, and of clever comebacks. Secrecy, treasure and international trade as well as espionage all play a role in the beauty of Arita s brilliant-blue brushwork on a milky-white surface. The art of Arita is, in the end, the culmination of all this, as well as the outcome of international and national trends, tastes, politics and history. Today, 400 years later, a new chapter is about to be added. The co-authors are a group of Arita potters, who carry on the centurieslong porcelain legacy of their home town, and sixteen international designers, equipped with fresh ideas about contemporary tableware. Together, they will continue a long tradition of telling the world about the treasures of a place hidden among rice felds and surrounded by green mountains, a place called Arita, in the west of the island of Kyushu in Japan.
A NOTE FROM ARITA Ambassador NL / Saga Prefecture JP 15 FOUR CENTURIES OF ARITA PORCELAIN Anniina Koivu 19 PORTRAIT GALLERY Anniina Koivu 35 THE FUTURE OF THE PAST Teruhiro Yanagihara / Scholten & Baijings 49
I KORANSHA + Ingegerd Råman 65 IX KIN EMON TOEN + Shigeki Fujishiro 233 II KORANSHA + Studio Wieki Somers 81 X KIN EMON TOEN + Kueng Caputo 249 III KUBOTA MINORU CERAMICS + BIG-GAME 105 XI KOUEMON + Pauline Deltour 273 IV FUJIMAKI SEITOU Christien + 129 Meindertsma XII KAWAZOE SEIZAN + Stefan Diez 297 V FUJIMAKI SEITOU + Teruhiro Yanagihara 145 XIII HATAMAN TOUEN + Scholten & Baijings 321 VI SEHYOU + Kirstie van Noort 169 XIV HATAMAN TOUEN + Saskia Diez 337 VII SEHYOU + Tomás Alonso 185 XV HATAMAN TOUEN + Leon Ransmeier 353 VIII HOUSENGAMA + Christian Haas 209 XVI TOKUNAGA POTTERY + TAF 377
2016/ COLLECTIONS Photography by Scheltens & Abbenes 393 Glossary 406 Biographies 408 Captions + Picture Credits 412
A NOTE FROM ARITA Ambassador NL / Saga Prefecture JP
Ambassador NL Saga Prefecture JP In 2016 the Arita porcelain industry will celebrate a signifcant milestone: the 400th year since its founding. To mark this important anniversary, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Japan and Saga Prefecture of Japan have instigated an ambitious project intended to reinvigorate the Arita porcelain industry and pioneer a new era of collaboration between the two nations. Arita porcelain is Japan s original and fnest porcelain ware. It was frst created in 1616 in the small town of Arita in Saga prefecture on the island of Kyushu. Arita quickly grew into a porcelain town, flled with workshops dedicated to, and excelling in, the production of this fne ceramic. During the mid-seventeenth century, Arita porcelain was exported through the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company or VOC) to the countries of Europe, where it delighted the Continent s royal houses and became highly coveted. This was a true golden age for Arita porcelain. At the same time, the Netherlands was establishing itself as a powerful infuence across the world s oceans, responsible for trade in goods and culture between the East and the West. The 2016/ project intends to recreate another golden age, this time in the twenty-frst century, through a partnership that mirrors the historic links between the Netherlands and Saga Prefecture. The Netherlands continues to infuence; it s role as a world leader in contemporary design is well known. Meanwhile, Arita has remained an important centre for porcelain production, today complementing its 400 years of history and tradition with exceptional manufacturing technology. Combining Arita s manufacturing skills with the Netherland s design sensibility is at the heart of the project. 17
KORANSHA
I KORANSHA + Ingegerd Råman The handle always breaks frst
I KORANSHA Ingegerd Råman The handle always breaks frst Ingegerd Råman In studies of the history of cofee and tea culture, the cup handle is a topic of constant dispute. The West is in favour of it, while Asian culture has managed just fne without it since the invention of hot tea more than 1,200 years ago. The frst applications of the handle to cofee cups and teacups can be traced back to the late seventeenth century, yet it was only in the nineteenth century, with the increasing enthusiasm for tea and cofee in Europe, that the handled cup truly established itself. Before that, the saucer had enjoyed great popularity as an alternative means of support. Shaped as a small plate with a rounded indentation at the centre to stabilize the cup, a saucer was multifunctional: you could use the saucer to hand the cup over; you could balance a spoon on the saucer; and you could use it as a support while drinking from the cup. To cool the beverage, it was common to pour the hot tea from the cup into the saucer and sip from the saucer instead which explains why the size of a saucer depends on the volume of the cup. Before the handle, the saucer was not a decorative addition but a functional requirement. This is a choko. Dating from the early Edo period, small containers such as this are among the most commonly used items in Japanese cuisine. Most choko are used for serving condiments to accompany soba noodles, but they can also serve as teacups or shot glasses. They are simple in design, modest in appearance, and functional. Produced in large quantities, without specifying the craftsman s name, a choko is a prime example of the mingei tradition. Yet the saucer s origins can only be speculated about. Some scholars believe the saucer originated with the daughter of a Chinese military ofcial, who found it difcult to handle the hot bowls of tea she brewed for her father, and so asked a local potter to devise a little plate on which to place the bowl. 1 Others place the frst saucers in Turkey, where cofee was not only drunk at home, but also in the many public cofee houses. As these cofee houses began to appear in cities across the Near and Middle East, the saucer spread. Based on records of the 66 67