Visiting Arita and Okawachiyama, Japan
In search of a deeper understanding of the history
of Japanese porcelain production, I recently traveled to Imari,
Arita and Okawachiyama in Kysuhu. Okawachiyama, a remote ceramic
village encircled on three sides by towering, precipitous mountains,
was a veritable prison for Korean potters who were brought here
to produce porcelain for the Nabeshima domain.
Today the village is the home to over 20 operating kilns, the Tenjikan, a museum
featuring the work of community potters, a reconstructed feudal porcelain factory,
and one nobori-gama, climbing kiln, fired once a year. The majority of work
is fired in electric and gas fired kilns.
Foreign influences on the history of Japanese ceramics are most evident in
Kyushu where porcelain was first imported from China and Korea in the 12th
century. Five hundred year later, kaolin deposits were discovered in 1615 by
the Korean potter Ri Sampei in Arita. The Nabeshima clan established a porcelain
monopoly establishing a community of Korean artisans which it kept under tight
guard to keep other clans from stealing valuable secrets. A powerful relic
of the past is the mound of gravestones of the 880 Korean potters and descendants
who worked and died in Okawachiyama.
Archeological finds establish Japan as the world's oldest ceramic producing
culture. Cooking vessels and female figurines dated from 10,000 BC offer exuberant
earthenware forms unlike any styles found on the Asian mainland. A long history
of production and appreciation for fine ceramics has positioned ceramics among
the most vigorous of Japanese crafts.
Other recent projects in Brazil and Kosei-in, Japan have provided valuable opportunities to collaborate and learn from many friends and colleagues in the field.
