Japanese Porcelain
of Korean potters, Chinese disruptions, and Arita expansion . . .
The Japanese porcelain industry was pioneered by Korean potters who relocated to Japan during two invasions of Korea in the 1590s. In the early 1600s, the Korean potters living in the Arita district of Hizen discovered the soft, white kaolin clay deposits necessary for the manufacture of porcelain and thus began Japan’s first porcelain production.
Western trade with Japan had begun in 1543 through the arrival of a Portuguese ship to the island of Tanegashima. Their first trade base was established in Hirado but was moved in 1570 to the man-made Deshima Island, separated from Nagasaki by a narrow canal. In 1609, the old Portuguese trading position on Hirado was taken over by the Dutch who traded there quite freely until the end of the 1640s when they, too, were relocated to Deshima.
Eventually the Spanish-Portuguese, who through their Jesuit connection had a political and religious agenda intertwined with their trade efforts, were banned from working in Japan. They were ultimately expelled in 1639. From 1641 on, only Chinese and Dutch ships were allowed to come to Japan and Nagasaki was the only harbor to which their entry was permitted.
In the 1640s, rebellions in China and wars between the Ming dynasty and the Manchus damaged the Jingdezhen kilns, and in 1656 the new Qing dynasty government stopped trade by closing its ports. Chinese potter refugees introduced refined porcelain techniques and enamel glazes to the Arita kilns. From 1656, the Dutch East India Company looked to Japan for blue-and-white porcelain to sell in Europe. At that time, the Arita kilns could not yet supply enough quality porcelain to the Dutch East India Company, but they quickly expanded their capacity. From 1659 to 1740, the Arita kilns were able to export enormous quantities of porcelain to Europe and Asia.
The Dutch traders influenced the styles of porcelain being produced in the Arita kilns to emulate previous Chinese export wares and introduced new shapes and designs to appeal to European tastes, creating porcelain designs for export that were markedly different from the designs intended for domestic buyers. Japanese export porcelain is commonly referred to as Arita ware, for the district in which the kilns were located. The Dutch, sequestered on Deshima, would receive trade goods in Nagasaki that were shipped from the nearby port of Imari, so these export wares are sometimes also identified as Imari ware. In the West, the term Imari most often refers to the brightly colored overglaze enamels from the Arita kilns while the term Arita ware is used for the cobalt blue underglaze porcelains.
In 1684 the Chinese Emperor Kangxi, who actively encouraged foreign trade, restarted the Jingdezhen kilns. Very quickly, the Chinese potters developed their own styles of the highly coloured enameled wares that Europeans found so attractive, including Famille Vert (Kangxi period) and then Famille Rose (Yongzheng period) using imported European colored glass for enamels. From about 1720 , the Chinese kilns also began to imitate the Imari enameled style, flooding the market with cheaper versions of the laborious Japanese wares. By about 1740 the first period of Japanese export porcelain had all but ceased and the Arita kilns shifted focus to the domestic market.
Izumiyama Kaolin Quarry (the first site discovered in Japan for kaolin)
limited to a man-made island . . .
After the Portuguese were expelled from Deshima Island in 1639 for their support of Catholic peasants in the Shimabara Rebellion, the Dutch were forced to shut down their factory in Hirado and relocate all activity to the now-vacant, tiny island. The Shogunate government severely restricted and monopolized foreign trade and the inflow of information from outside Japan. The Dutch were only allowed entry to Japan during their compulsory visits to Edo to bestow gifts of tribute to the Shogun. This was the only opportunity for a Dutchman to view Japan from the inside and was also a rare opportunity for the Japanese in Edo and along the travel route to see a Westerner.
Dutch ships docked once a year; the goods that could be traded, their quantity, and price were severely restricted. Since a huge profit was assured upon return to The Netherlands, the Dutch did not abandon their trading rights even under such restrictive conditions