Seto wares have no potters' identification marks—later the Kyoto artist-potters who worked at these kilns used their own seals.
Kyoto potters almost always sealed or signed their wares.
Kutani wares, except the very earliest, have identifying marks easily recognizable.
In general it may be said that the productions of the very earliest kilns have no marks of identification.
Since 1818 many potters have marked their wares with their personal names and it has also become the practice of some kilns to use a seal.
Japanese system of dates:—
In Japan dates are recorded firstly by the reigns of the various Emperors secondly by reference to the various Shogunates.
In speaking of ceramics prior to 1600 the imperial reign names are used but after that dates are established by the very loose classification of Early Tokugawa, Middle Tokugawa, Later Tokugawa, then the Meiji Period, Taisho Period and the present imperial reign, Showa Period.
The Tokugawa Shogunate lasted from 1603 to 1867—this is sometimes referred to as the Edo Period. This was the time of national seclusion when all the Japanese arts and crafts showed great native development.
The Meiji Period (1868 to 1912) is known also as the "Restoration." Actually it was the time of development of modern Japan and a time when European arts, sciences and all forms of civilization were adopted to the exclusion of native arts.
The Taisho Period (1912 to 1926) was a period of assimilation of European mores and a time of quiescence for Japanese things.
The Showa Period (1926 to)
Modern Kutani Plate
Kutani potters are still using traditional Japanese and Chinese designs. Note the pine, plum and bamboo motive; two of the floral panels have blossoming plum trees with bamboo, the other two feature the pine tree. The center design is a simplification of the Chinese peony growing from rocks. The strange little animal in the dark panels has the head of a bird with the tail of a dragon.
Modern interpretation of the hoo bird with the traditional Chinese peony flower modified to suggest the European rose motive.
Cha no yu
and Its Influence
on Japanese Ceramics
A curve of infinite beauty, a balance of forms, colours that blend harmoniously—that is what we want to look at. But no gazing at the finished object, however perfect it may be, can give the satisfaction that was felt by its creator while finishing it—because then the thing was still alive. Tea people realize the importance of this stage in creation at which a work of art is still alive, craving for the last perfection from its master's hand; and they take this task with its uncertainty and its joy away from the maker and give it to the beholder.
From Eleanor von Erdberg Consten (Res Artium).
Cha fin (tea master) preparing tea for cha no yu. One of the operations of this pastime is the careful ceremonial cleaning of each article as it is put into use. To the left of the server a small bowl for waste water. In front of him on the matted floor a small white bamboo whisk for mixing the tea and a lacquered box holding the powdered tea with measuring spoon balanced on the top. On the lacquered board an Oribe pottery bowl for holding cold water for replenishing the water in the iron hot-water kettle. The large object is a black earthenware fire pot (the "furo" the making of which gave the Eiraku potters their start in the ceramic art world of Japan) with a cast iron kettle for boiling the water. Balanced on the open top of the kettle is a bamboo dipper with which the hot water is ladled over the powdered tea; the small almost indistinguishable object beyond the furo is the iron lid of the water kettle. This form of serving tea is used only in the summer, in winter the "furo" is replaced by a sunken fire box level with the floor mats.
Cha no yu
It is in the making of pottery articles that the Japanese artist expresses in the simpliest and most direct way his love of the material he is working with and his conviction that to be beautiful an article must first be useful. And this idea, we humbly submit, is of value to all peoples.
Before attempting to explain in detail the distinguishing features of shape, colour and design of Japanese ceramic wares it will be well to stop and explain one influence which has moulded Japanese taste for centuries, the aesthetic cult or pastime known as cha no yu (literally "hot water for tea") It is coincidence only that the development of porcelain making took place just at the time that cha no yu played a prominent part in Japanese history, because pottery, not porcelain, is the chosen ceramic ware for cha no yu. However the arti tic taste fostered by cha no yu dictated the form and colour and texture of all forms of ceramics.
The words cha no yu, cha do and chajin are indispensable in the consideration of any form of Japanese art. Simple words "cha do" "tea teachings" and "cha jin" "tea-men" they are packed with meaning for the Japanese, and all but meaningless for Occidentals. For more than three hundred years the tea-men (cha jin) have been the accepted judges of what constitutes good taste in Japanese art and their influence is still felt in the etiquette of the daily lives of the people, in their homes and gardens, in their clothing and in their outlook on life. Even the language has not escaped, for the Japanese word expressive of confusion "mucha kucha" translated literally means "without tea, bitter tea." For many years the word used to denote any and all ceramic wares was "cha wan" or "tea bowl"; and even today common rice bowls are called cha wan or gohan cha wan, literally rice tea bowls.
Tea ceremony, the usually accepted translation of cha no yu, is most unsatisfactory for the words themselves mean only hot water of (or for) tea. Although the cha no yu of today has come to be representative of conservatism and reactionism, it was not so in the beginning. Originally it must have objectified the spirit of progress, even adventure. The designs on the tea utensils in those days were new, the latest importations from abroad. The tea-men of those days were discontents and pioneers, dissatisfied with the crash materialism of their day and its gaudy, ostentatious art.
They went to the other extreme and in revolt they preached the doctrine of beauty in imperfection and the joy of living in harmony with nature. They entertained their friends in surroundings suggestive of poverty, not wealth; drank their tea from bowls that had been discarded by Korean potters; arranged their flowers in crude earthen pots that had been used by farmers to store seeds in; and rigorously kept the conversation at such gatherings away from the glories of war and the admiration of the spoils of conquest, the things uppermost in the minds of the people of that day.
The first teachers of cha no yu were priests of the Zen sect of Buddhism. Their insistence on contemplation and reflection on the oneness of the universe, man and nature, ran counter to the prevailing spirit of war and struggle for military supremacy of their day. It was a time known in Japanese history as the Sengoku Jidai, Civil War Period, when three great leaders Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Iyeyasu successively struggled for leadership, and it was also at this time the first vanguard of European civilization was making its appearance in the Orient. In Europe it was the time of the Renaissance and this spirit found expression in Japan too. Hideyoshi, who loved to clothe himself in colourful garments and who lived in grand dwellings, decorated by master artists, which have never
