Page 129 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

the brush loaded with white slip onto the surface of the vessel as it turned on the wheel — creates
a luscious pattern resembling puffs of clouds on the exterior of the bowl and a web of wispy veins
on leaves on the bowl’s interior, an unusual and creative textured patterning (cat. 62b). Delicate
ginkgo leaves are painted in pale blue on top of each puff of white on the sides of the bowl; a pair
of leaves and a single leaf, respectively, float over the “clouds.” A clear glaze covers the entire bowl,
inside and out, including the base. The handsome contrast between the dark clay and the creamy
white areas of slip is a trademark of Utsutsugawa ceramics. The bowl, which would originally have
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had a snug-fitting lid, would have belonged to a set of five. Nearly identical bowls were made
at the contemporary Takeo Karatsu kilns, evidence of the cross-fertilization between the ceramic
operations of these two neighboring domains.
The manufacture of Utsutsugawa ceramics appears to have been a fairly small operation,
compared, for example, to the production of Karatsu ware. To date, two kilns have been excavated:
the one at Onikiuwa, a large climbing kiln with about fifteen firing chambers, was excavated in
1983–84 and again in 1998, while the one at Kannon, excavated in 1999, was a climbing kiln with
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at least six firing chambers. The ceramics from these two kilns share a number of features,
predominantly their shapes and decorative techniques and styles. Most extant Utsutsugawa prod-
ucts are either dishes or bowls, often in sets, but kiln-site excavations have confirmed that other

Catalogue 62a Tea bowl with decoration of ginkgo leaves. Japanese, Edo period (1615–1868); kiln in operation
1
ca. 1691–1749. Stoneware with cobalt-blue design over brushed white slip (Utsutsugawa), H. 2 ⁄2 in. (6.4 cm),
3
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Diam. of rim 4 ⁄2 in. (11.4 cm), Diam. of foot 1 ⁄4 in. (4.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
The Howard Mansfield Collection, Gift of Howard Mansfield, 1936 (36.120.501)
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