Page 130 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

vessel shapes, such as flower vases, were also made, albeit in extremely limited quantities.
Though primarily intended for the Isahaya domain, Utsutsugawa ware was circulated, sold, and
used in Kyoto and Osaka during its peak period of manufacture in the first few decades of the
eighteenth century.

YaTsushiro (higo)
Known locally by the names Koda and Hirayama, Yatsushiro ware encompasses a group of stonewares
produced in Higo Province (today’s Kumamoto Prefecture) in central eastern Kyushu. It has conven-
tionally been held to have started following the relocation of the daimyo Hosokawa Mitsunao (1619–
1650) from his former domain of Buzen Province to Higo in 1632. Hosokawa moved the potters of
Agano ware with him, including one of the head potters, Sonkai, a Korean brought back to Buzen by
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Mitsunao’s father, Hosokawa Sansai, following the Imjin Wars. In fact, the manufacture of Yatsushiro
ware had most likely begun under the Kaga clan, who had ruled that region prior to the Hosokawa
family’s move to Higo. The best-known style of Yatsushiro ware — Yatsushiro with inlaid designs —
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was first produced from about 1658 at the Hirayama kiln, under Sonkai’s direction. In essence,
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inlaid Yatsushiro ware was created by Agano ware potters, who, though of Korean descent, had not
adopted the application of white slip as decoration on Agano ceramics. 40

Catalogue 62b Interior view

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