Page 131 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

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As seventeenth-century vessels are exceedingly rare, it is difficult to characterize the nature
and scope of Yatsushiro ware during this period. However, it appears that the ceramic — especially
the dominant type, inlaid Yatsushiro — came into its own in the eighteenth century and continued
to flourish through the nineteenth. Eighteenth-century inlaid decoration on Yatsushiro ware tends to
be quite pictorial, whereas the designs dating to the nineteenth century are more stylized, with a
marked standardization in the vessels’ shapes and ornamentation. By the mid-nineteenth century,
Yatsushiro ware had reached an extremely high level of sophistication in the technique and style of
its inlaid ornamentation; the delicately and precisely executed vessels reflect the tea tastes of the
province’s feudal lord and the technical proficiency of the potters. Yatsushiro ware was intended
primarily for the Hosokawa family and related provincial elites, as well as for temples and shrines
within the Higo domain, though evidently a portion of the products circulated beyond the political
and social inner circles. 42

Catalogue 63 Censer. Japanese, Edo period (1615–1868); 19th century. Stoneware with
3
1
inlaid design (Yatsushiro), H. 3 ⁄4 in. (8.3 cm), Diam. of rim 3 ⁄4 in. (9.5 cm), Diam. of foot 2 ⁄4 in. (5.7 cm).
1
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase by subscription, 1879 (79.2.1361)
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