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illustrated book. Moreover, these divergent forms show how knowledge and
understanding of porcelain was not a unitary and given concept, but rather a changing
one, borne out of specific contexts of goals and ambitions.
In 1907, a Japanese translation was published in Kyoto. At this point, existing
documents have not yet clarified the nature of the interaction between Kyoto-based
producers and collectors of porcelain and porcelain appreciators living within Qing
territorial boundaries. A Japanese ceramicist named Fujie Eiko ᖸϪ͑ѽ translated and
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perhaps redrew the original woodblock prints in producing the Japanese version. Tao lu,
or Keitokuchin tô roku as it is in Japanese, was released by a private publisher, Hosokawa
Kaiekido ʇකूੀ, with the cover pages written in old-style calligraphy contributed
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by an artist writing at the Tokyo Museum ؇ԯ௹ي (Figure 8). There is also a
preface at the beginning of the Japanese version that bore the striking calligraphy of
Temmioka Tessai, the Kyoto-born nanga (Southern Style) and bunjinga ˖ɛ “literati
style” painter (Figure 9). In the preface, Tessai praised the book for increasing the wealth
not of potters and of the nation. While giving an overview of how the translated edition
came about in Japan, Tessai mentioned a famous potter of the Meiji period, a time during
which Kyoto ceramics were undergoing revival in production and change. That potter
was Miura Chikusen ɧऌ϶ݰ, who helped with translating the Japanese text by adding
footnotes and annotations. Miura Chikusen was a well known potter in Kyoto, who
lived from 1853 till 1915. In 1883 he established his own kiln in Kyoto and his work
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was known for its adoption of colors and glazes. Compared with the original Chinese
book’s prefaces, the Tessai preface highlighted the utility of the book in terms of