Page 72 - Christie's The Joseph Collection of Japanese Art

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AN IMPORTANT KOKUTANI DISH Ohashi Koji, Director emeritus of Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Arita, dates this dish
to the frst half of the 1650s and says that it is from the Yanbeta kiln site. It has
YANBETA KILN, EDO PERIOD (MID-17TH CENTURY)
not been bisque fred, which is typical of that period. The Yanbeta kiln area is now
古九谷色絵松唐花文大鉢
a National Historic Site, with the remains of nine climbing kilns. Large dishes
山辺田窯 江戸時代（17世紀中期） with rich colour tones in aubergine, deep green, yellow, red and blue enamels are
The shallow circular dish on a short foot, decorated in iron-red, blue, green, yellow, characteristic of this site and are now known as Kokutani, to distinguish these
aubergine and black enamels with a pine tree overhanging grasses encircled by a porcelains from later wares fred in Kutani, located in the Kaga region of Ishikawa
broad band of fowers and scrolling foliage in red borders, the reverse decorated Prefecture. Kokutani is a rather coarse porcelain but often looks very white because
with fowers and scrolling foliage, a square Fuku mark inside the footring
of the use of a white slip. It has been suggested that Chinese potters from Fujian
36.3cm. diam. Province travelled to Japan in the 1650s and served as advisers at the Yanbeta kiln.
£300,000-400,000 $510,000-670,000 A link with China, intended to capture the new taste for Chinese works, is the
€370,000-490,000 “Good Luck” symbol that appears on the bases of many Japanese porcelains
in imitation of inscriptions found on Chinese trade ceramics. One of the most
common symbols is fuku (luck), rendered in black lines, as in the present example.
In the 1630s, the Saga domain restructured the Arita area kilns in Kyushu. Domain The widespread use of this and related characters on Japanese porcelains ended
oficials were concerned with deforestation but also keen to reap profts from this for the most part in the early eighteenth century.
new industry. Arita had come to the fore as a substitute production centre when
the famed kilns in Jingdezhen, China, were unable to export ceramics abroad. PROVENANCE:
Thirteen kilns were permitted to operate in the narrow valley containing the town Sotheby’s London, 10th May, 1972
of Arita, an area called the uchiyama (the area within, or the sanctioned inner Hugh Moss
kilns). Many of the potters were Korean and Chinese. Some of those kilns were PUBLISHED:
soon shut down because they were still fring stoneware. The inner kilns produced Imaizumi Motosuke, Shoki arita to kokutani, (Tokyo, 1974), no.76
small, elegant porcelains of the sort long favoured in Western collections.
Standing apart and operating independently were the more entrepreneurial, but
unprotected outer kilns (sotoyama), such as Yanbeta, where the dish ofered here
was produced. Yanbeta represents the creative fringe, where potters and painters
felt free to try out innovative and striking designs. Even though they were not
protected by the domain oficials, Yanbeta and other kilns on the periphery of Arita
pursued markets throughout Japan and occasionally in Southeast Asia. These
sotoyama porcelains, especially in the Kokutani style, created bold and sensuous
designs, each distinctively unique, as in this example.

(press report 1972)

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