Illustrated Japanese Culture
有田焼
Arita ware is porcelain made in and around Arita, in Saga Prefecture. Its white body can carry blue designs beneath the glaze, coloured enamels above it, or no painted decoration at all.
01
Porcelain stone is crushed, mixed with water and refined to remove impurities. After settling and dewatering, the clay can be shaped on a wheel or in a mould. Trimming the foot and an initial biscuit firing prepare the vessel for later stages.
For sometsuke, the painter uses cobalt pigment on the body. A transparent glaze covers the drawing; the main high-temperature firing develops its blue colour. White porcelain and coloured glazes provide other options.
Overglaze enamels are painted onto an already glazed and fired surface, then fired again at a lower temperature. A piece can combine underglaze blue and overglaze colour, but not every vessel needs both.
02
Arita identifies a production area. Imari was also the name used for porcelain shipped from this region during the Edo period; Hizen refers to a wider historical area. The name Arita became more widespread after the Meiji era began. The historical trade name also covered wares from outside Arita.
Kakiemon-style porcelain often sets flowers and birds against a milky white nigoshide body, leaving substantial areas unpainted. The style became prominent in the later seventeenth century and was copied by European kilns. A style name does not identify a particular workshop.
Kinrande uses rich underglaze blue with red and gold overglaze decoration. It became popular around the Genroku period. Old Imari is a broader label; not every piece has this dense decorative scheme.
The Nabeshima domain kilns made porcelain for official presentation and gifts. They moved to Ōkawachiyama, in present-day Imari, in the later seventeenth century. Their output included overglaze enamels, blue-and-white porcelain and celadon.
03
Korean potters were brought to Kyushu during Japan’s late-sixteenth-century invasions of Korea. They and Japanese potters developed porcelain production around Arita in the early seventeenth century, supported by local porcelain stone. Blue-and-white wares from the 1610s to about 1650 are commonly called early Imari.
Overglaze enamelling developed in the 1640s. From the 1650s, the Dutch East India Company expanded purchases for markets in Asia and Europe. The company was not the only trader.
Exports declined after the first part of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century Arita faced porcelain competition from Seto and Mino, and a major fire in 1828. Hisatomi Yojibei obtained an export monopoly in 1841 and renewed overseas trade.
In 1870 Gottfried Wagener taught methods involving coal-fired kilns and industrially produced cobalt pigment in Arita. Local firms also entered international exhibitions. A large Fukagawa Seiji vase associated with a gold medal at the 1900 Paris exposition survives at the Chūji Museum in China on the Park.
From the Taisho period onward, industrial porcelain and electrical insulators became part of the area’s output. The pottery market formally begun in 1916 developed into the Arita Ceramic Fair. Today production includes tableware, artistic work and industrial ceramics alongside new designs and continuing historic techniques.
In and around Arita, in Saga Prefecture.
It can be a historical trade or regional name. In some uses it also suggests particular decorated wares; context matters.
Cobalt pigment beneath a transparent glaze develops the blue during firing.
After the glazed vessel has been fired; the colours are then fixed by another, lower-temperature firing.
No. White porcelain, blue-and-white and coloured glazes are also produced.
Flowers and birds on a milky white body, often with substantial unpainted areas.
No. It refers to the domain kiln tradition, later centred at Ōkawachiyama in present-day Imari.
The early seventeenth century, with early Imari commonly dated from the 1610s to about 1650.
Markets in Asia and Europe.
No. Workshops elsewhere copied successful styles; provenance requires more than a matching motif.