History, Analysis and Attribution of Japanese Arita Porcelain (with Reference to the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum Collection)

Abstract

With reference to the collection of the Irkutsk Regional Museum, the article outlines the history of Arita porcelain, one of the leading ceramic centers in Japan. The author enumerates the founders of the technique, also illustrating sustained progress in ceramic production, which became a competitor of Chinese porcelain in Europe. The author discusses how Japanese potters succeeded in producing valuable porcelain products which were bought, in addition to Dutch merchants, by Chinese traders. Special attention is paid to the Meiji period, a time of transition that saw the formation of modern Japanese culture. During this period there was a modernization of traditional modes of production, but the identity of national culture was kept intact, which was reflected in the porcelain decoration designs. The author characterizes artistic styles of decoration (Kakiemon, Iro-Nabeshima, and Nisikide Imari) that received worldwide fame. Masters that created them became a national treasure of the Japanese people as they both preserved the generations-long techniques and demonstrated a profound knowledge of production cycles of individual ceramic enterprises. The article analyses porcelain from the museum collection as a source that altered the Europeans’ view upon arts and crafts of Japan that had been perceived as underdeveloped previously. The article contains data on the brands and authors’ inscriptions on the porcelain ware of the period.