(by 7 people)
KUTANI PORCELAIN JAPAN
This lens is about one of my favorite Japanese Antique porcelain styles named KUTANI. I hope you'll enjoy reading about it! It is not only beautiful and highly valuable, but also rich in historical and Artistic content.
Look at the picture and review the intricate details, the tiniest flowers on the trees, the robes, the facial expression of the people, and most of all, the golden outline of the shapes. Absolutely fabulous. O.K., I hear you say, well, during that era, people had a lot of TIME, there were no computers, Blackberries, or other gadgets so they could sit there 24/7 and create things like this. Well, this is true; but other places and other people were in the same situations, yet they have not created anything like this, right? That is not to say that other cultures haven't contributed to Art throughout the same centuries, only that it is too bad that so few people are familiar with Japanese Art. They don't know what they are missing out on! May be this lens will make you into a fan of Japanese Art, if you haven't been one already...That's my hope! Have fun!
Orange and Gold Kutani Porcelain
Wonderful Oriental Art
One of my passions is to look at old, very old, Japanese porcelain. I love going to exhibitions to see these masterpieces of Art. The three distinct styles that I mostly admire are Satsuma, Imari and Kutani.I will write about Satsuma and Imari porcelain at another time; here and now I wish to concentrate on the Kutani style. I have many books about Kutani porcelain. One doesn't have to be a collector (most of us could not afford collecting genuine Japanese antiques anyway), but everyone has the opportunity to enjoy them in books, museums, videos and countless on-line sources of information.
Kutani means nine valleys and it refers to a village. The name "Kutani" is used as a name of pottery and porcelain made at this location, with a variety of small manufacturers rather than just one artist or workshop. It is important to know that Kutani porcelain was made in Japan after the mid-17th century (after 1655). The year of 1655 coincides with the first year of the Myoreki period in Japan. Stones suitable for porcelain making was found in the Kutani mine of the Daishoji Clan, whereupon Lord Maeda Toshiharu sent Goto Saijiro to the Arita Village in the Hizen province to learn how to make porcelain. Kutani Porcelains from this early period are known as Ko-Kutani, and are extremely rare! The production of Ko-Kutani items continued for 50-60 years.
Around 1800 the Kutani kilns were restored in Kasugayama, Kanazawa City to make porcelain ware for everyday use. After just a few years of operation, this kiln was destroyed by a huge fire. Around 1806-1820 Honda Sadakichi built new kilns in Wakasugi with the purpose of reviving the old style. In 1823-1831 Yoshidaya Kilns were built in Daishoji at the site of Ko-Kutani to concentrate on commercial porcelain with printed designs.
From the mid-1800s (19th century), a number of skilled Kutani Artists with distinct styles emerged, among them Kutani Shoza (1816-1883), working with gaudy enamels and gold brocade patterns as seen on the picture.
Kutani Porcelain continued
During the Meiji period (1868 - 1912) around 70 percent of the production in the above Shoza style was exported. Today, this number increased to around 80 percent. Most of the Kutani porcelain we seetoday is thus Shoza style, Yoshida Kiln export ware, dating from early 19th century up until today. Less educated wanna-be conoissuers-des-Arts often use the term Kutani to refer to just the later, colorful pieces decorated with red, gold, white and black pictures of warriors, animals, geishas, and birds but which have almost no value from the point of view of the antique-collector.
My favorite is the orange / gold variation early 19th century style, as shown on the opening picture. Let's say you would walk around in your local flea market or a garage sale and all of a sudden this beautiful thing is staring at you (no, I am not talking about the lady of the house). There is this bowl or a vase or a plate that looks similar to the picture in this blog. How do you know if the piece in question is valuable?
First of all, if there is Kutani or Made in Japan written on the bottom of the piece, you can be sure it is a 20th century factory made product made to imitate the style, worthless unless you like to store some pencils in it. That is not a valuable antique at all.
Kutani: Highly admired Japanese Antique
Almost all authentic and old Kutani items have a genuine Kutani brush-stroke mark underglaze (or above glaze, incised or impressed), which consists of two Japanese calligraphic words or Kanji [Kanji are ideograms, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word], the first one is shaped like an h and the one below is shaped like a house or pagoda with the roof being pitched. The first one means from the workshop of, and the second that is house shaped means the place / geographic area, which is here Kutani. Sometimes, as we can see with this Satsuma porcelain, the master Artist signed a piece and then added the Kanjis of his / her name and place of residence. To make authentication rather difficult, some of the extremely valuable pieces have ABSOLUTELY NO MARKS at all. Link to My Squidoo Group Antique Art
Check it out!
- Antique Art Squidoo Group
- If you admire Antique Art, please feel free to check out my Squidoo group Antique Art. You're welcome to submit your lens describing Antique Art pieces from Europe or Asia / the Orient. [Note: Lenses will be approved by me on a one-on-one basis, and I will feature the lenses that best represent the credo of this group, in my personal opinion]. The more groups you submit your lenses, the more traffic is generated to your lens thus more money can be raised for you or for your donation purposes. Have fun, and thanks for visiting! :o)
Take a trip to Chicago and visit some museums!
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$479 from Detroit: flight + 2 nights hotel
- $479 from Pittsburgh: flight + 2 nights hotel
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- $484 from Indianapolis: flight + 2 nights hotel
- $490 from Nashville: flight + 2 nights hotel
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Useful Links for the Antique Collector
- Antique Chinese and Japanese porcelain collectors page
- For identifying the oriental porcelain marks, I recommend Gotheborg.com Antique Chinese and Japanese porcelain collectors page. This fully searchable web site is the largest research database on Chinese and Japanese antique porcelain collector's information available anywhere. Gotheborg.com is divided into sections like chapters in a book. Use the links in the left navigation column to find the section that best fits your interest.
- Christie's Auction House
- Highly reputed among collectors, buyers and sellers of Antique alike, this traditional auction house obtained its reputation for fair and ethical business conduct and large volume of transactions.
- Sotheby's Auction House
- ike Christie's, Sotheby's also enjoys very high reputation among Antique dealers and collectors.
Kutani Porcelain related items on Amazon
Kutani Ware (Japanese Arts Library Vol 7)
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
History of Japanese Art
Amazon Price: $110.70 (as of 10/07/2008)
Japanese Culture, 4th Edition (Updated and Expanded)
Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 10/07/2008)
Creating Your Own Japanese Garden
Amazon Price: $21.12 (as of 10/07/2008)
Japan Style: Architecture+Interiors+Design
Amazon Price: $29.70 (as of 10/07/2008)
New Amazon Plexo
Thanks for your feedback!
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biopowergro
Super work! very educational too. 5* Posted May 08, 2007 |
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Barkely
Great work. Some of those porcelain pieces are beautiful. Posted April 28, 2007 |
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d-artist
thanks,very informative..I have a small collection of Oriental art and artifacts. Posted April 23, 2007 |
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This video has nothing to do with Kutani porcelain, but an area in Tanzania
Ras Kutani with Tanzania Odyssey
Ras Kutani with http://www.tanzaniaodyssey.com/ Hi-Res Video of the Lodges and Parks of Tanzania and Zanzibar. For more information and other videos of Tanzania please see http://www.tanzaniaodyssey.com or email to info@tanzaniaodyssey.com Better still please telephone us for advice -- UK -- +44 (0) 20 7471 8780, or US +1 0866 3564691
Runtime: 1:26
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