In this post I am sharing my short paper about ceramic art in Japan. It seems so irrelevant in the concept of my other posts. It is because I had to take one course from history department and the only course which fits to my schedule was Japanese history. In the beginning of the semester I was so scared because I knew nothing except samurai and sailor moon. The course went well and I got full grade beside gaining many things about Japanese history. This essay was my final essay and we were free to choose any subject. I am interested in ceramic and I have been doing ceramic and sculpture at school for a year. So I thought that would be fun and it was so. Hopefully one day I can get a chance to throw clay with one of the Japanese ceramic masters. Here it is...
Ceramic Art in Japan
Ceramic is one of the oldest
art form of Japan that dates back to Neolithic period. As the earliest period
in Japan we have studied Jōmon Period in which first potteries were made. As
records say the oldest found pottery dates back to Jōmon period. The early
Jōmon Period pottery is very ornamented. It is like a jar form which has some
kind of decoration on it. In fact it is known as a rope pattern technique
today. It is also known cord-marking technique which gives name to the period. It is interesting because the time that I am
talking about is 14,500 BC-300BC and in this time people knew art. They knew
how to shape, how to create art. On the other hand we know that Jōmon people
were hunter-gatherer and the way they made pottery was not probably for storing
food or so, but it seems like their art forms were for some kind of ritual if
you will. Besides that they also made little vessels perhaps for boiling
something as such. When we come to the later period, namely Yayoi Period
pottery shapes turn into simpler forms, simple patterns or no pattern if you
compare with the early period. The thing that changed is of course the style of
the people, now they are agriculture society and they gather rice which says
they have a settled life. It must reflect their pottery shapes, which we saw in
class, they have smoother and more practical potteries for daily life use. Ceramic
continues to be produced as an art and also for daily use in every period of
Japan and it is still popular all over the world. As a ceramic student I love Japan
ceramic masters’ techniques. They have very unique styles, figures and
patterns. In this essay I will talk about ceramic art in Japan in light of
three different articles by Irina S. ZhushchIkhovskaIa, George Benton Wilson and
Richard Pearson.
To
begin with, in the article of Richard Pearson, he talks about an exhibition
where many Japanese ceramic artefacts are presented. What he says is, ceramic
treasure of Japan gives a chance to understand evolution of Japan history
through looking their ceramics. It is because the way they create these pots,
ceramics, potteries etc. in fact represents clues about their lifestyle as Pearson
says; The exhibition traces the social life, customs and technological evolution of ancient Japan, which
has the longest known ceramic tradition in the world, spanning more than 12,000
year .1 Later he talks about how their lifestyles have effect upon their
arts. As I have mentioned earlier, in Jōmon Period, people created pots,
vessels and some ornamented things which Pearson believes they were using for
some kind of healing ritual.2 Some later Jōmon vessels were coated
with lacquer, which made them waterproof, durable, and attractive. While larger
vessels were used for cooking and storage, small pouring vessels appear to have
had a ceremonial function.3 Some pieces that are believed were used
for healing rituals found broken in Northern Japan which may suggest that their
healing power was temporary. Jōmon people were great artist because in
excavations archaeologists found a rare ceramic mask which is in the detailed
form of human face. In the later period, namely Yayoi, ceramics reflect close
cultural ties with Korea where ceramics of similar clay mixture and shapes have
been found. Fine ceramic culture of Yayoi period continues to Kofun period. Japanese
society underwent further changes in the Kofun period (ca. a.d. 300-700). By
the fifth century a centralized government had developed that could control the
flow of re- sources from outlying regions to its center near Nara on the island
of Honshu. The Yayoi ceramic tradition continued well into the Kofun period,
with the production of a soft reddish utilitarian ceramic known as haji that
was made using a coil-and-slab technique.4 This special
type of technique was an influence from Korea. These ceramics were used
during the ceremonies in honour of the Sun Goddesses Amaterasu Omikami. He also
talks about special made figures in Kofun period to put kofuns with the dead
bodies. He mentions about haniwas and in the horse shape of haniwas. People
created them because as some historians believed that Japan invaded by horse
riding people from Korea. Later Japanese learned from China how to glaze their
ceramics in Asuka period and art developed in that way. Well Richard Pearson
evaluates Japanese ceramic art in the light exhibition which was held in IBM
Gallery in New York.
In the essay of Irina S. ZhushchIkhovskaIa
she talks about ancient ceramics all over the world. As other historians she
defences that the most ancient ceramics belong to the East Asia and apart from
Japan, she also stresses the importance ceramic treasures of China and Korea. She
generally talks about how people were able to make ceramics even to find proper
clays for doing so. She talks about advantageous of being an island and
probable climate situations etc. The climatic-environmental situation during
the time when ceramics were beginning to be made in the Japanese islands was
extremely unstable, as seen in the following. The first phase of ceramic
development dates between about 16,750 and 14,350 cal. BP, at the end of the
late Pleistocene cold period. 5 She has similar opinions on ceramics
dates and types with Richard Pearson just like him she begins with Jōmon period
and continues. She talks about raw materials of clays which contains natural
mixture of sandy particles, but it is difficult to determine whether it is
human modification or a modification by chance. She is generally interested in
scientific sides of the ceramic art. Like Pearson she talks about style,
patterns some methods etc.
In his article George Benton
Wilson, expresses the more artificial sides of the ceramic art. He defences
that ceramic art is as important as the world history because it is the first
art form. He says it begins in the East Asia and Western people learn from
them, but they never be able to reach their level. He divides Japanese ceramic
art in three classes: It will assist the novice considerably if he bears in
mind that the Japanese kilns produce three distinct classes of wares, viz.,
porcelain, faience, and pottery. The first is translucent because the
"paste" or "biscuit"-which is the body of the ware underneath
the glaze---is vitrified, owing to the fusion of the clay and feldspar
elements. The faience is opaque, the paste being strong but not vitrified. The
pottery is the ordinary glazed or unglazed earthenware, the biscuit of which
may or may not be white. 6 What he says is pottery was original
Japanese ware. He also talks about how ceramic factories have developed in
Japan etc. According to his article ceramic culture in Japan is learned by
going back and forth to China and Korea. They have effect on each other and
they showed that in their works.
All in all, as a ceramic
student I found these articles very informative. They all talk about ceramic
art in Japan but every one of them deals with it from a different perspective which
is very helpful in order to understand the subject as a whole. Japan history is a great source for ceramic
history and it shows us how people change their art according to their life
styles, their conditions. It reveals a universal idea I guess, because no
matter in which area you live in, whenever you produce something, you create
something it has social effect on it. It is inevitable for an artist to deny
social structure and conditions.
BBBIBLIOGRAPHY
Pearson, Richard, “Ceramic
Treasures of Japan”, Archaeology (November/December 1990): pp. 62-65.
Wilson, George Benton, “The Ceramic Art of Japan”, Brush and Pencil
(1905): pp. 141-144, 147-148.
ZhushchIkhovskaIa, Irina S., “The Most Ancient Ceramics”, Anthropology
& Archeology of Eurasia (Summer 2012): pp. 62-78.
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