Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [34]
UKIYO-E (WOOD-BLOCK PRINTS)
The term ukiyo-e means ‘pictures of the floating world’ and derives from a Buddhist metaphor for the transient world of fleeting pleasures. The subjects chosen by artists for these wood-block prints were characters and scenes from the tawdry, vivacious ‘floating world’ of the entertainment quarters in Edo (latter-day Tokyo), Kyoto and Osaka.
The floating world, centred on pleasure districts, such as Edo’s Yoshiwara, was a topsy-turvy kingdom, an inversion of the usual social hierarchies that were held in place by the power of the Tokugawa shōgunate. Here, money meant more than rank, actors and artists were the arbiters of style, and prostitutes elevated their art to such a level that their accomplishments matched those of the women of noble families.
The vivid colours, novel composition and flowing lines of ukiyo-e caused great excitement in the West, sparking a vogue that one French art critic dubbed ‘Japonisme’. Ukiyo-e became a key influence on impressionists (for example, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet and Degas) and postimpressionists. Among the Japanese the prints were hardly given more than passing consideration – millions were produced annually in Edo. They were often thrown away or used as wrapping paper for pottery. For many years, the Japanese continued to be perplexed by the keen interest foreigners took in this art form, which they considered of ephemeral value.
CERAMICS
Ceramics are Japan’s oldest art form: Jōmon pottery, with its distinctive cordlike decorative patterns, has been dated back some 15,000 years. When the Jōmon people were displaced by the Yayoi people, starting around 400 BC, a more refined style of pottery appeared on the scene. While Jōmon pottery was an indigenous Japanese form, Yayoi pottery had clear continental influences and techniques. Continental techniques and even artisans continued to dominate Japanese ceramic arts for the next millennia or more: around the 5th century AD, Sue Ware pottery was introduced from Korea, and around the 7th century, Tang Chinese pottery became influential.
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FAMOUS CERAMIC CENTRES
The suffix ‘-yaki’ denotes a type of pottery. Thus, the term ‘Bizen-yaki’ refers to a type of pottery made in the Bizen area of Western Honshū. Some of Japan’s main ceramic centres include the following:
Arita-yaki Known in the West as Imari, this colourful pottery is produced in the town of Arita, in Kyūshū.
Bizen-yaki The ancient ceramics centre of Bizen in Okayama-ken, Western Honshū, is famed for its solid unglazed bowls, which turn red through oxidation. Bizen also produces roofing tiles.
Hagi-yaki The town of Hagi in Western Honshū is renowned for Hagi-yaki, a type of porcelain made with a pallid yellow or pinkish, crackled glaze.
Karatsu-yaki Karatsu, near Fukuoka in northern Kyūshū, produces tea-ceremony utensils that are Korean in style and have a characteristic greyish, crackled glaze.
Kiyomizu-yaki The approach road to the temple Kiyomizu-dera Click here, in Kyoto, is lined with shops selling Kiyomizu-yaki, a style of pottery that can be enamelled, blue-painted or red-painted in appearance.
Kutani-yaki The porcelain from Ishikawa-ken Click here, in Central Honshū, is usually usually green or painted with five distinctive colours.
Satsuma-yaki The most common style of this porcelain, from Kagoshima in Kyūshū, has a cloudy white, crackled glaze enamelled with gold, red, green and blue.
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In the medieval period, Japan’s great ceramic centre was Seto, in Central Honshū. Here, starting in the 12th century, Japanese potters took Chinese forms and adapted them to Japanese tastes and needs to produce a truly distinctive pottery style known as Seto Ware. One Japanese term for pottery and porcelain, setomono (literally ‘things from Seto’), clearly derives from this still-thriving ceramics centre.
Today, there are more than 100 pottery centres in Japan, with scores of artisans producing everything from exclusive tea utensils to souvenir folklore creatures. Department stores regularly organise exhibitions of