East Asian and Southeast Asian pottery


It is difficult to give much practical assistance on the question of Chinese marks. Most of the Chinese marks give the name of the dynasty and that of the emperor; however, many of them have been used so inconsequentially that, unless the period can also be assigned with reasonable certainty by other means, it is better to disregard them. The dating of Chinese pottery is further complicated by the fact that there were traditional and persisting types that overlapped; quite often, therefore, dynastic labels cannot be regarded as anything more than an indication of the affinities of the particular object under discussion.

Chinese decoration is usually symbolic and often exploits the double meaning of certain words; for instance, the Chinese word for “bat,” fu, also means “happiness.” Five bats represent the Five Blessings—longevity, wealth, serenity, virtue, and an easy death. Longevity is symbolized by such things as the stork, the pine, and the tortoise, the lingzhi fungus, and the bamboo, all reputed to enjoy long life. The character shou, which also denotes longevity, is used in a variety of ornamental forms. Together, the peach and the bat represent fu and shou, happiness and long life. The “Buddha’s hand” citron, a fruit with fingerlike appendages, is a symbol of wealth, and each month and season is represented by a flower or plant. The bagua, consisting of eight sets of three lines, broken and unbroken in different combinations, represent natural forces. They are often seen in conjunction with the yin-yang symbol, which represents the female-male principle, and which has been well described by the pottery scholar R.L. Hobson as resembling “two tadpoles interlocked.” The dragon generally is a mild and beneficent creature. It is a symbol of the emperor, just as the phoenix-like creature (immortal fenghuang) symbolizes the empress.

There are three principal religious systems in China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Daoist figures, in particular, appear frequently on porcelain as decoration. The most important, Laozi, has a large and protuberant forehead. He is usually accompanied by the Eight Immortals (Baxian), and these are sometimes modeled as sets of figures. The eight horses of the emperor Muwang (Zhou dynasty) are also frequently represented. The Buddhist goddess Guanyin and the 18 luohan (enlightened Buddhist elders) were also modeled. The “eight Buddhist emblems” appear fairly frequently, as do the “eight precious things” and a collection of instruments and implements used in the arts and known as the “hundred antiques.” The “lions of Buddha” (often miscalled dogs) are frequently represented, as is the qilin, which is a composite animal, not unlike a unicorn, that has a fierce appearance but a gentle disposition.

Most of these symbols were not used in pottery decoration before the Ming dynasty, although both the dragon and the fenghuang, as well as some floral motifs, are earlier. The leiwen, however, which resembles the Greek key fret (an ornament consisting of small, straight bars intersecting one another in right angles) and is sometimes used on the later ceramic wares, appears on bronzes as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, where it is called the cloud-and-thunder fret. The taotie, which is a grotesque mask of uncertain origin, also appears on early bronzes and on later pottery and porcelain. Decorations based on Chinese literary sources are usually extremely difficult to trace to their origin.

The earliest Chinese pottery is of the Neolithic period and has been discovered in the provinces of Henan and Gansu. Perhaps the best known of these wares is a series of large urns of red polished pottery with geometric decoration found in the Banshan cemetery (see Banshan ware) and at Machang, both in Gansu province. These were made by hand, the latest specimens with perhaps some assistance from a slow wheel, and are at least as early as 2000 bce.

The only known complete specimen of a fine white stoneware dating from about 1400 bce (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) is decorated with chevrons (linked V-shapes) and a key-fret pattern, the shoulder motifs being reminiscent of those seen on contemporary bronze vessels. This ware is much better in quality than most other surviving pottery of the Shang period (c. 1600–1046 bce) or of the following Zhou dynasty (1046–256 bce). Much Zhou pottery is decorated with rudimentary incised ornament, some of which resembles the impress of coarse textiles referred to as mat markings. The shapes used for these pieces were often inspired by bronze vessels.

The development of glazing in China may have started with the application of glass paste to some of the later Zhou wares. Stoneware vessels of about the 3rd century bce have a glaze that is little more than a smear but one that has obviously been deliberately applied. This type persisted for several centuries.

The first pottery to survive in appreciable quantities belongs to the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce); most of it has been excavated from graves. Perhaps the commonest form is the hu, a baluster-shaped vase copied from bronze vessels of the same name and sometimes decorated with relief ornament in friezes taken directly from a bronze original. The hill jar, which has a cover molded to represent the Daoist Isles of the Blest, is another fairly frequent form, and many models of servants, domestic animals, buildings, wellheads, dovecotes, and the like also have been discovered in graves. Some of this pottery is unglazed or decorated with cold (i.e., unfired) pigments, but much of it is covered with a glaze that varies from copper green to yellowish brown; often the colours have become iridescent from long burial. The body is usually a dark red and approaches stoneware in hardness.

Han glaze is more glasslike than that of the Zhou period and is of an excellent quality. It contains lead and was frequently coloured green with copper oxide.

Yue yao (Yue ware) was first made at Yuezhou (present Yuyao), Zhejiang province, during the Han dynasty, although all surviving specimens are later, most belonging to the Six Dynasties (220–589 ce). They have a stoneware body and an olive or brownish-green glaze and belong to the family of celadons, a term that looms large in any discussion of early Chinese wares. It is applied to glazes ranging from the olive of Yue to the deep green of later varieties. These colours were the result of a wash of slip containing a high proportion of iron that was put over the body before glazing. The iron interacted with the glaze during firing and coloured it.

Tang dynasty (618–907 ce)

Chinese pottery reaches an important stage in its development during the Tang dynasty.

Nearly everything that has survived has been excavated from tombs, many items found accidentally by railway engineers and latterly by more systematic excavations. Excavations at Sāmarrāʾ on the Tigris, a luxurious residence built by the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim (son of Hārūn al-Rashīd) in 836 ce and abandoned in 873, have uncovered many fragments of Tang wares of all kinds. Perhaps the most important finds from a historical viewpoint are the fragments of what is undoubtedly porcelain. An Islamic record of travels in East Asia, written in 851, records “vessels of clay as transparent as glass.” There can be little doubt, therefore, that translucent porcelain was made in the Tang period, although it was not until the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368) that it began to resemble the type with which the West is most familiar.


Dappled glazes are also found on the magnificent series of tomb figures with which this period is particularly associated. Similar figures were made in unglazed earthenware and were sometimes decorated with cold pigment. Although the unglazed specimen or those covered only with the straw-coloured glaze are occasionally modeled superbly, many are crude and apparently made for the tombs of the less affluent and influential. Most of the glazed figures are much better in quality and occasionally reach a large size; figures of the Bactrian camel, for instance, are particularly impressive, some being nearly three feet (one metre) high. The Bactrian pony, introduced into China about 138 bce, is to be found in many spirited poses. This fashion for tomb figures fell into disuse at the beginning of the Song dynasty (960–1279 ce) but was revived for a short while during the Ming period (1368–1644), when Tang influence is noticeable.


Song dynasty (960–1279 ce)

The wares of the Song dynasty are particularly noted for brilliant feldspathic glazes over a stoneware body and their emphasis on simplicity of form. Decoration is infrequent but may be incised, molded, impressed, or carved; a certain amount of painted decoration was done at Cizhou (present Handan) in Hebei province (see below). The esteem accorded to the Song wares accounts for the relatively large number that have survived. The principal varieties are Ru, Guan, Ge, Ding, Longquan, Jun, Jian, Cizhou, and Yingqing.

Ru ware has a buff stoneware body and is covered with a dense greenish-blue glaze that sometimes has a fine crackle. It was made in Henan at an imperial factory that was apparently in production for about 20 years, starting in 1107.

Guan (“official”) is another imperial ware that is also exceedingly scarce. It was probably first made in the north, the kilns being reestablished at Hangzhou in Zhejiang province about 1127, when the court fled southward to escape the Jin Tatar invaders. The body is of stoneware washed with brown slip. The glaze varies from pale green to lavender blue, with a wide-meshed crackle emphasized by the application of brown pigment. Chinese references to “a brown mouth and an iron foot” can be identified with the colour of the rim and the foot ring.

Ge ware is closely related to Guan ware. It has a dark stoneware body and a grayish-white glaze with a well-marked crackle, which was induced deliberately for its decorative effect.

Ding wares are white. Some exhibit an orange translucency, while the coarser varieties are opaque. The finest examples are called “white” (bai) Ding. On the exterior of bowls and similar vessels the glaze of white Ding is apt to collect in drops, called teardrops. Many articles, particularly bowls, were fired mouth downward, leaving an unglazed rim that was afterward bound with a band of copper or silver. (Bands appear occasionally on other Song wares, notably Yingqing, and were sometimes used to conceal damage rather than an unglazed rim.) Coarser varieties are known as “flour” (fen) Ding and “earthen” (tu) Ding, and there are also a few examples of “black” Ding. As in the case of Guan ware, the kilns are said to have been removed southward in 1127, but it has so far proved impossible to differentiate between the northern and southern varieties. Other white wares made elsewhere during the period include those of Cizhou and a variety covered with a white slip over a grayish body from Julu county (both in present Hebei province).

The celadons of Longquan are, perhaps, the most common of the classic Song wares. The town is in the province of Zhejiang, near the capital of the southern Song emperors at Hangzhou. The kilns probably date back to the 10th century. The glaze, of superb quality, is a transparent green in colour. It is thick and viscous, usually with a well-marked crackle. (The glaze on early specimens is less transparent and is denser.) The body is gray to grayish white, best seen at the rim, where the glaze tends to be thin. By far the most frequent surviving examples of Longquan celadon are large dishes, for which there was a thriving export trade, due in part to the superstition that a celadon dish would break or change colour if poisoned food were put into it. Bowls and large vases, both of which are scarce, were also made with this glaze. Decoration is usually incised, but molded decoration is also found. On some pots the molding was left unglazed, so that it burned to a dark reddish brown—an effective contrast to the colour of the glaze. The more finely potted wares are the scarcest and often the oldest. The heavier varieties were intended to withstand the rigours of transport to overseas markets, and probably most of them belong to the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), when the export trade was considerably extended.

Jun ware comes from Junzhou (present Yuzhou) in Henan province. The body is a grayish-white, hard-fired stoneware covered with a thick, dense, lavender-blue glaze often suffused with crimson purple. This is the first example of a reduced copper glaze, also called sang de boeuf, or flambé, glaze. Conical bowls are especially numerous, and dishes are not unusual, but the finer specimens are usually flowerpots, sometimes said to have been made for imperial use. Characteristic are barely perceptible channels or tracks caused by the parting of the viscous glaze; the Chinese call these earthworm tracks. The kilns probably continued to produce this ware until the 16th century, and it is difficult to separate some of the later productions from the earlier.

Jian ware is named for the original place of manufacture, Jian’an, in Fujian province. Manufacture was later moved to nearby Jianyang, probably during the Yuan period. The glaze is very dark brown, approaching black, over a dark stoneware body, and it usually stops short of the base in a thick treacly roll.

There are many variations in the colour of the glaze. Streaks in lighter brown are referred to by the Chinese as hare’s fur. Silvery spots on the glaze are called oil spots. The most usual surviving form is the teabowl; these were much esteemed by the Japanese under the name of temmoku and were used in the tea ceremony (see Japanese pottery).

The kilns of Cizhou, formerly in Henan, are now in Hebei province. The earliest surviving examples are referable to the Tang dynasty. In the Song period, vases, wine jars, and pillows (which are more comfortable than they appear) were the most usual products. The body is usually a hard-fired, grayish-white stoneware that was first covered with a wash of white slip and then with a transparent glaze. For the first time painted decoration appears under the glaze, perhaps as a result of influence from the Middle East. Decoration is nearly always in brown or black; the motifs are usually floral and display a singular freedom of line that is very attractive. (The inclusion of human and animal figures suggests a Yuan or a Ming dating, at the least.) The slip covering was sometimes carved away, leaving a pattern in contrasting colour, a technique also used in conjunction with a dark brown glaze. A hare’s-fur glaze, similar to that of Jian wares, was also employed. A blue glaze with painted decoration in black beneath it was obviously inspired by contemporary Persian pottery decorated in the same way. Another innovation, perhaps derived from the same source, is the use of colours applied over the glaze. These are limited to primitive reds and greens and yellows.

An important and not uncommon ware is Yingqing (“shadowy blue”). It was manufactured in both the south (Jiangxi) and the north (Hebei). Moreover, it was extensively exported and has been found as far west as the ruins of al-Fusṭāṭ in Old Cairo. The body is pale buff in colour, usually translucent, and thinly potted, breaking with a sugary fracture. Most genuine examples seem to belong to the Song and Yuan periods, but it is probable that, in the north at any rate, manufacture started late in the Tang dynasty and lasted well into the Ming period. Bowls of conical form are the commonest survival, and many are decorated with incised floral and foliate motifs. Lightly molded decoration occurs, as does combing of the clay. The meiping vase is found with this glaze; it has a tall body with straight sides, high, rounded shoulders, and a short narrow neck and was intended to hold a single spray of prunus blossom. Stem cups, deep bowls, and ewers were also produced. Bowls sometimes have the rim bound with copper.

Yuan dynasty (1206–1368)

The Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty is often regarded as being no more than transitional between Song and Ming types. This is not entirely true. Undoubtedly, many Song types were continued, just as the Tang types were continued at the beginning of the Song dynasty, but there are other wares that represent a new departure. The manufacturing centre of Jingdezhen increased in importance and first manufactured the white translucent porcelain that was to have a revolutionary effect on Chinese wares. The use of painted decoration, begun during the Song period at Cizhou, also became much more widespread, and the two techniques were combined in a manner that later affected the course of porcelain manufacture throughout the world.

The Gegu Yaolun of 1388 refers to shufu ware, a type of white porcelain. The base is unglazed. Decoration in relief, painted in slip or engraved, is to be seen on some surviving examples of porcelain. Much more unusual is the appearance of a few specimens of Yuan date that are painted with reduced copper red under the glaze. As mentioned above, the potters of Junzhou had achieved this colour, but only in the glaze.

The use of underglaze blue was introduced from the Middle East, where it had been employed at least as early as the 9th century, specimens thus decorated having been recovered at Sāmarrāʾ. The best known example of Yuan porcelain decorated in this manner, which is usually referred to as blue-and-white, is a pair of vases in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art in London. They bear a date equivalent to 1351. The peony scroll, carved or in applied relief, appears on some of these blue-and-white wares.

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

The Mongol emperor Shundi (Togon-temür) was defeated in a popular uprising, and the Hongwu emperor, founder of the Ming dynasty, succeeded him in 1368. When the country had recovered from these internecine struggles, pottery art took a new lease of life, though under somewhat changed conditions. The Song wares went out of favour, and the old factories sank into obscurity, while the fame and importance of the great porcelain town of Jingdezhen, near the Boyang Lake in Jiangxi province, overshadowed all the rest. The imperial factory there was rebuilt and reorganized to keep the court supplied with the new porcelain. The staple product of Jingdezhen was the fine white porcelain that made china a household word throughout the world; and as this ware lent itself peculiarly well to painted decoration, the vogue for painted porcelain rapidly replaced the old Song taste for monochromes.

The reign of the Yongle emperor (1402–24) is remarkable for some extremely thin-walled pieces, referred to as eggshell, or “bodiless” (tuotai), ware. Engraved examples are known, and Chinese commentaries refer to specimens decorated in red.

After this early period, Ming wares generally are fairly easily recognizable. Porcelain replaced stoneware as the usual medium, and polychrome decoration became widely employed. The largest single group of Ming porcelain is that painted in blue underglaze. Much of the pigment used was imported from Middle Eastern sources. Supplies of this so called Mohammedan blue (huihui qing), which came from the Kashān district of Persia, were not always obtainable and were interrupted on more than one occasion. The quality of the blue-painted wares, however, remained to a great extent dependent on its use until the end of the 16th century, when methods of refining native cobalt were devised.

The wares lack much of the precision of the porcelain made during the following Qing period (1644–1911/12), when a kind of factory system grew up that divided the work into a large number of repetitive operations. Little trouble was taken to smooth over imperfections of manufacture, and foot rings are often finished summarily. The glaze, too, frequently has minor defects, and articles, such as vases, are sometimes slightly distorted and carelessly finished. The shape of many examples can fairly be described as massive, in spite of the fact that most of them were made for export, and the difficulties of transporting them must have been considerable. None of these factors evinces a lack of skill, especially as the potters were quite capable of technical virtuosity when they wished to display it—some of the most thinly potted of all Chinese porcelain belongs to this period. It seems that the Ming potters disdained the attitude of mind that treated blemishes as important; occasional distortions, in fact, were regarded as lending interest to an object. The Chinese did not carry this aesthetic creed to the same lengths as the Japanese (see Japanese pottery), but the difference seems to be largely one of degree. Ming wares can fairly be described as masculine, in contrast to the more feminine, more precisely finished wares of the later Qing period.

Reign of the Xuande emperor (1425–35)

In this period the arts were particularly fostered and a high level of achievement attained. The blue painting is blackish in colour, with dark spots at intervals where thick blobs of pigment were deposited by the brush—the so-called heaped and piled effect. The motifs are floral and foliate, with the occasional use of fish and waterfowl. Sometimes vessels are bordered by a pattern of conventional rock amid waves—the Isles of Immortality—often referred to as the Rock of Ages pattern. The pattern appears frequently throughout the Ming period and later.

Contemporary Chinese commentaries refer to the use of underglaze copper red—often called sacrificial red for uncertain reasons. To a great extent sacrificial red was abandoned later in the dynasty in favour of overglaze iron red, although it was used again during the reign of the Qing dynasty Kangxi (1662–1722) and Yongzheng (1723–35) emperors and appears in a rather primitive form from some provincial kilns. Both copper red and blue were used as monochromes and, occasionally, together; but since these pigments required a slightly different firing temperature, one or the other is usually deficient in quality.

The use of overglaze colours was rare, and the technique had by no means been fully mastered.

Reign of the Chenghua emperor (1464–87)

Much overglaze decoration can be attributed with a reasonable measure of certainty to the reign of Chenghua, the finest examples being, perhaps, the chicken cups, so called because they are decorated with chickens. Their decoration is outlined in underglaze blue and filled in with soft overglaze colours called “contending colours” (doucai). Chenghua overglaze colours were thin, subdued in colour, and pictorial in effect.

The practice of enamelling directly onto unglazed, or biscuit, porcelain instead of onto a glazed and fired body is sometimes thought to have begun in this reign, though that of the Jiajing emperor (1521–1566/67) is the more likely. Ming specimens are, in any case, extremely rare; most belong to the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1662–1722) in the Qing dynasty.

Reigns of the Hongzhi and Zhengde emperors (1487–1521)

The first use of a coloured overglaze ground can be attributed to the reign of the Hongzhi emperor (1487–1505), when a yellow of variable shade first appears. In the reign of the Zhengde emperor (1505–21) the influence of the Muslim palace eunuchs who supervised the imperial kilns is seen in such blue-and-white motifs as the Mohammedan scroll, which is composed of somewhat formal flowers joined by S-shaped stems, with scroll-like leaves at intervals along them. Mohammedan blue was again available. The earliest versions of this theme, which seems orginally to have come from a textile pattern, are the least stiffly drawn. The linear style of painting characteristic of earlier porcelain altered to one in which outlines were filled in with flat ungraduated washes.

Reign of the Jiajing emperor (1521–1566/67)

This reign is notable for a deterioration in the quality of the porcelain body, offset by the use of rich dark blue. Wares painted overglaze, too, were executed in good colours, with well-marked outlines. A characteristic colour, the opaque iron red (fan hong), sometimes called tomato red, was used as a monochrome with gilt traceries over it on bowls that sometimes had interior decoration in underglaze blue. Various wares have decoration in red and green, a palette that became more familiar later. A yellow glaze is found in conjunction with incised decoration (usually a dragon) in green. Very rarely was a green or blue monochrome used.

Reigns of the Longqing and Wanli emperors (1567–1620)

The styles of Jiajing were, to some extent, continued in the following reigns of the Longqing (1567–72) and Wanli (1572–1620) emperors. A palette containing underglaze blue in conjunction with green, yellow, aubergine purple, and iron red (the precursor of the later Qing famille verte palette) was known as “Wanli five-colour” ware (Wanli wucai). The red and green Jiajing decoration was also used, and vast quantities of blue-and-white porcelain were produced for export. The body is quite unlike that used earlier in the dynasty, being thin, hard, crisp, and resonant. It is the commonest of all Ming wares in the West. During the reign of the Wanli emperor, much pierced work (linglong) was done. Pierced objects range from small brush pots to vases with coloured glazes sometimes termed fahua.

The Ming dynasty ended in 1644. The wares of the last three emperors, for the most part, followed styles already established; perhaps an exception can be made for blue-and-white, which shows a number of new departures in both form and decoration. Many of the vases are without a foot ring and stand on a flat, unglazed base. Forms based on European wares were obviously made for export.

Provincial and export wares


The fine porcelain of Dehua in Fujian province was first made, perhaps, in the early part of the dynasty. Most of this porcelain was left undecorated and received the name in Europe of blanc de chine. The glaze is exceptionally thick and lustrous, and early examples are often slightly ivory in tone. Overglaze painting is infrequent; virtually all early coloured specimens, figures, or vessels have been decorated in Europe, usually in The Netherlands. Figures especially were produced at the Dehua kilns, with the Buddhist goddess Guanyin being a favourite subject.

The stoneware of Yixing in Jiangsu province was known in the West as Buccaro, or Boccaro, ware and was copied and imitated at Meissen, Ger.; at Staffordshire, Eng.; and in The Netherlands by Ary de Milde and others. Its teapots were much valued in 17th-century Europe, where tea was newly introduced. The wares of Yixing are unglazed, the body varying from red to dark brown. The molding is extremely precise and was often sharpened by grinding on a lapidary’s wheel. The body was sometimes polished in the same way.

Most of the Ming stoneware ridge tiles and roof finials were made at kilns near Beijing. Many of them are decorated in green, yellow, turquoise, and aubergine-purple glazes, recalling the wares of the Tang dynasty. A Ming date is exceedingly optimistic for most of them. To this group belong, it is thought, a few large figures that have sometimes been somewhat doubtfully awarded a Tang date.

The provincial tile kilns also manufactured “three-coloured” (sancai) wares, perhaps originally a product of the Cizhou kilns. These were decorated with coloured glazes that were often kept from intermingling by threads of clay (cloisonné technique) or were used in conjunction with the pierced technique (fahua). Others have engraved designs under the glazes. Most existing specimens are large vases, barrel-shaped garden seats, and the like. The best are extremely handsome and imposing, turquoise and dark-blue glazes being particularly effective.

Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12)

With the Qing dynasty came the beginning of the immense vogue for porcelain in Europe that was to reach its height during the first half of the 18th century. Many varieties of Qing ware are common in the West. Its wares differ, for the most part, from those of the Ming period in a fairly distinctive manner. Potters had their medium under almost complete control, and their products are much more precisely finished. Their finesse contrasts sharply with the struggles of potters in Europe, where porcelain manufacture did not emerge from the purely empirical stage until the 19th century. Letters written in 1712 and 1722 by a Jesuit missionary who spent some years at Jingdezhen record that some Qing pieces were handled by as many as 70 men, each contributing a small part to the total effect, and this is one of the reasons why many Qing wares are found to lack the freshness and the spontaneity of Ming decoration.

The imperial kilns of Jingdezhen were fortunate in the support they received from the palace during the reigns of the Kangxi (1662–1722), Yongzheng (1723–35), and Qianlong (1736–95) emperors. The Kangxi emperor, in particular, was a patron of the arts on a considerable scale.

Underglaze blue and red

The blue-painted porcelain of the Qing dynasty was somewhat neglected in the 20th century. This is probably due to the ridiculously high value placed on it during the latter years of the 19th century, when it was often called Nanjing ware. Even the best, which belongs to the reign of the Kangxi emperor, hardly bears comparison with the finer Ming wares, though its influence on European porcelain was far-reaching. Blue-and-white porcelain was exported to Europe in vast quantities, and many of the forms were especially made for export; the condiment ledge on plates and dishes, for instance, which first appeared in the reign of the Wanli emperor (Ming dynasty), had been added for Western customers (the Chinese used the saucer dish). The blue-and-white of the Kangxi period has an extremely white body, and the blue is exceptionally clear and pure. It is variable in shade, and the design is executed in graduated washes within lightly drawn outlines, a point of difference from Ming wares. Many of the designs of the Ming period were in use, and, of the later patterns, those illustrating literary and historical themes are probably of the highest quality.

Ginger jars decorated with prunus blossom reserved in white on an irregular blue ground, intended to represent the cracked ice of spring and sometimes described as pulsating, were once valued highly; in the mid-20th century a more realistic attitude was taken toward them.

Underglaze copper red was also used during the 18th century. The stem cups of the Yongzheng period with three fruit or three fish in silhouette, which imitate those of Xuande, are much better known than the wares they copied. Copper red also appears in conjunction with underglaze blue, and a greenish-toned glaze is common with pieces thus decorated.

Underglaze blue was sometimes used as a monochrome ground colour. It was blown on the surface in powder form before glazing; a bamboo tube, closed with gauze at one end, was employed for the purpose. It is thus called powder blue, or, in Chinese, chui qing (“blown blue”), and is distinct from the sponged blue grounds of the Ming dynasty. It was subsequently used at several of the porcelain factories in Europe. Clair de lune (yue bai, “moon white”), a cobalt glaze of the palest blue shade, was also used.

Coloured glazes

Copper red, called oxblood (sang de boeuf) by the French, appears in monochrome form as Lang yao. This glaze was also known to the Chinese as “blown red” (chui hong). It was certainly used as a monochrome in early Ming times and possibly even earlier, and is the direct ancestor of the showy flambé glazes (yao bian) of the Qianlong period that are often vividly streaked with unreduced copper blue.

Another variation, no doubt at first accidental, is the glaze known in the West as “peach bloom,” a pinkish red mottled with russet spots and tinged with green. The Chinese have various names for it, but perhaps the commonest is “bean red” (jiangdou hong). It is used on a white body. Most objects glazed in this way are small items for the writer’s table.

Monochromes of all kinds are a distinct and important section of Qing wares, and many reproductions of Song monochromes were made. The use of iron as a pigment can be seen in a revival of the celadon glaze. The Jingdezhen celadons have, generally, a pale-green glaze over white porcelain, the foot ring being given a wash of brown to simulate the old ware. Meanwhile, celadons of the Longquan type were still being made. In addition to the celadon glaze, iron was used to produce colours varying between café au lait and pale yellow and also “deadleaf” brown.

Sometimes panels were reserved in white and painted in overglaze colours. Specimens thus glazed appear in the old Dutch catalogues as Batavian ware, because the wares were imported via the Dutch centre of trade and transshipment at Batavia (modern Jakarta), in Java. They are also related to “mirror black” (wujin), a lustrous colour obtained by the addition of manganese, and sometimes decorated with gilding or even, as in at least one extant specimen, with both gilding and silvering. Imperial yellow, a lead glaze often used over engraved dragons and similar designs, was again employed during the 19th century.

Brilliant turquoise glazes derived from copper have been produced up to the mid-20th century, although later examples seldom have the quality of the earlier ones. The glaze is usually covered with a network of fine crackle, and in some examples there is engraved decoration under the glaze. Related glazes are the copper greens—for example, leaf green and cucumber green, the latter being speckled with a darker colour. Apple green is an overglaze colour used as a ground and applied over a crackled gray glaze. Most greens are relatively late.

Purple, or aubergine, glazes derived from manganese are seen occasionally. Brinjal bowls, decorated with engraved flowers, have an aubergine ground in conjunction with dappled green and yellow glazes. (Brinjal, in fact, means aubergine, or eggplant, which is a favourite food in parts of the East.) Bowls with engraved dragons and a combination of only two of these colours are somewhat better in quality.

Overglaze colours

Overglaze colours were sometimes used as monochromes; for example, iron red or, as it is sometimes called because it varies a little in shade, coral red. The surface is usually glossy but occasionally mat. The rose colour, discussed below, was used both as a monochrome and as a ground colour.

The wares enamelled on biscuit are a much sought after group. They are a development of the Ming sancai wares, which were still being made during the Qing period. The effect of painting directly on biscuit was to produce a soft and distinctive colouring that is extremely attractive. The outlines were first painted directly on the unglazed surface in brownish black; some of the colours were then painted within these outlines and others were washed over them; however, red or blue overglaze colours, when they appear, are usually provided with a patch of glaze underneath them. The practice seems hardly to have survived the Kangxi period, except for deliberately made later copies.

During the reign of the Kangxi emperor the wares decorated in overglaze were painted in the famille verte palette, usually over a white glaze. The name famille verte (“green family”) is derived from the distinctive green employed, but the wares are a development of the Wanli five-colour ware, the major difference being the replacement of the earlier underglaze blue by an overglaze blue. On most genuine examples it is possible to see a distinct halo around the overglaze blue, but its absence does not condemn the piece as not genuine. The famille noire has the verte palette in conjunction with a black ground; the famille jaune uses the same colours but is used in conjunction with a yellow ground. In each case the white porcelain disappears under the colours.

During the reign of the Kangxi emperor (c. 1685) an opaque rose-coloured overglaze appears. This and its related colours were called “foreign colours” (yangcai). It soon formed the characteristic colour of a group of wares, referred to as the famille rose, which was particularly developed during the reign of the Yongzheng emperor. It more or less replaced the verte palette. The translucent overglaze colours of the earlier period tended to become opaque, and painting has a more feminine quality.

During the 18th century the white wares of Jingdezhen were made mostly for the home market, though a few were exported. They included examples of the bodiless ware and the anhua (literally “secret language”). The latter, copied from a traditional Yongle (1402–24) type, has designs lightly incised or painted with white slip. The body is white, and the whole is covered with clear glaze. The decoration can only be seen plainly if light is allowed to shine through it. Pierced work was revived in certain rare pieces inspired by jade; the use of piercing that was filled with glaze was derived from Persian Gombroon ware.

European influence and the export trade










19th and 20th centuries
















Since Japan is a well-wooded country, wood has always been used for domestic utensils of all kinds, either in a natural state or lacquered. Until recent times, therefore, pottery and porcelain were not employed extensively for general domestic use but were reserved for such special purposes as the tea ceremony (see below). In pottery the Japanese especially admire accidental effects that resemble natural forms. Objects that appear misshapen and glazes that exhibit what would normally be regarded as serious imperfections in the West are admired by the Japanese connoisseur. The Japanese potter liked his work to reveal the impress of the hand that had made it. Marks, such as the ridges left by the fingers in a newly thrown vessel, were frequently accentuated instead of being obliterated, and marks made by tools were often left untouched.

Hand modeling was practiced long after the wheel was known, and asymmetries and irregularities of form were purposely sought. Similar accidental effects were encouraged in glazing: coloured glazes were allowed to run in streaks and were irregularly applied. They were often thick, with many bubbles, and with a semifluid or treacly appearance. Crackled glazes and those deeply fissured (the latter called dragon skin or lizard skin) were deliberately induced. Painted decoration, frequently blue, brown, or iron red, is often summary and almost calligraphic in its simplicity. The aim was to give an overall effect that resembled such natural objects as stones, in being largely uncontrived.

From the 15th century onward, the art of the potter was also affected by the elaborate tea ceremony (the cha-no-yu). In its original form it was probably introduced from China by Zen priests, but at the court of the shogun (military governor) Yoshimasa (1435–90), in Kyōto, it developed into a fixed ceremonial pattern. Possibly the ceremony was first exploited as a means of settling feudal disputes. It is held in a small room or pavilion, usually surrounded by a carefully designed garden. When the guests are summoned they enter a sparsely furnished room through a very low doorway. The fact that guests must crawl into the room is thought to have served the purpose of preventing them from concealing a sword under their robes.

In a recess called the tokonoma, a picture mounted on brocade or silk is hung, and the guests bow to this in appreciation. The tea master puts a little powdered tea in a bowl and pours on it water that has been heated over a charcoal brazier. The tea is whipped to a froth with a bamboo whisk and then passed from hand to hand. The various utensils (the teabowl, tea caddy, water container, boxes, plates, and iron tea kettle) have been carefully selected by the tea master and are often of great age. The tea drinking is followed by a discussion and appreciation of the qualities of the utensils. The bowls are valued for their heat-retaining properties and the way in which they fit the hand as well as for their appearance. Sometimes a newly acquired work of art is produced by the host for the delectation of the guests. Since the tea masters were the aesthetic arbiters, their influence on Japanese pottery was profound.

The early history of Japan is considerably more obscure than that of China. The first Japanese pottery belongs to the Jōmon period (tentatively dated c. 2500–250 10,500–c. 300 bce). It has a black body, and the decoration is usually an impressed representation of coiled rope or matting (jōmon means “coiled”). Jōmon-shiki (“pottery”) is widely distributed throughout the islands, but complete specimens are very rare. It was followed by Yayoi pottery, specimens of which have been excavated throughout Japan. The body is somewhat finer in quality than Jōmon pottery and is usually red or gray. Decoration is simple, and forms will sometimes show the influence of Korean pottery of the period. It ceased to be produced about the 6th century ce.

Meanwhile, from about the 3rd to the 6th century ce, large tombs were constructed in the form of oval or circular tumuli from whose bases have been recovered the haniwa (“clay circle”) figures of warriors, women, horses, and so forth. They are hollow, and, though vigorously modeled, they are more primitive than analogous tomb figures from China.

In the Asuka, or Sueki, period (552–710 ce) that followed, wares are much more sophisticated. Unlike the preceding types, they were made with a wheel, and firing took place in a rudimentary kiln at a much higher temperature than previously. Widespread manufacture continued through the Nara period (710–794) and the early part of the following Heian, or Fujiwara, period (794–1185). Some examples have a smear glaze, no doubt at first caused accidentally by wood ashes coming into contact with the surface. Three colours of glaze—green, yellowish brown, and white—were used either alone or in combination and resemble those of Tang earthenware. Pottery of this kind has been found around Ōsaka and Kyōto. The principal pottery productions of the period were vases, dishes, bowls, and bottles of various descriptions.

The influence of Korea and of Tang China is noticeable. Toward the end of the Heian period contacts with China were severed, and there was a corresponding decline in the art of pottery; even the traditional Sueki ware disappeared.

Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1192–1573)

A revival in the Kamakura period (1192–1333) followed the visit of the potter Katō Shirōzaemon (Tōshirō) to China in 1227, where he learned the secrets of pottery making. He established himself at Seto, Owari (now Aichi prefecture), which speedily became a large centre of manufacture. There were soon about 200 kilns in the vicinity making a variety of wares, some of which were glazed in black in imitation of the temmoku wares of China (see above China: Song dynasty). The early wares were mainly for ritual purposes, but by the beginning of the Muromachi, or Ashikaga, period (1338–1573) teabowls, plates, jars, and saucers of domestic utility were also being made. Wares of the Kamakura period are decorated with incised designs or with impressed or applied ornament. The Muromachi wares are much plainer as the result of the growing influence of the tea ceremony, especially the wabi school of the cult, which concentrated on rustic simplicity. The wares of both of these periods have a feldspathic glaze, but the Muromachi glaze is more even in quality than the Kamakura, which has a tendency to run in rivulets. A transitional type has a soft-yellowish glaze or a dark-brown glaze sometimes called Seto temmoku.

A large number of kilns were in existence, the more important known as the “six pottery centres of ancient Japan.” These were Seto; Tokoname (also in Aichi prefecture), which may have exceeded Seto in the size of its production; Bizen (Okayama prefecture), which has produced an excellent unglazed stoneware from the Heian period to the 20th century; Tamba (Kyōto prefecture); Shigaraki (Shiga prefecture); and Echizen (Fukui prefecture). The wares of Seto, especially those made for Buddhist ceremonies, were regarded as the finest pottery of this period.

Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1600)

Production had been interrupted during the civil wars of the 15th and 16th centuries. Toward the end of the 16th century the Seto kilns were removed for a time to the Gifu prefecture of Mino province, where they received the protection of the feudal baron (daimyo) of Toki. The Mino pottery was founded by Katō Yosabei, whose sons started other potteries in the vicinity, notably that under the aegis of the tea master Furuta Oribe Masashige. New kilns were also built elsewhere, and pottery, while retaining its importance in the tea ceremony, became much more widely used for ordinary purposes. The inspiration for most of its shapes and designs came from the Mino region. The later wares of these kilns are much less austere than those attributed to the Muromachi period, since the cult of the tea ceremony, now widespread, had lost something of its earlier simplicity. Characteristic tea ceremony wares of the early years of the 17th century are Shino, which has a thick, crackled glaze and is sometimes summarily painted in blue or brown; yellow Seto (ki-Seto), whose crackled yellow glaze covers a stoneware body; and, at Narumi, in the adjoining Owari region, a ware of the kind associated with Oribe (which had become a generic term for pottery influenced by the tea master of that name), which is glazed in white, straw colour, yellowish green, and pinkish red, with sometimes the addition of slight painting in brown.

Toward the end of the 16th century the tea ceremony was reformed by Sen Rikyū (1521–91), the tea master to the military dictator of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Sen Rikyū was principally responsible for the replacement of the hitherto much admired temmoku bowls from China by others patterned after unsophisticated Korean wares; his influence has persisted into the 20th century. In the 1590s Hideyoshi twice invaded Korea, and as a result of these wars many Korean potters were taken to Japan, where their influence was considerable.

A tilemaker named Ameya, who is said to have been a Korean, introduced a type of ware that was covered with a lead glaze and fired at a comparatively low temperature. His son Tanaka Chōjirō and his family extended this technique to the teabowl, and in about 1588 their wares were brought to the notice of Hideyoshi, who awarded them a gold seal engraved with the word raku (“felicity”). The raku made in Kyōto are among the most famous of all Japanese wares. The shape of the vessels is extremely simple: a wide straight-sided bowl set on a narrow base. At first the glaze was dark brown, but a light orange red was developed later, to be followed in the 17th century by a straw colour. Still later, green and cream and other colours were introduced. Teabowls attributed to the first Chōjirō are greatly valued in Japan.

The kilns of Karatsu, a district in the north of Hizen province, may have been established by Korean potters, since the influence of Korea is perceptible in some of them. The term Karatsu ware encompasses a great variety of shapes and styles: “undecorated” (muji), “painted” (e), “speckled” (madara), in the Korean style (called Chosen, referring to Chosŏn), which has a thick opaque glaze, and in the style of Seto, which has a white glaze. The earliest Karatsu ware belongs probably to the end of the 16th century, although it is sometimes awarded a still earlier date. Most surviving examples belong to the 17th century. The most valued pieces are those made for the tea ceremony.

Edo period (1603–1867)

According to tradition, the first Japanese porcelain was made in the early 16th century after Shonzui Goradoyu-go brought back the secret of its manufacture from the Chinese kilns at Jingdezhen. Another account claims that Ri Sampei, a Korean potter who was brought to Japan by Hideyoshi, discovered porcelain clay in the Izumi Mountain near Arita (Saga prefecture); this version is feasible since no porcelain made before the end of the 16th century has been identified.

The first Arita manufacture was decorated in blue underglaze, simple and excellent in quality. Specimens soon found their way to Europe in Dutch ships, and the Dutch were awarded a trading monopoly in 1641. Some of these early Japanese export wares are based on contemporary European metalwork and faience.

The family of Sakaida is especially connected with the Arita kilns. The first recorded member, born about 1596, worked in underglaze blue until the family learned the secret of using overglaze colours. According to tradition, this secret was told to them by a Chinese person met by chance in the port of Nagasaki. This overglaze technique was perfected soon after the middle of the 17th century. It was continued by the family, and, since many of them were called Kakiemon, the style has become known by that name. The palette is easily recognized—iron red, bluish green, light blue, yellow, and sometimes a little gilding; many examples have a chocolate-brown rim. Octagonal and square shapes are especially frequent. Themes of decoration are markedly asymmetrical, with much of the white porcelain surface left untouched. This technique and style spread rapidly to other provinces, and its influence on porcelain that was manufactured in Europe during the first half of the 18th century was at least as great as that of Chinese porcelain. A later Kakiemon development in which “brocade” (nishikide) patterns in compartments were used (at the suggestion of Dutch traders) proves to be less pleasing. These later coloured wares from Arita became known as Imari, after the port from which they were shipped.

Like 18th-century Chinese white porcelain, Japanese white wares were shipped to Europe, where they were decorated by Dutch and other European enamelers.

Of considerable importance but more rarely seen in Europe is the porcelain called Kutani. The kiln at Kutani in Kaga province (now in Ishikawa prefecture) operated in the latter half of the 17th century. Greatly valued, Old Kutani (ko- Kutani) porcelain is among the finest of the Japanese wares. The body is heavy, approaching stonewares, and the designs are executed boldly and in rich colours. Old Kutani was revived and other styles arose when kilns in the area resumed operation in the early 19th century and again in the 1860s, the latter resulting in the establishment of modern “Kutani ware” as a major export item.


The manufacture of earthenware was continued during the 17th and 18th centuries, and much of it is notable for its decoration. Toward the end of the 17th century, Ninsei (Nonomura Seisuke) began work at Kyōto and was responsible for much finely enamelled decoration on a cream earthenware body covered with a finely crackled glaze. Also produced at Kyōto, the works of Kenzan, who used rich and subtly coloured slips often as a background for plant motives, and of the Dōhachi family, famous for their overglaze decoration, are much sought after in Japan.

19th and 20th centuries

Japanese productions during the 19th century, in common with those in most other parts of the world, greatly deteriorated in taste. Typical of the period is the so-called Satsuma pottery, most of which was made not at Satsuma but at Kyōto and then sent to Tokyo to be decorated especially for export. The designs are overcrowded and debased, and its popularity undoubtedly retarded an appreciation of work in the true Japanese taste among Western students and collectors.

Like Western pottery manufacture after the mid-20th century, Japan’s was largely industrialized, and most products were derivative, but the Japanese tradition of pottery making in small and private kilns continues.

Thailand and Annam

Pottery was made in the old Siamese capitals of Sukhothai and Sawankhalok. It is also thought that potteries persisted at Ayutthaya until the 18th century. Little is known of the early history of the region, and definite information on its pottery is almost nonexistent. Dating of the pottery from these regions for the most part has been by analogy with related Chinese wares, which greatly influenced Siamese work.

Kilns have been excavated on the site of old Sawankhalok, about 200 miles (320 km) north of Bangkok. The principal type of ware is a grayish-white stoneware covered with a translucent celadon glaze, usually grayish green in colour. The glaze is commonly crackled; this appears to be fortuitous, since little trouble was taken to achieve a precise finish. A particularly common decoration consists of roughly scored vertical flutes, with incised circles at the shoulder to accentuate the form. Decoration of a more definite kind is always incised under the glaze and is usually floral. Flowers are stylized, sometimes with combed lines on the petals. Covered bowls, dishes, ewers, and bottles with two small loop handles at the neck are the most common forms.

Another type of ware, with similar forms, has a rather treacly-brown glaze. Some well-modeled animals are found with this glaze. There are also tiles and bricks with crudely modeled figures in relief on them. They are analogous in form and technique to Chinese pottery of the Song dynasty and are generally regarded as being contemporary with the Song or Yuan period. Some small covered jars of a gray porcelaneous ware, summarily decorated with stylized floral and foliate patterns, appear to have been made at Sawankhalok (the date is probably equivalent to that of the early Ming period). These Martabani wares were widely exported throughout the East during this period.

Little is known of wares made in Annam, but some brownish celadons are regarded as likely to have been made there, as well as some small covered jars painted in a poor underglaze blue.