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Introduction to Kakiemon-style Porcelain – from Japan Conference at Windsor Castle

‘Japan Conference: Crosscurrents of Courtly Exchange’ at Windsor Castle
Fig. 1: At Windsor Castle on 15th February 2023

On 15th February, I attended ‘Japan Conference: Crosscurrents of Courtly Exchange’ at Windsor Castle, organised by the Royal Collection Trust in collaboration with the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). (Fig. 1) In parallel with closing the special exhibition, ‘Japan: Courts and Culture’ (8th April 2022 – 26th February 2023) at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace, the conference hosted Japanese art experts to review Anglo-Japanese courtly exchange through artefacts. Among all the absorbing speeches, I was most interested in the presentation, ‘Historic Japanese Ceramic Collections in Western Europe, Focusing on the Kakiemon Style’, given by Professor Masa’aki Arakawa. His lecture introduced us to Kakiemon-style porcelains, with a particular focus on their inherited milky white ground and their reception and reproduction in Meissen, Germany.



Traditional Nigoshide in Kakiemon-style Porcelains

Kakiemon-style, also known as Kakiemon-yōshiki (柿右衛門様式), is a traditional Japanese porcelain named after Kakiemon Sakaida (酒井田 柿右衛門) (1596 - 1666) who first completed the unique persimmon-coloured enamel for the decoration of porcelains.[1] It has been one of Japan’s most prominent craftsmanship traditions, practised for over 15 generations to the present. Characterised by the ‘milky-white ground’ called Nigoshide (濁手) with rich Chinese-influenced motifs such as flowers and birds, this design and techniques have long been inherited among the kilns in the Arita area, Saga in Japan.[2] In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these masterly designs attracted the attention of many European aristocrats, and the porcelains were exported via the Dutch East India Company (VOC: Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie). However, with the decline in exports, the use of Nigoshide once ceased for two and a half centuries by the time Kakiemon XII and XIII succeeded in composing different types of clays to recreate the technique in 1953.[3] Nigoshide has been the core of the style and had to be revived, despite not having been produced for more than 200 years.


Fig. 3: The Right Hand of ‘Pine Trees’ (松林図屏風; Shōrin-zu Byōbu) (c. 1580) by Tōhaku Hasegawa | ©︎ Public domain

According to Prof Arakawa, as the blank spaces enhance the presence of trees in Pine Trees (c. 1580) by Tōhaku Hasegawa (長谷川 等伯), the decorations in the Kakiemon-style porcelains adorn and illuminate the lives of depicted livings, plants and animals, with the milky white space of the Nigoshide.


The hexagonal form of vessels seen in the pair of works above (Fig. 2), one of the highlights from the exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, creates a living symbiosis with nature in the blank space. Taking two sides out of the hexagon as one single screen in the composition, a man, clouds, a plum tree, the branches, and the land in the porcelain are centred around a milky space, marking the beauty in harmony of human and nature completed by the detailed and intricate design of each part.



Replication of Kakiemon-style in Meissen, Germany

Another point addressed by Prof Arakawa was the reception and reproduction of the Kakiemon-style in the Meissen kiln in the eighteenth century. The rising popularity of the Kakiemon-style encouraged many European kilns, including Meissen, to work on reproductions. After the conference, I was able to identify some examples of originals and its copy from the collection of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in Germany.




While Fig. 4 shows the original porcelain made in Arita, Japan, although identical at first glance, Fig. 5 was made in Meissen. (The original made in Japan could also be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in the US and the Suntory Museum of Art in Japan.) I would like to further explore other examples like the ones above and the influence of replicas on the shaping of the local art scenes in Europe.





Reference:

[1] Rachel Peat, Japan: Courts and Culture (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2020), 39.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Chiaki Furuhashi, ‘Modern Kakiemon Wares - the Dignity of Yohaku (Blank Space)’, Aziatische Kunst 40, no. 4 (2010): 22, https://doi.org/10.1163/25431749-90000218, 24, 27-8.



Related Links:

・‘Kakiemon: a history of making Japanese porcelain’ by the British Museum:


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