The exhibition, Oriental Ceramics from the Seikado Collection: Part 1 Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic sat the Seikado Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo takes us on a panorama of ceramic achievement from the Tang (618-906) to the Qing (1644-1911). It features highlights from the Iwasaki family collection that were largely a massed fromthe 1880s to World War II. The Seikado Bunko’s founder, Baron Iwasaki Yanosuke (1851-1908) had initiated the holding with Ming (1368-1644) and Qing porcelain found in late 19th-century Meiji Japan. His son, Baron Iwasaki Koyata (1879-1945) diversified the collection with Chinese objects of exceptional quality reaching Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa Japan (1926-1989). His selection of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain documented glazing techniques and surface decoration from the Tang onwards, enabling the collection as a whole to explore the Chinese ceramic tradition.
Born in Tokyo, the Baron Koyata was part of a rare breed that went abroad at the turn of the 20th century. He had studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, UK, graduating in 1906. The baron seems to have been ahead of his time, and early on dispensed with the Japanese stigma associated with the collecting of tomb wares. His choice of Tang earthenware burial figurines focused on rare forms of high technical achievement. These three-dimensional ‘funerary figures’ called yong, were produced for the court at Chang’an during a limited period of 50 years. They represent a special hierarchy from tianbu, divine generals, to pixie, warrior deities, guarding the tombs of the privileged in the afterlife. The animated clay figurines are distinguished by sancai, ‘three colour’ lead glazes in green, brown and cream that were painted or splashed on their surfaces. Generally of half-human size, they were made from complex moulds of different dimensions, joined together, modified and fired. The horse, a much venerated Tang creature demanded multiple moulds. No two horses have been found to be identical. An exceptional black danma, ‘ceremonial horse’ studiously decorated with sancai, has a lowered head biting its foot. Another masterpiece is a hollow sancai duck-shaped vessel constructed from two moulds with an octagonal wine cup attached to its tail. It has a rare distinction; it was on loan from the Iwasaki collection and was displayed at the LondonInternational Exhibition of Chinese Art in 1935.
Some of the finest mingqi, ‘funerary offering objects’ among the best-loved in Japan, are found in the Seikado collection. By the Tang, metalwork from Sassanian Persia (224-642) had reached China via the Silk Road where the imitation of metalwork was made possible by moulding and glaze control. The special yushi xiangqiang, ‘gem inlay’ method was used to decorate an exquisite burial wannianhu, ‘ten-thousand year jar’ one of a few representative examples extant. Large and small applied medallions separately made from moulds were alternately embossed onto its creamy surface and on its hat-shaped lid. They were then splashed with blue, green and yellow glazes that ran during firing aspart of the decoration.
The Chinese preoccupation with tomb sculpture had largely dissipated by the 10th century. Advances in pottery led to the stoneware tradition. They were often associated with the ‘northern celadons’ of the Northern Song (960-1127), where new techniques of surface decoration were explored. Moulding, carving and incising were among them. The conical mould was used to shape utilitarian bowls and dishes of olive green glaze from the Yaozhou kiln in Tongchuan, Shaanxi. Deeper and sharply-cut moulds were applied to facilitate mass decoration on stonewares in great demand. An asymmetrical technique called ‘one-side deeper carving’ allowing glaze to pool on the deeper edge of surface motifs was intended to produce a three-dimensional effect. It showed up extremely well on a Yaozhou masterpiece, an oval foliate pillow and atechnical feat. Although divided into five panels, all of its surfaces support continuously scrolling bird and floral designs boldly carved and incised onto the glaze.
Iron painting on stoneware was another form of surface decoration. Its origins were said to date from the Jin (1115-1234), one of two dynasties that coexisted with the Song. Iron painted designs were carved by a spatula and used to create flora, fauna and calligraphy on stoneware pillows, jars and vases. They persisted until the 14th century and were made by the Cizhou kilns in Hebei. Considered ‘popular’ wares in China, they had anaffinity with the Japanese who liked their spontaneous, rustic qualities. Carving and incising on Cizhou wares were later brought to new levels by the sgraffiato method. The body of stoneware objects was first coated with a thin iron slipover a white glaze and incised with motifs. The rest of the slip was then carved away to reveal the intended pattern. A ruyi-shaped pillow with a prominent peony is exemplary of this complex method, identified with the Guantaizhen kiln of Hebei.
Meanwhile ceramic forms were being disseminated throughout China. A Southern Song (1127-1279) celadon incense burner, a guanyao, ‘official ware’ was designed to imitate the ding, an archaic ritual bronze form. It was increasingly adapted after the Northern Song court at Kaifeng moved south to Hangzhou. Modified specimens began to appear from the Jin to the Yuan (1279-1368) spreading northwards to Henan, Hebei and even further afield. A thick-walled, 14th-century incense burner unearthed in Huhehot, Inner Mongolia is a typical Yuan shape with an opaque bluish Jun glaze and red copper spots. It has two dolphin-shaped ears and bears the date, ‘Yearof Ji-you’ (1309), an exceptional trademark since such wares were not usually inscribed before this time.
During the Ming, developments revolutionising Chinese ceramics came to a head. Earlier, the introduction of cobalt blue glaze as a Yuan pigment had been a major breakthrough. It surpassed the blue Near East variety used as a Tang colouring agent that had a tendency to run. Then gaolin, pure kaolin, the basis for porcelain, was discovered at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi. These twin developments transformed the nature of ceramics altogether. Cobalt blue became a major decorative pigment and porcelain replaced stoneware, changing the approach to ceramic production.
The Seikado collection has a particularly strong blue and white Ming component. Dishes, vases, ewers and flasks show us that Ming imperial patronage was largely responsible for courtly taste. The brush-painting techniques used for the first time on porcelain however, changed its decorative possibilities. A distinct style evolved as qinghua, ‘cobalt blue underglaze painting’ became synonymous with the Ming. Gradually, dispersed scrolling and geometric motifs from Islamic metalwork gave way to a dominant, centralised Chinese motif. The ‘bundled lotus design’ was its generic name. It was arranged as a bouquet, and counted up to thirteen floral varieties, the peony, chrysanthemum, camellia, morning glory and vine among them. The principal flower was painted in blue outlines reserved in white; surrounding secondary elements being diffused in darker or lighter cobalt tones for contrast. During the Yongle (r. 1403-1424) period, the pattern was almost identically reproduced on 15th-century forms echoing metalwork or glass from the Near East.
Attempts at polychrome decoration using enamels on porcelain were also made. The earliest orange-red and green varieties surfaced already in the 1400s. Doucai, ‘pea-green’ or ‘contrasting colours’ fashionable at the Chenghua (r. 1465-1487) court, continued to feature in the Wanli (r. 1573-1620) era. The porcelain used for court enamels got progressively thinner and thinner. From the late 15th century onwards, wucai, ‘five colour’ or polychrome enamel wares had developed to include yellow, turquoise, aubergine and black. The colours were painted on to a fired glaze where mistakes could be wiped off, rendering outlines for surface motifs obsolete.
At this point, a Japanese dimension to late Ming Chinese ceramics can be seen. Apart from Jingdezhen, private kilns had sprung up to cater for export consignments to Japan and Europe. The Seikado collection is partial to gosu aka-e, ‘underglaze blue and overglazeenamels’ representative of Chinese export porcelain generally known as Swatow ware. They were made to order for Japanese tea masters, who admired the irrelatively ‘spontaneous’ designs, seemingly free from the perfection demanded of ‘official’ wares. One wucai enamel dish is dominated by the characteristic orange-red Swatow colour. Its cavetto has a pair of deer surrounded by peonies with green leaves. A monkey slips in at the edge. Bordering the rim are eight diamond-shaped medallions in orange-red and green bearing gilt painted flowers that have since faded. This process called kinrade, ‘gold brocade’ was tailored specifically for the Japanese market.
Meanwhile, Yuan alkaline glazes from the Near East characterised by turquoise, produced a variant. They were employed in the fahua method of ‘dyked decoration’ where trailed or applied dykes were used to outline motifs on vessel surfaces. After a first firing, three-colour enamels were painted within the outlines and the object fired again. A fahua jar of turquoise, yellow and white ‘dyked decoration’ on a deep blue ground has organised bands depicting a lotus pond with aquatic birds at play. Turquoise on its lotus petal shoulder band is repeated on waves at its base. A central band of yellow and white lotus flowers bears seven white herons in various postures. Nick-named natsu-goromo, ‘summer garment’, the vessel was used in Japan as a water jar in the tea ceremony.
By the Qing, enamel decoration designed for court use reached new heights. Around 1720, the Jesuits at the Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) court introduced European enamel decoration techniques from Limoges in France.The advent of the famille rose known as fencai, ‘rose pink’ overglaze enamel was derived from enamelling on metal. It was technically very challenging. Early Chinese attempts produced a blue-ish pink, the ‘rose pink’ being perfected only after another decade, in the Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) era. The Seikado’s imperial fencai range is unusually exhaustive, the more so since not many specimens are found in Japan. An outstanding Yongzheng fencai porcelain dish was meticulously crafted as if on a painting. A butterfly hovers above chrysanthemum branches bearing delicate yellow, pink, red and white flowers, their leaves in graduated green shades. The dish bears a distinct six-character Yongzheng mark in kai, ‘standard’ script, at the base.
The succeeding Qianlong (r.1735-1795) vessel forms imitated ritual bronze shapes from antiquity. They included the hu, wine vessel, lei, wine jar and gu, beaker from the Yin and Zhou periods of antiquity whose technical perfection and gong ,‘skill’, built on the achievements of the Ming. Glazes underwent still more experiment. The cobalt blue glaze that emerged as the Qing liuli, ‘blue gem’, its deep blue bordering on black, was the result of reduction firing. Ming underglaze colouring methods had been well-represented by the qinghua, ‘underglaze blue’ and youlihong, ‘underglaze red’ painting. In theKangxi era, the complex yanzhihong, ‘rouge red’ enamels reached perfection when a small amount of colloidal gold was added tored glaze. Its decorative possibilities were exploited in the Qianlong era. A pair of wide-mouthed imperial vases are a significant improvement on the qinghua youlihong template using yanzhihong. Qinghua on the background trailing clouds was complemented by overglaze yanzhihong executed in fine detail on the principal dragon and phoenix motifs.
Meanwhile the Japanese connection was taken further. Paired late Qing vases for court ornament were usually cylindrical, but square flasks with large cylindrical necks distinguished those produced for Japan. Early samples of typical wucai enamels exported also to Europe reached the country during the late Edo period (1615-1868). The Nankin aka-e, ‘Nanjing red’ painting variety sported the flowering peony, chrysanthemum, magnolia and plum blossom with butterflies and birds in tow. Early specimens like these probably caught the eye of Baron Iwasaki Yanosuke, prompting him tostart the Iwasaki ceramic collection in the 1880s.
Oriental Ceramics from the Seikado Collection: Part 1Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics is at the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, 2-23-1 Okamoto, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo157-0076,from 25 September until 5 December. www.seikado.or.jp
YVONNE TAN
