What is Karatsuyaki?
As far as we know, there are more than a hundred kilns in Higashimatsuura County, Imari City, Takeo City, Arita Town, and Sasebo City in Saga Prefecture that produced the so-called Karatsu ware. The oldest of these kilns are thought to be those scattered at the foot of Mt. Kishidake is a mountain 300 meters above sea level, where the Hata clan, a leader of the Matsuura party, once built a mountain castle and made it their residence. The fact that the kilns remain at the foot of the mountain clearly indicates that the kilns were under the control of the Hata clan, and the fact that they were all North Korean-style split bamboo climbing kilns tells us that they were started by potters who came from Korea.
It is not clear when the Kishidake kiln, which is considered the oldest in Karatsu, was started, as there are no reliable documents remaining, but Mizumachi Wasaburo, Nakazato Tarouemon, and others have suggested that it was started in the first half of the 15th century, based on historical background and comparison with Korean pottery. Indeed, based on the relationship between the Matsuura party and Korea, it can be said that there was a possibility of the arrival of Korean potters for an extremely long period of time in history. The fact that the lord of Kishidake Castle was Hata, a leader of the Matsuura party, indicates that it was possible at any time during the period from the 14th century, when the Matsuura party was very active as a Japanese pirate, through the period of the age-old trading between the 15th and 16th centuries, to have brought or invited potters from Korea and had them build kilns. However, there is no documented evidence of this in either the Joseon or Japanese side.
In the book “Dangjin” written by Nakazato Tarouemon, a fragment of pottery excavated from the Kishidake Iidong Pottery Kiln has an earthen ash glaze on the inside and a feldspar glaze on the outside in the style of celadon, which is similar to the fragments of celadon inside and white porcelain outside fired in the 15th century in Doma-ri, Gwangju County, Korea. However, it is difficult to say whether the Iidong jar sherds really date back to the first half of the 15th century or not. If the Iidong jar kilns and Hozutama kilns, the main kilns at Kishidake, were started in the first half of the 15th century, then the kilns would have been smoking for almost 200 years until the end of the 16th century. However, even if the kilns were only active for a short period of time, the excavated pottery shards seem to show too little change to indicate that the kilns had been burning for nearly 200 years. Moreover, even if the kiln was simply a local miscellaneous kiln that met the needs of the Hata clan, there is not enough data to estimate a period as long as 200 years. For this reason, we must question the theory that the kiln was opened in the first half of the 15th century. We also assume that the opening of the kilns was probably around the time of the Tenmon period, when the use of Korai tea bowls became increasingly popular in Japan. However, since the styles of the Kishigaku kilns seem to have originated from North Korean ceramics, I would like to wait for further research on the date of their establishment in connection with the investigation of old kiln sites in North Korea.
What is Karatsu Ware?
The fact that the Iidong kiln at Kishidake seems to have been completed at the end of the 16th century is indicated by the thermal remanent magnetic measurement made by Professor Asami of Shimane University in 1971, which coincides with the fall of the Hata clan, the lord of Kishidake Castle. The Hata clan continued for about 400 years, but in 1593, the 16th generation Hata Mikawa Morichika was deprived of his domain by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and died out. At the same time, the smoke from the Iidong kiln and other kilns apparently ceased, but it is interesting to note that pottery fragments similar to the “carved Karatsu tea bowl” have been excavated from this kiln. Since the style is similar to Shino ware made in Mino, it has been speculated that it was made under the guidance of Furuta Oribe Shigenori, who was one of the gobishu (a group of samurai who were in attendance at Nagoya Castle during Hideyoshi’s invasion of Japan during the Bunroku era (1592-1573), and it is quite possible that this is true. If so, it can be seen as one of the final works of the Iidora jikashita kiln. According to Nakazato Tarouemon, almost no tea ceramics were fired at the Kishidake kilns, with the exception of a few pieces. However, even if there was no artificial tea ceremony pottery, it does not mean that it was not used for tea. This is also a matter of speculation, but it seems that tea bowls fired in Karatsu were used as a kind of Korai tea bowls in the latter part of the Tensho period. As an example, there is no doubt that Sen no Rikyu, who died in 1591, possessed the cylindrical tea bowl “Ne-noko-mochi,” so there may have already been other kilns in addition to the Kishidake line, and tea bowls of the same type as “Ne-noko-mochi,” or Oku-korai tea bowls, may have been fired. Although the kilns in Karatsu have been excavated over a fairly wide area, it cannot be said that sufficient academic consideration was given to the work, and new clarifications will be made through future research.
Karatsu Ware – Part 3: From the Karatsu Kilns
Looking at the pottery shards excavated from the various kilns in Karatsu, the Iidong potteries of Kishidake, the Hozashira kiln, and works from that lineage are the most ancient, and the workmanship is generally simple. However, after the Bunroku and Keicho periods, many potters from Korea came to Japan and built kilns in various regions together with native potters. Most of the Karatsu ware that has been handed down through the ages was fired in kilns that were opened after the Bunroku and Keicho periods, and even if the founding period was before the middle of the 16th century, it is no exaggeration to say that Karatsu ware began in the Bunroku and Keicho periods. As shown in the distribution map of Karatsu ware kiln sites and the classification of Karatsu ware kilns and techniques, Karatsu ware is distributed among the Kishidake kilns and their lineages, Matsuura, Takeo, Taku, and Hirado. Although the basic techniques are common, each kiln has its own characteristics in terms of clay taste, shape, and brushwork of painted patterns. However, it is not clear whether all kilns can be clearly classified according to the characteristics shown, and there are many kilns that are difficult to classify as either of the above. The styles and characteristics of the various Karatsu kilns have already been described several times by Mizumachi Wasaburo, Nagatake Takeshi, and Nakazato Tarouemon XIII, all of whom spent many years surveying their kiln sites.
Karatsu Ware from the Late Momoyama Period to the Early Edo Period (Part 4)
The development of Karatsuyaki from the late Momoyama period to the early Edo period, like Mino ceramics, is thought to be the result of the growing demand for domestic ceramics stimulated by the flourishing of wabicha (tea ceremony), which spurred the mass production of this type of pottery. The aforementioned Oribe Furuta’s stay in Karatsu during Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s stay at Nagoya Castle in the first year of the Bunroku era had a significant impact on Karatsu tea ceremony pottery production, as can be inferred from his intense desire to create new tea ceremony ceramics. Moreover, the fact that Terasawa Shimamori Hirotaka became the lord of the Karatsu domain after Hata Mikawa Morichika, lord of Kishidake Castle, was exiled in Bunroku 2, is thought to have played a major role in encouraging the mass production of tea ceramics to Oribe’s taste, as was the case in Mino and Bizen. Terasawa Shimamori was a native of Mino, a student of Rikyu, and a fellow student of Furuta Oribe. Moreover, since he was the lord of the Karatsu domain after serving as the magistrate of Nagoya Castle from the autumn of Tensho 19, he must have devoted himself to the fostering and development of Karatsu ware, which was already becoming generally recognized. The so-called Oribe-like style was most prominent in the Mino kilns, but because Karatsu ware differed from other Shigaraki, Iga, and Bizen wares in that it was the same glazed ware as Mino, and underglaze iron painting was used as a decorative technique, it was naturally under conditions to produce wares similar in style to Mino’s Shino and Oribe wares.
It is estimated that, with a few exceptions, tea bowls were not fired at the Kishigake kilns that had already opened before the Bunroku era, and that most of the pottery was miscellaneous daily utensils, but it is thought that tea bowls for the tea ceremony may have been fired here or during the Tensho era. This is because it is clear that the Lords of the Matsuura party, including the Hata clan, were engaged in the age-old trade with Korea during the 15th and 16th centuries. From the middle of the 16th century, Korai tea bowls began to be used for wabicha (wabi tea) among the townspeople of Sakai and Kyoto, and were gradually gaining in popularity, but since these Korai tea bowls were imported through trade with Korea, even the Hata clan probably knew of the increasing value of Korai tea bowls, Or they themselves may have brought Koryo tea bowls to our country. Therefore, if the Kiganak kilns were already in operation in the middle of the 16th century, it is thought that Koryo tea bowls similar to Koryo tea bowls were already being made in Dangjin. Rather, there is no other kiln more suitable for imitating Koryo tea bowls than the kilns of Dangjin, where potters from Korea were engaged, and this aspect of Dangjin ware must have already been recognized in the latter half of the Tensho period. After the Bunroku and Keicho periods, while Oribe-like ceramics were produced, so-called Okukoryo or similar style tea bowls, similar to those of Ido and Kumagawa, were produced to a great extent, as evidenced by the numerous tea bowls that have survived to this day.
Karatsuyaki and the Urban Demand
Karatsu-yaki, unlike Mino, is thought to have been mainly produced from miscellaneous ware. It is thought that after the Bunroku and Keicho periods, Karatsuyaki was mass-produced to meet urban demand, and among these were pure tea ceremony utensils and general eating and drinking utensils. This is not to say that ordinary jars, plates, and bowls could not be considered tea utensils. The basic style of Karatsuyaki is Korean in its simplicity, and the demand for Karatsuyaki grew as urban tastes were added to this simple style. Without urban demand, Dangjin-yaki would probably not have prospered as much as it did. Therefore, with the exception of tea ceremony utensils, which may be of superior or inferior quality, it is not correct to distinguish Karatsuyaki as tea ceremony utensils or miscellaneous wares. This is also true of Oribe ware in Mino, and it is unlikely that all Oribe ware was tea ceremony ware, and even if it was born as miscellaneous ware, its style must naturally be stylish because the people of the time favored stylish decoration.
It is the same in all kilns of the Momoyama period that the style of the kiln as a whole is led by high-quality works. If high-quality works were in demand in the world of the tea ceremony, many of the coarse ceramics fired there would have to be influenced by them. In any case, without the protection of the clan and the demand of the city, it would be impossible for a kiln to fire a large amount of smoke, and for the demand to increase, it must naturally reflect the tastes of the times. The fact that many potters who emigrated from Korea produced Dangjin-yaki as Japanese pottery, which was different from Yi Dynasty pottery, is a clear indication of this trend.
In the early Keicho period, the Mino potter Kato Kage-nobu and others came to Karatsu, and it is also clear that the Mino style became very popular and took root. Kato Kagenobu received the title of “Chikugo no Mamoru” in Keicho 2, and because of his relationship with Furuta Oribe, Terasawa Shima no Mamoru, and others, he was sent to Karatsu and seems to have been directly involved in teaching that style, which can be inferred from the fact that many works from the three kilns, the Tani kiln at Ojiya, Taku Koraidani, and Uchida Saraya, are so similar to Shino and Oribe. Moreover, he built a Karatsu-style climbing kiln at his former residence in Kusiri before returning to Mino. He was an extremely proactive person who introduced the Karatsu kiln, which was suitable for mass production, to Mino while influencing Karatsu in terms of style. This could only have been done in the Momoyama period.
Karatsu Pottery: Part VI The Relationship between Karatsu and Mino
I would like to discuss the relationship between Karatsu and Mino. In other words, the Mino kilns and the Karatsu kilns in Hizen are located to the east and west of each other, and were very active during the Momoyama period. Both kilns fired glazed ceramics, which was not practiced in other kilns at that time. The Mino kilns were an extension of the ancient Seto kilns that had existed since the Kamakura period, while the Karatsu kilns were started by potters who came from Korea and, so to speak, introduced the pottery style of the Yi Dynasty. Therefore, there is a big difference in the basic molding method between the two kilns. Furthermore, in Mino, molding is done by tatara-zukuri or die-cutting, but in Karatsu, most of the motes, even those of rather varied shapes, are made on the potter’s wheel or by tappi-zukuri. Despite these major differences in molding, there were commonalities in decoration, such as underglaze glazing and underglaze painting with iron pigments. Such commonalities were a factor in the exchange of styles between the two groups during the Bunroku, Keicho, and Genna periods.
Shino and Oribe ware produced in Mino and Ekaratsu ware, the most common type of Karatsu ware produced in Karatsu, both use iron pigments to express patterns. It is not clear at this point whether there was a relationship between the two kilns at the time of their creation. Simply put, it was Korea that was active in the production of pottery with iron painting patterns at that time, and it is thought that the technique was introduced directly to Korea earlier in the case of Karatsu. However, there are no materials that allow us to determine that the pottery in Karatsu, where there are paintings, was fired before the Tensho period. On the other hand, it is not clear when the painting with iron pigments started in Mino as well, but it is assumed that it had already started in the latter half of the Tensho period, inferred from the style of the work. If that is the case, as far as we can guess from the existing works, it seems as if iron painting had begun in Mino without any relation to Karatsu. The fact that the paintings on the old Shino ware are not seen on Karatsu ware also deepens the speculation that iron painting may have started independently in Mino. In addition, the patterns on painted karatsu wares dating from the Bunroku period onward are clearly influenced by Shino and Oribe, and the shapes of the vessels show the same tendency. On the other hand, however, Karatsu has developed its own unique Yi Dynasty-style painted patterns, and the relationship between the occurrence of iron painting at the two kilns is an issue for the future, pending further research on Karatsu ware from before the Tensho period.
A similar problem to that of iron painting can be seen in the glaze. Namely, the use of feldspar glaze. In Mino, the use of feldspar glaze began in the astronomical year at the latest. In Karatsu, the date of the emergence of Karatsu ware is still unknown, so we cannot be certain, but it is likely that the use of feldspar glaze had already begun in the Kishidake Kogama during the Tensho period, or it may have been used from the beginning of Karatsu ware. Therefore, it cannot be presumed that one influenced the other. Since feldspar glaze is thought to have been introduced from Korea, it is reasonable to assume that Karatsu was the first to use it, but as far as we know now, Mino was the first to use it in an immediate manner, and we must wait for further research to determine the route by which this Korean-style glaze technique was brought to Mino. On the other hand, Karatsu kilns started producing so-called mottled Karatsu ware with straw ash glaze early on, but this was not done in Mino, which means that Mino was not influenced by Karatsu in terms of glaze technique.
When we observe a large number of Shino and Oribe and Karatsu, we find that, with some exceptions, Shino and Oribe were hardly influenced by Karatsu ware in terms of their vessel forms, but on the contrary, they exerted a strong influence on Karatsu ware. It is clear that the prosperity of Karatsuyaki during the Bunroku, Keicho, and Genna periods was due to urban demand, so it was natural for the same iron-glazed ceramics kiln to adopt the style of Mino, which had already been producing excellent ceramics since the Tensho period and was highly regarded by many people. In particular, in tea ceramics, the so-called “woven textile” style was used. In particular, Karatsu ware produced many tea ceremony utensils in the Oribe style, which was much sought after by the people of this period. However, Karatsu ware was a kiln in which many naturalized Korean potters were engaged, so while it accepted the tastes of the time, especially Oribe’s, it did not lose its original flavor and showed one of the aesthetic qualities that could be prized as Karatsu ware.
Karatsu Ware Part VII: Types and Characteristics of Karatsu Ware
Oku Korai
Oku-korai” refers to plain tea bowls, which are the oldest of all Karatsu tea bowls, and is thought to be named after its similarity to the Korai tea bowls. Most of them are bowl-shaped with an open mouth and are generally large in size. Both the clay and glaze are softly fired. Although the kiln where they were fired is not known at present, according to some theories, pottery shards have been excavated from the Ichinose Koraigami, Fujinokawachi, and Yakeyama kilns, and the kilns that are thought to have fired them are Shiinomine, Aboya, Douen, Mokiya-no-Tani, Maki no Zenya, Kawakogama-no-Yakita, and Hyakuma. It is likely that similar shaped tea bowls were also fired at the Kishidake kilns.
Motto Karatsu
This is the name given to the pale blue mottled patterns that appear when the straw ash glaze applied to the surface of the bowl is fired to an uneven white color. Jars, tea bowls, plates, and sake cups were fired. The glaze varies in thickness and appearance. Hobashira, Kishidake Saraya, and other works are not at all different from North Korean Hoeyoung ware, showing their old status among the Mottara Karatsu ware. Other kilns include Michinoyadani, Yamasegami, Yamasegashita, Sumac Valley, Okawara, Shiinomine, Fujinokawachi, Kinsehara Hirotani, Mutahara, Kinsehara, Nakanohara, Gakuno, Nijuhayayama, Afodani, Doen, Yakiyama Shimo, Ichinose Koraijin and Inokoba, and also Ueno and Takatori kilns.
Carved Karatsu
A bowl with a carved design on the body and fired with a feldspar glaze over the top. Typical examples are tea bowls. There are also mottled-glazed and black-glazed wares with engraved patterns, but they are usually called mottled karatsu and black karatsu. It is characterized by its similarity in form to Shino. Pottery shards have been excavated from the Iidong under-kiln.
Painted Karatsu
This type of karatsu was painted with iron pigments. The patterns on the ware varied from the simple Yi Dynasty style to the richly varied Mino style. Most of them are produced at most kilns, but the painted karatsu of Kikaya-no-Tani, Ichinose Koraigami, Uchida Saraya, and other kilns are particularly outstanding, and the influence of Mino can be seen strongly in their work. Most of these kilns applied feldspar glaze mixed with clay ash over iron painting, but some kilns, such as Donoyadani and Okawara, also applied straw ash glaze over iron painting.
Mishima Karatsu
Mishima karatsu is a type of pottery imitating the style of Mishima in Korea. In addition to the brushwork, carved Mishima-style line engravings, and inlaid flowers, a wide variety of techniques are used, such as patterns created using stencils and white inlaying. Water jars, plates, tea bowls, and tokkuri (sake cups) were made, and excellent examples can be seen at the Shiinomine, Koge Oku, Kawakogama, and Hyakuma kilns.
Kurokaratsu
This type of karatsu ware is glazed with black glaze, which is made of wood ash and high iron content, and is fired in black, ame, and persimmon colors. This type of ware includes tenmoku, tea bowls, jars, flower vases, etc., and is said to have been produced at almost all of the kilns in Karatsu.
Seto Karatsu
Seto Karatsu is made of white clay mixed with sand, covered with a feldspar glaze and fired white. The origin of the name is not clear, but it may mean that it resembles Mino pottery with a feldspar glaze. There are two types of tea bowls of this type: a deep tea bowl called Honte Seto Karatsu, and a flat tea bowl with an open mouth called Kabehate, which has iron glaze applied around the rim. They are thought to have been fired in kilns such as Iidong-jikan-jo, Iidong-jikan-hita, Hobashira, Michinoya-dani, Afoya-dani, Doen, and Shiinomine.
Korean karatsu
This type of Korean karatsu is made by applying a white straw ash glaze and a black ame glaze separately. Most of them are made by tapping or stringing, but a few of them are wheel-thrown like tea bowls. The pottery includes water jars, flower vases, tokuri (Japanese sake cups), tea bowls, and plates. Other kilns in the area include Yamase, Afoya, and Kaneishiwara-Hirotani.
Bizen Karatsu
Bizen karatsu was named after its similarity to Bizen in glazed surface and appearance, and was produced in the valley of Jioya. It was probably made in imitation of Bizen ware. The works include water jars and tokutsu (sake cups).
