Satsuma-yaki is the general term for ceramics produced in Kagoshima Prefecture.
However, there are some cases where Satsuma-nishikite is narrowly referred to as Satsuma-yaki.
The following pottery types are classified: Kochosa-yaki (domain kiln, pottery and rubbings), Gentetsuin-yaki (private kiln, porcelain and enamel ware), Kushikino-yaki (private kiln, pottery), Naeshigawa-yaki (private kiln, pottery and porcelain), Yamamoto-yaki (domain kiln, rubbings), Ryumonji-yaki (private kiln, enamel ware and porcelain), Tateno-yaki (domain kiln, pottery), Isogoniwa-yaki (domain kiln, pottery and porcelain), Sengan-yaki (domain kiln, pottery), Shin Iso Oniwa-yaki (domain kiln, pottery), Sengan-yaki (domain kiln, pottery), Shin Oniwa-yaki (domain kiln, pottery), Iso-yaki (private kiln, pottery), Kasanohara-yaki (private kiln, pottery and earthenware), Tanoura-yaki (private kiln, pottery), Hirasa-yaki (domain kiln, porcelain), Hirasa Sarayama-yaki (private kiln, porcelain), Chotaro-yaki (private kiln, pottery), and others.
In May 1595, he brought back over 80 Korean men and women with 22 family names, and in 1601, he had Kim Hae (Hoshiyama Shinji) open the Utsogama kiln (Chosa ware) in Chosa, Osumi Province (Aira City).
In 1599, Park Pyeong-i founded Kushikino Pottery.
In 1603 (8th year of the same period), Kushikino Pottery was discontinued and Maeyogawa Pottery was established.
In 1608 (same year 3), Chosa ware was abolished and Kajiki ware (Gosatogama) was started.
In 1614 (same year 9), Park Pyeong-i discovered white clay and Maeyogawa white Satsuma began.
During the Genna period (1615-24), Kajiki ware ceased to exist, and Kinhai founded Tateno ware with his children Kinwa and Tahara Yusuke, and in 1648, Arimura Bowenemon received pure Japanese-style painting from the Omuro Kiln in Kyoto and started Satsuma brocade.
In 1667, Yamamoto ware was established.
During the Kanbun period (1661-73), Ono Mototachibo founded Motoritsuin Pottery and moved naturalized Koreans from what is now Koraicho, Kagoshima City, to Nashirogawa (Ijuin Town, Hioki City).
In 1704, the descendants of the naturalized Koreans from Nayogawa were moved to Kasanohara (Kasanohara-cho, Kanoya City), and Kasanohara ware was born.
In 1735 (Kyoho 20), Kimura Tangen taught painting at the Tate field kiln.
Around 1744 (Enkyo 1), Tate-no-yaki declined and was temporarily discontinued during the Horeki period (1751-64), but was later revived.
The Mawashiragawa Pottery kiln was closed for 20 years.
In 1770, Sen’emon Kono left the domain and pottery production in the domain flourished.
Kawahara Yoshiko and his son Yagoro went to Hizen Province (Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures) to learn the art of porcelain.
During the Kansei era (1789-1801), Kawahara Yoshiko and Hoshiyama Nakabei Kanetomi set out on a pottery training trip, and Kanetomi received the Nishiki-te technique from Nishikikozan Sohei in Kyoto and started Kanaran-te.
Yoshiko worked at Hanakura (Yoshino-cho, Kagoshima City), where he was engaged in the production of white pottery, but closed the kiln after his death.
In 1829, Shigehisa Gen’ami received the pottery method from Niami Dohachi, and in 1844, Park Jeong-kan became the chief keeper of Nishiki-rande at Maeyogawa.
In 1853 (Kaei 6) the Iso Shuseikan ceramics factory was completed and the porcelain manufacturing process began.
In 1857 (Ansei 4), Nanking ware was established in Kilno-hei, Miaoshirokawa.
In 1860, Kajiki Sarayama pottery was established.
In 1863, Shuseikan and the Nishikiya kiln site were destroyed.
During the Keio period (1865-8), Nagasaki painter Sojuro Aoi came to Hirasa (Hirasa Town, Satsumasendai City).
The Shoko Shuseikan was completed and Tanoura Pottery was opened.
During the Meiji period (1868-1921), Sohei Aoki came to the Tanoura kiln and taught the art of making sumac (sumac) by hand.
The Tanoura domain kiln was abolished and the Tanoura Pottery Company was established.
The Hirasa kiln became owned by Watanabe.
Tanaka Tokubei opened a kiln in Hirasa.
Tanoura Pottery Company was dissolved.
Sohei Aoki opened a kiln on Amami Oshima.
The Gyokkozan Kiln occurred.
Nayogawa Pottery Company was dissolved.
Oku Tsunejiro ran the Tanoura Kiln.
Yuzukizaki Rokubei, Nagai Taizaemon, Sejima Kumasuke, and Keita Shigehira opened their businesses.
Shimazu Tadayoshi’s Oniwa Pottery Research Institute was started, but was discontinued after a while.
Chotaro-yaki kiln opens.
Shimizu Jugan dies.
Nayogawa ware declines.
Shimazu Tadashige opened Oniwa-yaki, which was discontinued in 1927.
Ichirai Itaro founded Isoyaki Pottery.
Of the above, the early works of the Chosa, Kajiki, Naeshirokawa, and Tateno kilns are called Kosatsuma.
The oldest Satsuma is said to be the one that Yoshihiro and Iehisa personally stamped white products made of old Chosa and Nayogawa ware as a prize.
Products: In the early period, there were Taibai (white Koryo), Mishimate, Sung Goroku, and Hakeme (brush marks) ware imported from Korea, as well as Satsuma’s unique Snake Cochlea and black-brown glazed ware.
After the middle of the Edo period, Kannonji ware, Samehada ware, Tamaryu ware, and pure Japanese-style Nishiki-te ware were developed, and by the end of the Edo period, kinran-te ware, especially kintakamori (gold-relief porcelain), Nanjing celadon, and Hizen red glaze ware were produced.
In the Meiji period (1868-1912), there were so-called “gilded” export items such as “Daitasunamori,” “Itokaniri,” and Chotaro’s Raku ware.
Ji-nei-satsuma was used exclusively for the Shimazu family’s household goods, and its production and sale outside the domain kilns was strictly prohibited (with the exception of white pottery with the Karachidori mark, which was sold as unqualified items from the Mitsuhisa period).
For this reason, white pottery was prized as “Goho pottery,” and black-brown glazed pieces were especially referred to as gozen-kuro.
The following is an overview of the characteristics of Satsuma ware products: (1) Taihaku ware is also called white Korai.
Mostly tea bowls, but also incense burners and bowls are produced.
The clay is rough and has a dull white glaze, with the clay showing from near the base.
(2) This type is most commonly used for water jars and flower vases with snakeskin glaze, and rarely used for tea bowls and tea containers.
The clay is well-fired and has a rock-like appearance.
The blue, yellow, and black glazes are heavily applied to the base, with flecks of white toughened glaze on top.
This type of ware is known as “old Chosa tiger-spotted glazed ware,” “jade-scale ware,” “pine bark ware,” “devil’s skin ware,” “dongko skin ware,” and “code ware.
(3) Also known as “black-brown glazed purple Satsuma,” this is a thick, hard ware with a clumsy appearance.
It is used in tea caddies, tea bowls, and other wares.
(4) Kannonji ware was started by Ono Mototachibo.
It has a blackish-brown glaze with a Rikyu brown circular pattern in a bubble glaze.
(V) Shark skin ware is famous from Ryumonji ware.
This type of ware utilizes exfoliation caused by the mismatch between the expansion and contraction rates of the glaze and the base material, i.e., cracks are created during glazing, which melt and do not run flat, leaving a fine-grained rough surface just like sharkskin.
Unlike the sharkskin of Shino, Hagi, Ueno, etc., this type of ware has light grayish color and close cracks.
(6) A blue glaze is poured over a thick layer of tan glaze.
Many of Ryumonji kiln’s works are water jars, flower vases, and booklets.
(7) Kanaranote: This kiln dates back to 1794, when Hoshiyama Nakabei Kanetomi established a new kiln at Tate-no Kiln according to the Kyoto Law.
His works at that time were white pottery with patterns in gold powder and other miscellaneous colors.
Kawahara Yoshiko, who accompanied Kaneomi, later established the Nishikite Kiln in Hanakura and was engaged in manufacturing, but the kiln was closed when he died in 1799.
In 1827, Eio sent Shigehisa Gen’ami, a tea ceremony master, to the pottery of Niami Dohachi in Kyoto to receive instruction.
Shigehisa Gen’ami returned to Japan and built a kiln in Surino, where he finally produced a beautiful gold balustrade using materials from Dohachi’s kiln.
This was an improvement on the work of Kinshin.
The works of the Sungno kiln’s kin period were characterized by the use of gold and silver in addition to five-color paints, and by their gorgeous painting style and harmonious expression.
（The painted areas are higher than the base and have a rough surface.
Most of these were furnishings of the Shimazu family or gifts to lords and princes, and all the others were powder-glaze painted.
(9) Nanjing celadon: During the reign of Shuseikan, the production of porcelain was encouraged, and a branch was established in Miaoshirokawa to actively produce items for export.
Some of the vessels have English writing on the shoulders.
(10) Hizen Akae Hizen ware produced by the Kitago family’s official kiln, Hirasa ware, according to the Hizen porcelain method.
The paintings have a dignified dignity.
(xi) This is a piece that was not heavily decorated with gold, but was instead glazed with a raised glaze and then gilded in that area.
(xii) Ito nannyu is a characteristic of Satsuma ware, which has long had a single layer of nannyu (the older the ware, the finer) fired with a single type of glaze.
In other words, two layers of glaze with different properties were applied, and the fineness and coarseness of the penetration was duplicated to create a kind of scenery.
Unlike Awata ware, which is known for its “ren-sen-nan-iri” (stone wall penetration), this type of ware has numerous branch lines that appear sequentially when exposed to the open air after firing, beginning with the main line.
(xiii) The base of Chotaro-yaki is blackish brown, light gray, or slightly blue in color, with oil droplets or snake snails produced by kiln alteration, or with iron rust or bronze tones.
In general, the work is thick and robust.
One of the characteristics of Satsuma white pottery is that the entire rest of the ware is egg-yellow in color, which is called “yellow Satsuma” due to the relationship between the original clay and the glaze applied.
The “Taisho Meikikan” describes Satsuma ware as tea utensils as follows: “Among tea utensils, there are some that were first made in Chosa, and later, in the Enshu period, there are some gourds or tea caddies of the same shape that were made using the same cut form, and they are called “Fuju Hyouzu” (ten gourds), as only ten of them were made according to the notes of Enshu. Since then, Satsuma’s pottery production has increased dramatically, but because there is no one who has been given the design of a cut shape, there have been no more tea caddies or other elegant works for a long time, and almost no masterpieces have been produced since Enshu’s time.
Export prosperity and imitation” After the middle period of Tateno ware, Satsuma nishiki-te became more decorative with its rich colors and picturesque taste, but it still retained its soft and colorful characteristics, making it very suitable for foreign tastes. The export of ceramics gradually began to flourish.
In addition, Tokyo paintings were made by purchasing plain white Satsuma ceramics and painting them for export in Tokyo, and some of the more serious ones were made by importing the base material from other regions or directly manufacturing it and selling it overseas under the name of Satsuma-yaki, The Tanoura Pottery Company finally collapsed in 1875 (Meiji 8).
Today, only Naeshirokawa-yaki, Tanoura-yaki, and Chotaro-yaki are still being produced.
The above information is based on “Satsuma-yaki Soukan” written by Ikujiyo Maeda.
For details, please refer to each item.
The inscriptions shown here are from the list of Satsuma ware in Morse’s “Catalogue of Japanese Ceramics,” but the potters and their affiliations are not clear.
Old Satsuma tea caddy, other unknown.
Kyoho period (1716-36).
2, Seto-glazed tea jar, calligraphy seal.
Kai is probably the name of the artist.
3, reading unknown, on a Sung Hu-lu teapot.
Tenpo period (1830-44).
4, same as before, Tempo period.
5, Mishimate Tokutsu.
Late Kansei period (1789-1801).
- It is said to have come from the name of the place, but the details are unknown.
From the Keian era (1648-52).
7, A kettle with a kiln-formed mottled pattern.
Details unknown.
8, brocade spoon-shaped dish, date unknown.
9, reading unknown, white Satsuma sake cup with blue pigment.
One theory is that this is the usual mark used by all of the imperial potters.
Tempo period.
10, reading unknown, white satsuma bowl.
Tenpo period.
11, inscribed in calligraphy, white satsuma sake bottle.
Tenpo period.
12, inscribed “Taizan”.
White Satsuma square water jar. - It reads, “By Yamahara.
Shallow bowl.
An’ei/Tenmei period (1772-89).
14, A small dish of hexagonal shape with brocade handles and the crest of the Tokugawa family.
Probably a gift to the Shogun.
Unknown date.
15, carved inscription, nishiki-te ornament. Unknown age. - Stand for a flower bowl, nishiki-te.
- N/A.
18, N/A.
19, plate with brocade handles, white Satsuma.
Early Meiji period.
(Appendix to “Toki Kou”, “Kanko Zusetsu”, “Kigen of Satsuma Ware Pottery”, “History of Satsuma Pottery”, “Yoshihiro Gohki no Gokiseki Torihiki”, “Prefectural Pottery History and Potter Tradition”, “Catalogue of Japanese Pottery”, “Pottery Collection”, “Japanese Modern Ceramic Industry History”, “Illustrated Satsuma Pottery”)
