![Liao Sansai (Three Colors of Liao)](https://turuta.jp/ceramics-story/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/01/ysf_09413_1-300x300.jpg)
This type of sansai was produced under the rule of the Liao, a Qidan tribe that had been powerful in the Inner Mongolia region since the fall of the Tang Dynasty in China. The Liao’s official kilns, the Lindong kiln in Shangjing and the Qianlang kiln in Jiafeng, were the centers of production, and it goes without saying that they are descended from Tang Sansai. However, unlike the gorgeous Tang Sancai, this Sancai born in the grasslands of Shuobei is full of a powerful wildness backed by a certain degree of roughness. Although there is no difference in the application of white makeup and sancai glaze on a red base, the engraved and sealed floral patterns on the ground surface are not as neat as those of Tang sancai, and the sancai glaze is applied freely and unrestrainedly, without adhering to any rules, giving a very different impression. The vessels produced include jars, long-necked vases, bowls, plates, conglomerates, and eight-lobed long table vessels, and one of the most unusual examples is a round inkstone now in the possession of the Oriental Museum in West Berlin.