Kyō ware / Kiyomizu ware

Forms, use and context#

Seventeenth-century potters Nonomura Ninsei and Ogata Kenzan made refined enamelled tea wares; from the late 18th century Okuda Eisen began Kyoto porcelain, and his pupils Aoki Mokubei and Ninami Dōhachi worked in a Chinese-inspired manner that, with the fashion for sencha, made Chinese-style sencha wares such as kyūsu, stoves and cups a mainstay of Gojōzaka and Kiyomizu kilns.

Body#

Both pottery and porcelain. Kyoto has no local pottery stone or clay deposits, so materials are brought in, for example from Amakusa (Kumamoto) and Shigaraki (Shiga), and blended per product.¹²

Glazes#

Methods#

1. Forming (METI standard) Wheel throwing, hand-building, press moulding and slip casting; decoration by carving, combing, inlay (象嵌) and appliqué.¹
2. Decoration and glazing Hand-painted underglaze in gosu, iron (銹) or copper red; glazes poured, dipped or sprayed; overglaze in nishiki-de enamels, gold and silver, kōchi and sansai colours fired at low temperature.¹
3. Moulded sencha wares A Mokubei kyūsu in Kobe City Museum was formed in a mould, with the seam visible at the middle of the body.⁶
4. Firing Traditionally in Kyoto-type climbing kilns (noborigama), now largely replaced by electric and gas kilns.²

Typical objects#

Japanese teapotTea bowlterm: 煎茶碗 sencha cupsterm: 涼炉 ryōro (portable sencha stove; Mokubei's ichimonji-ro)Not yet verified: ボーフラ bōfura (sencha kettle): no source readterm: tea ceramics for chanoyu (Ninsei, Kenzan, Dōhachi)

Periods#

1. Nara / Heian – HeianKyoto prefecture repeats the tradition that the monk Gyōki built a kiln at Seikan-ji (the 'Chawanzaka' story); METI says regular production began with the building of Heian-kyō.
2. 1605First written record of 'Kyō-yaki', in the tea diary of the Hakata merchant Kamiya Sōtan, probably for a Raku-type tea container.⁵
3. mid-17th century – early 18th centuryNinsei (dates unknown) at Omuro made tea wares and enamelled pottery for court nobles and daimyo; Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743), who learnt from Ninsei, opened his own kiln in 1699 and decorated wares with his brother Kōrin.
4. late 18th century – early 19th centuryOkuda Eisen (1753–1811) made the first porcelain in Kyō ware, around the Tenmei era (1781–89). His pupils included Aoki Mokubei (1767–1833), Ninami Dōhachi (1783–1855) and Kinkodō Kamesuke. Dictionary entries tie this turn to the vogue for literati painting, sencha and Chinese taste.
5. early 19th centuryMokubei made sencha stoves (涼炉, including ichimonji-ro), kyūsu and sencha cups modelled on Ming wares; the Kobe City Museum record says his sencha wares copied Chinese and Dutch ceramics.
6. Meiji – presentKiyomizu kilns merged with Gojōzaka kilns and the output, strong in sencha ceramics, became known as Kiyomizu ware; the German Gottfried Wagener was invited in the Meiji era to bring in foreign techniques.

Kiln sites#

Ambiguities#

• What 'Kiyomizu ware' covers: one dictionary says Kyoto ware after Meiji is usually called Kiyomizu-yaki; another says Kiyomizu-yaki is the name for post-Meiji potters around Kiyomizu-dera as distinct from Edo Kyō-yaki; others list Kiyomizu as one Edo kiln group beside Awata and Omuro. The METI name joins both terms.³⁵¹
• Whether Raku belongs to Kyō ware: several dictionaries exclude Raku (and one also Kenzan ware) from Kyō-yaki, while the earliest 1605 record of 'Kyō-yaki' probably refers to a Raku-type piece.³⁵
• Ninsei's start at Omuro: about 1647 (Ritsumeikan ARC) or 1650 (日本大百科全書 via Kotobank); full enamelled production from about 1656–57 (世界大百科事典).⁵³
• Okuda Eisen's background and kiln: his Chinese descent is given as family tradition (one exhibition report states it as a Chen lineage from the Ming–Qing transition); his kiln is placed near Kennin-ji by two dictionaries and at Awataguchi by another.⁴⁸
• The Gyōki / Seikan-ji origin and the '1,200 years' figure are traditions repeated by Kyoto prefecture, not archaeological findings.²

Heritage listings#

Other recorded fields#

Other influences

• Relation: influenced Note: Eisen and Mokubei modelled their porcelain on Ming rather than Qing pieces; Chinese-style blue-and-white and five-colour porcelain became Kyō ware's mainstream with the sencha vogue. Name: Ming Chinese porcelain (ko-sometsuke blue-and-white, gosu akae)⁸³
• Relation: influenced Note: Eisen revived Cochin glazes after late-Ming/early-Qing Chinese models. Name: Chinese Cochin (交趾) wares⁵
• Relation: influenced Note: Dōhachi made a Ki-Irabo (黄伊羅保) tea bowl, a type name taken from Korean bowls; the TNM record itself does not explain the type. Name: Korean tea bowls (Irabo type)¹⁰

Related#