Wednesday 8 August 2012

Satsuma Ware Grand Revival


Lowry refers to 7 times to signs for Satsuma Ware. Grand Revival in Chapter 3 of Ultramarine as Dana walks around Tsjang Tsjang (Dairen). (Pgs.85/99/104/109,116 and 118).

Satsuma ware sometimes referred to as "Satsuma porcelain," is a type of Japanese earthenware pottery. It originated in the late 16th century, during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, and is still produced today. Although the term can be used to describe a variety of types of pottery, the best known type of Satsuma ware has a soft, ivory-colored, crackled glaze with elaborate polychrome and gold decorations

Satsuma ware originated when the Shimazu prince of the Satsuma domain in southern Kyūshū abducted skilled Korean potters after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Japanese Invasions of Korea to establish a local pottery industry. After display at the international exhibition in Paris in 1867, it proved popular as an export to Europe.

"The Grand Revival" refers to the interest in the art of the village potter was revived in a folk movement of the 1920s by such master potters as Shoji Hamada and Kawai Kajiro. These artists studied traditional glazing techniques to preserve native wares that were in danger of disappearing. Later the Satsuma style was also duplicated by the potters in Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, and Kanazawa. Stoneware and pure white porcelain were the favored mediums for Satsuma .

Lowry may have seen signs for the sale of Satsuma Wares in Kobe on his 1927 voyage to the Far East. He may have also seen signs for them in Dairen e.g K. Suzuki & Co.












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