Arita ware/Ko-Kutani style
(Japan)
- Title
- Bottle with design of landscape and flowering plants
- Other titles:
- Ko-Kutani style
- Place of origin
-
Arita →
Japan
- Period
- Edo (Tokugawa) period 1615 - 1868 → Japan
- Year
- circa 1650-1660
- Media category
- Ceramic
- Materials used
- porcelain with overglaze enamel
- Dimensions
-
20.1 x 8.9cm; 3.6cm diam.of rim
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1979
- Accession number
- 212.1979
- Location
- Lower Asian gallery
- Further information
Ko-Kutani or 'old Kutani' wares are distinguished by their brightly coloured and graphically strong decoration. This square-shaped sake bottle, painted in overglaze enamels, is dominated by four panels of similar but not identical landscape and flower designs. The bright and unexpected green, blue and yellow mountains and rocks; the red trees and green pagodas, set against a brilliant white, are startling in their effect, as are the two panels of flowering 'nadeshiko' pinks. Ko-Kutani ware takes its name from the village of Kutani on the west coast of Japan's main island, Honshu, in Kaga prefecture. It was here, reputedly in 1661, that the Maeda clan began producing porcelain that was distinguished by its colourful overglaze enamel decoration. By around 1700 the industry had lost its vitality and the kilns closed. Early in the nineteenth century they were re-established to produce a later variant known as Ao-Kutani, or 'green' Kutani ware.
Art Gallery Handbook, 1999. pg. 272.
- Bibliography (11)
-
'Japanese Art', pg. 70-82., Asian Collection Handbook, Art Gallery of New South Wales 1990, 1990, 76, 77 (colour illus.).
'Far Eastern Art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' by Edmund Capon, pg. 22-29., The Connoisseur May 1980, May 1980, 28 (colour illus.).
'Recent Japanese Acquisitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales' by Jackie Menzies, pg. 90-95., The Australian Antique Collector Jan 1981-Jun 1981, Jan 1981-Jun 1981, 95 (colour illus.).
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 272 (colour illus.).
Annabel Davie (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Domain, 1988, 86, 87 (colour illus.).
Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Editor), Jan Meek (Australia) (Editor), Portrait of a Gallery, Sydney, 1984, 110 (colour illus.).
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981, Sydney, 1981, 92 (colour illus.). cat.no. 10
Soame Jenyns (Author), Japanese Porcelain, London, 1956, not paginated. cat.no. 57 Catalogue Description: 57. Bottle of square section with narrow neck, decorated with landscapes and flowering plants on a read arabesque ground. Height 8.0 in. Mr and Mrs Richard de la Mare
Motosuke Imaizumi (Japan, b.1906) (Author), Shoki Arita to Ko-Kutani, Tokyo, 1974, 135 (colour illus.), 134, 485. cat.no. 66 Catalogue description: 'Early Arita ware square bottle with design of landscape on red enamel pattern background, height 20.5cm, Collection of Mr de la Mare: Decorated with landscape in the same style as the early Arita ware underglaze blue plates, skillfully composed within the lectangular space with spectacular result. This is one of the works which have long been referred to as Ko-Kutani ware, but I believe it is early Arita [ware]. It must have been fired at Arita during the same period when Kutani-style underglaze blue porcelain was being produced.' [trans. by Chiaki Ajioka, curator of Japanese art)
'The Origins of Ko-Kutani Porcelain' by Chiaki Ajioka, pg. 90-92., The world of Antiques & Art Jul 2002-Dec 2002, Jul 2002-Dec 2002, 90 (colour illus.).
'Ceramics', The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 2003, 263 (colour illus.).
- Exhibition history (1)
-
Japanese Porcelain, The Arts Council Gallery, 28 Mar 1956–28 Apr 1956.
