Japanese ceramics, Tokyo National Museum

Japanese Ceramics is a type of ceramic and is a generic term for those made by hardening and burning soil. A pottery.

Clay used for ceramics includes quartz, which contains silica as a main component which vitrifies with other substances such as aluminum and calcium by heating to vitrify. By heating after molding, the glass melted into the soil particles and turned into a fluid enters, solidifying when solidified and sticking the soil particles together. Naoki Naito, author of “Science of Pure Ceramics”, compares this process to occur. Roughly speaking, the difference between pottery and porcelain is the difference between ingredients and amounts that make up this glass.

Classification
Ceramics are roughly classified by the presence or absence of glaze and the firing temperature as follows.

Pottery
Unglazed pottery. It does not use a kiln and baked clay at a temperature of 700 to 900 ° C in a burned state. We do not put on glaze (glazes or whispers), but something that is colored is sometimes called “pottery”, and in that case, it is based on not using that coloring tool as a glaze. Historically it is the predecessor of ceramics.

Mortar
I read it a little while ago. “炻” is the kanji (kanji designed in Japan). It is a translation of English “Stoneware”. Using a kiln, firing temperature is 1200 ~ 1300 ℃. Indicates the intermediate property between earthenware and pottery, regardless of the presence or absence of glaze, which means neither translucency nor water absorbency. “Stone wear” such as Wedgwood’s “Jasper wear”, Black Basalt, Rosso Antico etc is also an instrument.

“Stoneware” which is the original word of a mortar is a term of western ceramics and does not necessarily coincide with the classification concept of oriental ceramics such as China and Japan. For example, a blue pottery called “Celadon” is celadon (blue) in Japan and China and is classified as porcelain, but it is regarded as one kind of “Stoneware” in the West. Ceramic researchers and ceramics artists in Japan have someone who can make a concept of “mortar” and can not stand it. [2]

In Japan, it is the origin of Sueko that is fired using a kiln brought from the Korean Peninsula during the Kofun period. Bizen ware and Tokonameaki etc may be classified as mortar. However, Tokoname, Bunko Yaki’s red mud, and purple mud are separate lines and purple sand ceramics of Yixing kiln of China are the original.

These baked goods are also called “baked tightening”, although some glaze is not applied, some natural glaze is applied in firing. In the firing, fireworks (Shirudo), Mudanboku and other patterns may accidentally (sometimes artificially) appear. Because it contains a large amount of silicic acid and iron as a raw material, it is reddish brown or dark brown. Hitting lightly makes a clear sound. There is little water absorption.

Pottery
Made from kaolinite (kaolin) or clay containing a lot of montmorillonite as raw material and baked in a kiln at a temperature of 1100 to 1300 ° C. Use glaze. There is no translucency, but it is water absorbent. Heavy and heavy, the sound when hit is dull. It is divided into coarse and fine ceramics.

In Japan, the first domestic artificial glazed pottery (ash glazed pottery) was produced in an ancient monkey kiln in Aichi prefecture, and Seto ware, Iga-yaki and Oya-yaki are known.

In Europe it is known for Mayorica and the fire fence pottery developed from it, hardwear such as wedge wood cream wear, Queenswear etc, Hafner pottery etc.

porcelain
The porcelain is semi-translucent and has little water absorption. Also, it is the hardest in porcelain, and metal sounds when playing lightly. Clay material, quartz, feldspar and ceramic clay are fired at about 1300 ° C, but it can be divided into soft porcelain and hard porcelain depending on the firing temperature and raw materials. In addition, a porcelain improved in strength by replacing a part of quartz with aluminum oxide has been developed, but there is hardly any translucency here.

As the main porcelain of Japan there are Hizen porcelain (Imari grill) and Kutani pottery. In English, if you give the name of the production area, it is common to (ceramics name) + ware, but when referring to porcelain itself, it is called porcelain. It is sometimes simply called china.

Japanese pottery production
In the east of Kinai is called Seto (Sotohara), China, Shikoku in the west and Karatsu (also known as). It is categorized in many ways from the way of baking and use and production place. Toki City, Gifu Prefecture is Japan’s largest production volume.

From the first full-fledged glazed pottery in Japan, from Nara Sanaa to various ceramics in the late Edo period, representative works are classified according to times and production areas, and you will see the history of Japanese ceramics.

Tokyo National Museum

Tokyo National Museum collects and preserves cultural assets spanning the Toyo region widely, mainly in Japan as a comprehensive museum in Japan, for public viewing and conducts research related to this and educational dissemination project etc. , Aims to preserve and utilize cultural properties that are valuable national assets.

From April 1, 2007, the National Museum belonging to the National Museum of Japan and the National Institute for Cultural Properties to which the National Museum of Japan belongs were integrated, and the “National Institute of Cultural Properties” was launched. We will promote the preservation and utilization of cultural properties, which are precious national assets under the new corporation, more efficiently and effectively.