According to tradition, the first Japanese porcelain was made in the early 16th century after Shonzui Goradoyu-go brought back the secret of its manufacture from the Chinese kilns at Jingdezhen. Another account claims that Ri Sampei, a Korean potter who was brought to Japan by Hideyoshi, discovered porcelain clay in the Izumi Mountain near Arita (Saga prefecture); this version is feasible since no porcelain made before the end of the 16th century has been identified.

The first Arita manufacture was decorated in blue underglaze, simple and excellent in quality. Specimens soon found their way to Europe in Dutch ships, and the Dutch were awarded a trading monopoly in 1641. Some of these early Japanese export wares are based on contemporary European metalwork and faience.

The family of Sakaida is especially connected with the Arita kilns. The first recorded member, born about 1596, worked in underglaze blue until the family learned the secret of using overglaze colours. According to tradition, this secret was told to them by a Chinese person met by chance in the port of Nagasaki. This overglaze technique was perfected soon after the middle of the 17th century. It was continued by the family, and, since many of them were called Kakiemon, the style has become known by that name. The palette is easily recognized—iron red, bluish green, light blue, yellow, and sometimes a little gilding; many examples have a chocolate-brown rim. Octagonal and square shapes are especially frequent. Themes of decoration are markedly asymmetrical, with much of the white porcelain surface left untouched. This technique and style spread rapidly to other provinces, and its influence on porcelain that was manufactured in Europe during the first half of the 18th century was at least as great as that of Chinese porcelain. A later Kakiemon development in which “brocade” (nishikide) patterns in compartments were used (at the suggestion of Dutch traders) proves to be less pleasing. These later coloured wares from Arita became known as Imari, after the port from which they were shipped.

Like 18th-century Chinese white porcelain, Japanese white wares were shipped to Europe, where they were decorated by Dutch and other European enamelers.

Of considerable importance but more rarely seen in Europe is the porcelain called Kutani. The kiln at Kutani in Kaga province (now in Ishikawa prefecture) operated in the latter half of the 17th century. Greatly valued, Old Kutani (ko- Kutani) porcelain is among the finest of the Japanese wares. The body is heavy, approaching stonewares, and the designs are executed boldly and in rich colours. Old Kutani was revived and other styles arose when kilns in the area resumed operation in the early 19th century and again in the 1860s, the latter resulting in the establishment of modern “Kutani ware” as a major export item.

The Mikawachi kilns under the protection of the prince of Hirado made porcelain principally for his use. The delicate, very white body is usually decorated in miniature style with underglaze blue. Kyōto imitated Song celadons and the Ming green and red wares. Seto made no porcelain until about 1807; the first production was decorated in underglaze blue (sometsuke). Overglaze colours date from about 1835.

The manufacture of earthenware was continued during the 17th and 18th centuries, and much of it is notable for its decoration. Toward the end of the 17th century, Ninsei (Nonomura Seisuke) began work at Kyōto and was responsible for much finely enamelled decoration on a cream earthenware body covered with a finely crackled glaze. Also produced at Kyōto, the works of Kenzan, who used rich and subtly coloured slips often as a background for plant motives, and of the Dōhachi family, famous for their overglaze decoration, are much sought after in Japan.

19th and 20th centuries

Japanese productions during the 19th century, in common with those in most other parts of the world, greatly deteriorated in taste. Typical of the period is the so-called Satsuma pottery, most of which was made not at Satsuma but at Kyōto and then sent to Tokyo to be decorated especially for export. The designs are overcrowded and debased, and its popularity undoubtedly retarded an appreciation of work in the true Japanese taste among Western students and collectors.

Like Western pottery manufacture after the mid-20th century, Japan’s was largely industrialized, and most products were derivative, but the Japanese tradition of pottery making in small and private kilns continues.