San Antonio College Library

A survey of the art as practiced in China, Korea, Japan, and Indochina, from earliest times to the present.

This introduction to the ceramic art of Japan has four major purposes: to recount the history of art, to reveal the special qualities that contribute to the uniqueness of Japanese ceramics, to explore the intimate relationship between ceramics and the daily life of the Japanese people, and to discuss the outstanding traditional ceramic types and techniques. These purposes are ably accomplished by the lucidly written text and the generous selection...

"Two of Japan's most remarkable styles of pottery are Shino and Oribe, both originating in ancient Mino Province (modern-day Gifu Prefecture) from the time of Japan's artistic 'renaissance' in the late sixteenth century." "Oribe ware is one of the most startling and innovative expressions not only of the period but of all Japanese pottery. In a departure from the more refined tea ceremony utensils that represent the meditative aspect of the ceremony,...

"Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) is celebrated as Japan's most inventive creator of ceramic decoration and foremost workshop master. His reputation is a product both of his own time - an eighteenth-century Japanese guidebook noted his work as a "must-buy"--And of the modern age: the esteem in which he was held in Japan was ignited in the West as critics, art dealers, and collectors vied for his colorfully painted and inscribed work at the turn of the twentieth...