Blue-and-white Ceramics (Sometsuke)

The technique of "sometsuke", in which painting is done with cobalt pigment, is called "qinghua (blue flower)" in China, and is thought to have been perfected at the Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi Province around the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The cobalt pigment used at the time was from the Islamic world, and the shapes and patterns of many of the vessels were modeled after Islamic metalware, suggesting that Chinese blue-and-white ceramics were ordered from the Islamic world and production began under its influence. In the beginning, it was produced mainly for export, but in the early 15th century during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), it began to be produced at the official kilns established in Jingdezhen as court-ware, and a refined and elegant style was perfected. Thereafter, it became the representative ceramic style of China, and during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it spread throughout Asia, the Middle East, and even to European countries, fascinating people from all over the world.

In Vietnam, under the influence of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, the production of blue-and-white ceramics are thought to have begun at the end of the Tran Dynasty (1225-1400). During the following Le Dynasty (1428-1789), a production system was established, and from the late 15th to 16th centuries, Vietnamese blue-and-white ceramics were exported in large quantities to neighboring countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Early examples of Vietnamese blue-and-white ceramics were often copied from the Yuan and Ming Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain, but gradually a style unique to Vietnam appeared. Vietnamese blue-and-white wares have a gray semi-porcelain body that has not fully become porcelain, and is sometimes decorated with white glaze. The graceful and fluid brushwork of the underglaze blue was characterized by a rather dull color, called "Annan sometsuke" in Japan, and it became popular among masters of tea ceremony.

Blue-and-white ceramics on the Korean peninsula are believed to have originated in the mid-15th century during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). In the early period, Gain (court painters) painted in the Guangzhou official kilns, which fired court-ware, and produced graceful, picturesque blue-and-white ceramics. From the end of the 16th century to the 17th century, the Korean peninsula was severely damaged by warfare, and production of blue-and-white ceramics temporarily ceased. In the 18th century, when the pottery industry was revived, blue-and-white ceramics with very simple floral motifs painted in delicate brushwork, known in Japan as "akikusa-de (autumn grasses style)" appeared, and the aesthetic sense unique to the Joseon Dynasty was developed. From the late 18th to the 19th century, the production of blue-and-white ceramics became increasingly popular, and a wide variety of patterns and shapes appeared.

Imari wares from Arita (Saga Pref.), Japan's oldest porcelain, produced the first underglaze blue ceramics in Japan in the early Edo period (17th century). Early blue-and-white ceramics produced mainly by Korean potters from the 1610s to the 1640s are called "early Imari", and they are often decorated with simple Chinese-style patterns on a heavily glazed base. In the 1640s, when Chinese porcelain exports were ceased due to civil war in China, demand for Imari wares surged in Japan, and exports to Europe and other countries soon followed. Later, kilns of the Nabeshima domain and Kyoto, Seto, and other areas began to produce blue-and-white porcelain, and by the late Edo period, it was being produced all over the country.