Dehua white porcelain in Japan

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Maria Kannon, Nantoyōsō Collection, Japan

Tripod Early 17th Century, Nantoyōsō Collection, Japan

Tripod Box Cover Edo Period, Nantoyōsō Collection, Japan

Kannon in Kano Style, Nantoyōsō Collection, Japan

Dehua white porcelain in Japan was traditionally known among Japanese as hakugorai or “Korean White Ware.” Although Korai was a term for an ancient Korean kingdom, the term also functioned as a ubiquitous term for various products from the Korean peninsula. This is not to suggest that historically Japanese were entirely oblivious to the existence of the Fujian province kilns and their porcelain, now known as Dehua or Blanc de Chine ware. (Blanc de Chine is a French term for Chinese white porcelain known in China as Dehua ware and is in common usage in the west.)

The Dehua kilns are located in Fujian province opposite the island of Taiwan. Coastal Fujian province was traditionally a trade center for the Chinese economy with its many ports and urban centers. Fujian white ware was meant for all of maritime Asia. However a large quantity of these ceramics was intended for a Japanese market before drastic trade restrictions by the mid 1600s. Items were largely Buddhist images and ritual utensils utilized for family altar use. Associations with funerals and the dead have perhaps led to a certain disinterest in this ware among present day Japanese, despite an intense interest in other aspects of Chinese ceramic culture and history.

Many examples of great beauty of this ware have made their way to collections in the west from Japan. Among the countless Buddhist images meant for the Japanese market are those that with strongly stylized robes that show an influence from the Kano School of painting that dominated Tokugawa Japan. It seems a certainty that Dehua white ware was made with Japanese tastes in mind. Perhaps also likely is Japanese taste in the very plain white incense tripods and associated objects for Japanese religious and ritual observance. Of interest also are the Buddhist Goddesses of Mercy with child figures that close resembled Christian figurines. Such figurines were known as Maria Kannon or “Blessed Virgin Goddesses of Mercy” and were part of the “hidden Christian” culture of Tokugawa Japan which had strictly banned the religion.

[edit] References

Shanghai Art Museum, Fujian Ceramics and Porcelain, Chinese Ceramics, vol. 27, Kyoto, 1983.
Kato Tokoku, Genshoku toki daijiten (A Dictionary of Ceramics in Color), Tokyo, 1972, p. 777.