page_title: Japanese art
section_title: Porcelain and Earthenware
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese art / History of Japanese art / Art of the Prewar period / Porcelain and Earthenware
caption_attribution_description: English: Bowl from the Khalili Collection of Japanese Meiji Art, Japan circa 1910. Depicting a procession. Made in the workshop of Yabu Meizan and sealed Yabu Meizan. Described at https://www.khalilicollections.org/collections/japanese-art-of-the-meiji-period/khalili-collection-japanese-art-of-the-meiji-period-bowl-s30/ and J. Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, London 2002, cat. 103, pp. 160–1.
context_page_description: Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga which is modern Japanese cartoons and comics along with a myriad of other types. It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present-day country.
  Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new ideas followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world. Over time the Japanese developed the ability to absorb, imitate, and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that complemented their aesthetic preferences. The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries in connection with Buddhism. In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to turn away from China and develop indigenous forms of expression, the secular arts became increasingly important; until the late 15th century, both religious and secular arts flourished.
context_section_description: Technical and artistic innovations of the Meiji era turned porcelain into one of the most internationally successful Japanese decorative art forms. Satsuma ware was a name originally given to pottery from Satsuma province, elaborately decorated with gilt and enamel. These wares were highly praised in the West. Seen in the West as distinctively Japanese, this style actually owed a lot to imported pigments and Western influences, and had been created with export in mind. Workshops in many cities raced to produce this style to satisfy demand from Europe and America, often producing quickly and cheaply. So the term "Satsuma ware" came to be associated not with a place of origin but with lower-quality ware created purely for export. Despite this, artists such as Yabu Meizan and Makuzu Kōzan maintained the highest artistic standards while also successfully exporting. From 1876 to 1913, Kōzan won prizes at 51 exhibitions, including the World's fair and the National Industrial Exhibition.
caption: Earthenware bowl by Yabu Meizan, circa 1910
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