[Kitano Tojudo] - Ishikawa

Characteristics of Kutani ware

 

The charm of Kutani ware is all about the colored decoration, and you cannot talk about Kutani ware apart from the painting.
Based on the five Kutani colors (red, yellow, green, purple, and navy blue), green, yellow, and purple are the main colors, and the depth of color created by the overlapping of these subdued colors creates a profound taste. .
Next, it is said that the extravagant charm of Kutani ware lies in its brushwork.
The strong bones of Gosu and the thick overpainting create an exquisite harmony.

With this sense of color and brushstrokes, we create gorgeous decorative colored porcelain that expresses the world of Kutani.

 

 

 

It is said that Kutani ware was first fired in 1655 in Kutani ware village, Enuma District, Kaga Province, in the early Edo period, by Toshiharu Maeda, the lord of the Daishoji domain, ordering Saijiro Goto, the feudal lord of the domain.
After that, the pieces fired in Saijiro Fuji's kiln over a period of more than 50 years are now called ``Ko-Kutani,'' and are said to be the origin of Kutani ware.

After that, the Kutani kiln was temporarily closed, but about 80 years later, the Kasugayama kiln was opened in Kanazawa by the Kaga clan, and an attempt was made to recreate the old Kutani, and we entered the era of the revitalized Kutani.

 

 

From there, over the next few decades, a large number of works were created, including the Yoshidaya kiln, which aimed to revive Kasugayama's wooden rice style and old Kutani style, the Miyamoto kiln (Iidaya) with its red-painted detailed drawings, and the Eiraku kiln with Shozo and gold brocade designs. Kilns appeared, each creating a wonderful style of painting.

Then, in the wake of the Vienna World's Fair in 1896, Shozo Kutani's painted gold brocade became famous, and large quantities of Kutani ware were traded and exported, leading to its name spreading around the world as "Japan Kutani."

 

Even today, it is used as a gift by the Imperial Household Agency and is widely used by famous people overseas.
In Japan, various Kutani ware artists, including Living National Treasure Mitsuo Yoshida, have refined their skills and created Kutani ware in a wide range of areas, from daily necessities to works of art, in brilliant and elegant colors, continuing the tradition. We are continuing to develop it even further.

 

 

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