Richard Mahaffey on tue 1 mar 05
Craig,
It did indeed start in China, it was a common persons ware.
It became Japanese when it was made with Japanese materials.
(The Cultural Revolution almost wiped out the tradition in China. I
met a man who survived it working on a farm rather than making the
pottery he had been making and his family had been making for
generations.)
Not all Korean potters were kidnapped. One or more were being
ostracized by the community for dealing (selling to and making ware
for) with the Japanese army.
He or they thought it better to go to Japan rather than be at best
starved out of existence.
We were taught that China is the place where most things Ceramic were
invented.
We had a saying, "If you can make it in clay, a Chinese potter did it
first and did it better".
Come to find out that Cobalt use in decorating pottery just might have
originated in the area of Turkey and Persia with cobalt being a trade
commodity headed East back to China. Blue and white pots soon were
headed West. (There is some evidence that Anatolian and Persian
potters use of cobalt predated it's use in China.)
The Chinese seemed to be looking for the "perfect pot" and so discarded
many styles along the way.
The Japanese seemed to be able to find a place and appreciation for
almost every type of ware that they made and kept it alive and vital.
To me that is one of the major reasons that it is Potter's Heaven.
YMMV, - none of the above is an absolute, is not intended to be such,
so don't take it as such-
Rick Mahaffey
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