Chinese Ceramics from Japanese Collections – T’ang through Ming Dynasties

Exhibition of Chinese ceramics from public and private collections in Japan organized under the joint sponsorship of the agency for cultural affairs of the Japanese government and the participating institutions in the United States. Held at Asia House Gallery New York; Seattle Art Museum Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; and Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection.

Chinese ceramics have been treasured in Japan for over 1200 years. This volume, which focuses on excavated pieces and heirlooms (densei-hin) brought to Japan between the eight and seventeenth centuries, provides a new perspective on China’s ceramic art. Assembled here are some of the finest examples of Chinese ceramics acquired by Japanese connoisseurs over the centuries. They range from bold T’ang three-colour wares to luminous Sung celadons and delicate Ming porcelains decorated in vivid polychrome overglazed enamels. The prized possessions of courtiers, warlords, tea masters, and merchants, many of these pieces became so well-known that they were given evocative nicknames. Several, made to order for Japanese customers, have no counterpart in Western collections. In their introductory essays, Seizo Hayashiya, Curator of Applied Arts at the Tokyo National Museum, and Henry Trubner, Associate Director of the Seattle Art Museum, outline the history of Chinese ceramics in Japan and discuss the cultural relationship that has long linked these two countries.