Japanese porcelain

Object Obsession…Jubako Boxes

An absolute favorite of mine, porcelain jubako, stacked tiered food boxes, are harder to come across than more standard porcelain shapes such as plates and bowls. That being true, it hasn’t kept me from accumulating quite a few and helping others do the same. I always refer to them as jubako, but it may be that the porcelain ones should be called danju, while the lacquer ones are officially jubako. Shrine sale dealers call them jubako, so for now I will use the terms interchangeably. Personally I’ve never put food in mine. Instead I like to use them for trinkets on night stands, spices in the kitchen and anywhere you need to stash some small valuables.

In my entryway they hold extra keys to the house and car, buttons and hooks that have fallen off jackets and other odds and ends. Mine are unusual in that they are square, much less common than round ones, and the larger one has lovely scrolled feet. The bright cobalt and densely pigmented karakusa (scrolling arabesque pattern) are typical of Seto porcelain, and although purchased at very different times, seem to have been painted by the same artist. I have enough Seto ware these days that I can see the hand of distinct artists on certain pieces. As for the cloth dolls on the right, they have their own extraordinary tale to tell and will be featured in an upcoming post for Hinamatsuri or Girls Day.

Over the years I have helped to put together numerous collections. It seems once bitten by the jubako bug that one is never enough. They look wonderful grouped together or mixed in with other porcelain. It’s always important to vary shapes and heights as well as the density of pigment and painted motif. This collection of five hand painted Imari jubako has a lovely balance of stylized and naturalistic motifs.

This collection is used in the bathroom to hold cotton balls, Q-tips, make-up, make-up brushes and jewelry. Again note the variety of height, shape and painting style. The three outer cases are inban, Japanese transferware, while the two center ones are painted in a naturalistic style.

This trio represents three very different styles and eras and you can see those differences reflected clearly in the various shades of blue pigment.

Here jubako are mixed with two geisha pillows, the porcelain neck rests used for preserving elaborate coiffures when lying down. I think there will have to be a post on those in the near future too.

Blue and white jubako aren’t the only porcelain types out there. I have a weakness for the prettily painted Kutani ones. This style of Kutani ware isn’t the densely pigmented and almost brocaded paint commonly associated with the best pieces from that region. (It occurs to me that I have never properly written about Kutani porcelain, so that will be added to my check list for spring.) Instead, they have a soft painterly naturalistic style. The little sake cup warmer in the center makes a great votive candle holder.

For all the thousands of ginger jars we see each month in the design press, I have almost never seen jubako featured, other than this one in John Anderson’s New York home.

But recently I spied a lacquer one in this Vincente Wolf designed apartment on the January cover of AD – you can just see it on the table in the center of the room. While I am drawn to the porcelain jubako, the most common material they are made of is lacquer and examples of antique and new ones can be found everywhere.

They are used for traditional osechi ryori (New Year’s food) which is served room temperature in the layered lacquered boxes. For more details on the food in this photo check out Savory Japan.

The contents and the containers are things of beauty both!

Feb 8, 2013 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Lacquer, Porcelain and Pottery 7 Comments Tags: blue and white, imari, Japanese porcelain, jubako, Kutani, lacquer, porcelain, Seto

Caught in a Net…Ami Pattern on Porcelain and More

One of my favorite “so ancient and simple that it’s modern” Japanese motifs is ami or fish net pattern. I’ve been tracking blue and white porcelain pieces here at shrine sales and antique shops for years, like this beautiful sake cup washer and hire (like a small hibachi from a smoking set). The sake cup washer has a very linear version of the pattern, while the hire looks almost Middle Eastern in its curvilinear painting, reminding me of these floor tiles! The pattern is common, but rare at the same time, so I always notice it when I see a piece. Not an unexpected motif if you think about how much life in Japan revolves around fish!

Unlike the rounded pieces above, these rectangular dishes show the star-like pattern at the center of the nets and the larger of the dishes even has an open and loosely linked rendition, versus the tighter nets.

Here on this small dish the net is softly and irregularly painted.

Imagine my surprise when ami cropped up in a slightly different form at a recent ladies luncheon with the renowned Japanese food expert Elizabeth Andoh that focused on the art of mixing dishes and plating food. Out came a rustic but elegant Mashiko pottery plate in the fish net pattern in a glossy copper and verdigris. She called the pattern ajiro, but I think that is actually more of a traditional herringbone style basket weave and that this too is ami.

Just a week or so later, I finally got to visit the Mashiko pottery festival myself, which I haven’t been to in years! I came across a few examples of that same style, perhaps even the same potter to my eye, including this huge spectacular vessel. From my lack of posts lately you can tell life has got me by the ankle and isn’t letting go, but I hope to write more about my experience there soon.

Shortly after that I came across this formal lacquer ware version from my friend Mizue Sasa’s shop Okura Oriental Art – haute couture fish net!

Fish net pattern can be found on much more than just dishes, whether stylized in sashiko embroidery as well as realistically patterned directly in textiles and art. There are a few very famous ukiyo-e featuring actual nets, but I quite like this one by Utagawa Yoshiiku, called “A Parody of Goldfish with Actor’s Expressions.” It seems the public in the day would have recognized these fish faces for whom they were meant to represent. I quite like that the title is written against a background of fish net.

While I can do without the silly faces on those fish, all this talk (writing?) of fish and fish nets has got me thinking about another project I am working on, the 2013 ASIJ Gala Quilt. Using a background of vintage blue kasuri (the Japanese version of ikat) pieced in a neat but kinda boro style, we are planning on appliqueing a grouping of koi.

The koi will be varying shades of orange and white silk shibori (tie-dye). Here’s a first glimpse of a mock-up to whet your appetite.

We had been talking about some water pattern quilting but now I am thinking that perhaps we want to use the fish net motif, picked out in white quilting thread. Just loving this idea! What say you Julie Fukuda and Kendra Morgenstern?

Nov 26, 2012 By tokyojinja in Design Motif, Lacquer, Porcelain and Pottery, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets, Textiles 6 Comments Tags: ami, ASIJ gala quilt, fish net, Japanese porcelain, Japanese pottery, Mashiko, pottery

O Genki Benki…Antique Blue & White Porcelain Potties

So, if a picture paints a thousand words, what does this one paint for you? Do you see antique blue and white porcelain umbrella stands and plant holders? Or do you see three squatty potties and two urinals? If you chose the latter, then you have chosen correctly. Antique blue and white toilets called benki were popular in the late Meiji and Showa periods, often installed in fine ryokan (inns) or wealthier people’s homes. Fairly rare as singletons, to see an entire collection of five all together is almost unheard of, but this dealer at Kawagoe shrine sale last month bucked the odds. I assume he salvaged them all at one place, perhaps as an old building was being torn down.

Most of these painted pieces are in the Seto style, my favorite, although some seem to be Imari as well. And they were definitely produced on some kind of large organized scale as I have noticed there are only a few basic shapes and patterns that are repeated in all the ones I have seen. The toilets tend to be rectangular, with a squared off front or oval, with a rounded front. The rims always have a tiny detailed painted pattern, quite often traditional karakusa (scrolling arabesque), while the under hood area has a large bunch of flowers.

The urinals fall into one of two categories, either the more tubular umbrella stand shape on the right or the more cornucopia shaped one laying on the ground on the left. Older examples, both of the toilet and the urinals, like the one I saw before here, are hand painted, while the later versions are often more heavily transfer printed.

Somushi Tea House in Kyoto looks as if it has been around for ever, but actually was renovated to look old. To give it that Meiji feel they installed vintage bathroom fixtures. If you were at all confused about how this functioned as a toilet, here’s your answer. And note how similar this one is to two of the toilets above.

On the left is the urinal at Somushi which is more of a cornucopia shape and looks like an earlier hand painted Seto piece. The photo on the right is not as finely painted and looks to be Imari, but it is quite similar to the one laying on the left in the Kawagoe photo above. Umbrella stands seem to be the standard use du jour of retired urinals. The toilets make good planters and I have even seen one turned vertically and used as a garden fountain.

Now for those of you who don’t know, there is complicated toilet etiquette in Japan. In addition to taking off your shoes upon entering any home and putting on slippers, there are special separate toilet slippers kept inside the bathroom. Normally these are ordinary slippers, but I have actually seen painted porcelain ones on a few occasions, out in the markets that is, not in someone’s home. Were these really worn? Or are they just ornamental? I’m not sure, but I didn’t buy this pair last May because their condition wasn’t great. I think they’d make a witty addition to a vignette.

I have seen a few other pairs in my travels and they have always been similar to these, with that distinct feathery Seto style painting.

Without any formal knowledge on the subject, my instincts tell me that the idea for the painted fixtures comes straight from the West. It was not unusual to have painted and transfer printed toilets in the 19th century, like these Victorian versions from Great Britain. There was a tremendous amount of cross-fertilization in the porcelain industry going on in the late 19th century, with ideas, motifs and techniques (such as transfer printing) winging their way back and forth.

And the title of this post? It roughly translates as “feels good toilet,” but maybe “looks good toilet” would be even better. And I know my Japanese grammar isn’t actually correct, but I couldn’t resist the rhyme…

Oct 19, 2012 By tokyojinja in Housewares, Porcelain and Pottery 14 Comments Tags: bathroom, benki, blue and white, imari, Japanese porcelain, Seto, toilet

Shrine Sale Stories…Vintage Matchboxes, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel and The 1948 London Olympics

Today was slim on the ground for shrine sales being the second Sunday of the month, but Tomioka Hachiman did not disappoint. It was a day full of friends from out-of-town and extraordinary porcelain, including a few cute and very atypical Japanese pieces bought for the beach house. The small green iris pickle dish will be perfect on the dresser or night table in the beach house guest room for holding jewelry and other trinkets.

It reminded me of the Korin Ogata screens and the garden at the Nezu Museum.

The small Imari-meets-lustreware dish has all the pretty colors in the downstairs rooms of the beach house. Don’t know how I’ll be using it – perhaps as part of a wall display, perhaps on a stack of books on the coffee table to hold olive and cherry pits.

But the person who had the most fun today was my elder daughter who happened upon a stall selling vintage matchbooks from the 1930s-1950s. We have often seen matchbox covers mounted on pages, but not often the entire matchboxes. The dealer had hundreds of them in three big boxes and she spent significant time sorting through them and putting together a charming collection which we plan to place in a shadow box frame. You’ll note her signature colors of lavender and blue.

The story comes as she was choosing her boxes. Much to her chagrin, another man came up behind and offered to buy zenbu – everything – from the dealer. It hadn’t occurred to us and we were immediately sad to see the entire collection go! Luckily, the dealer offered us a few as “service” gifts for making a purchase before he sold off the boxes. We managed to grab a few historical gems.

The first matchbox, dated 1939, features Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Imperial Hotel, with its stylized logo on one side and Mt. Fuji and an early version of the Shinkansen (bullet train) on the other.

Finished in 1923, the hotel was one of Wright’s masterpieces, famously surviving the Great Kanto Earthquake that year, and in use as the premier Tokyo hotel until 1968 when it was deemed outdated and tragically torn down.

The other matchbox could not have been more timely, featuring the 1948 London Olympics on one side and the 1952 Helsinki Olympics on the other.

Wondering what they might fetch among collectors. Ebay maybe?

Image Credits: Iris photo by Joseph Keating, via Atsuko & Joe, Imperial Hotel postcard via Old Tokyo, all other photos by me.

Jun 10, 2012 By tokyojinja in Earthquake, Ephemera, History, Kids, Porcelain and Pottery, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets 12 Comments Tags: 1948 Olympics, flea market, imari, Imperial Hotel, Iris, Japanese porcelain, London Olympics, matchbox

Sake Jugs…Pour Me a Drink and Light Up My Life

“In Japan, sake has always been a way of bringing our gods and people together. In some of this country’s oldest texts the word used for sake is miki, written with the characters for ‘god’ and ‘wine.’ People would go a shrine festival and be given rice wine to drink, and they would feel happy and closer to the gods.”
-Tetsuo Hasuo of the Japan Sake Brewers Association in The Japan Times

Komokaburi, the straw-wrapped cypress kegs used for transporting sake are a common enough sight in Japan, especially the stacks and stacks of empties found at shrines, the only remains of ceremonial donations.

The shape, rope and ornamentation have remained pretty constant over the centuries, with the main difference between them being the logos of the different breweries.

While I like the regular barrels, I am particularly fond of the much rarer porcelain ones, modeled for all intents and purposes to look just like the wooden ones, including simulated molded ropes holding the straw wrapping in place. During the Edo period, rural sake brewers needed a method of transporting their brew to the large cities. These large porcelain casks could be carried on pack horses or transported on special ships called taru kaisen or cask ships. Until the 1940’s, they continued to be used to dispense draft sake in shops. Customers would come into the shop with their own smaller ceramic bottles and have them refilled with their favorite brand.

On this beautiful pair you can really see the simulated wrapping and ropes raised in the porcelain.

Here the molded ropes are a different woven style.

Good examples will have their original stopper tops and perhaps their bamboo wrapped handles. Decoration tends to be simple blue on white, with occasional additional details picked out in color, like the green pine needles above, or even occasionally other colors added to simple images related to the brewery, as in the case of the jug below with its charming waterfall.

The back sides tend to be pretty simple, with additional information picked out in blue kanji. I have never seen color on the reverse.

Large jugs are the most common, but I have found some smaller ones, including these two decorated with very graphic stars. I have been experimenting with photographing objects lately and I really like how these play off against the indigo blue background.

Porcelain sake barrels look great nestled into arrangements with other casual porcelain pieces.

A common modern-day adaptation is to wire the jugs and turn them into lamps, which is very attractive and functional.

Sig Bergamin, whose eclectic interiors chock-full of color I have featured here before, has a sake jug lamp interspersed with other blue and white treasures. We can only see the simple back side of his jug in this photo. Try as I might, I couldn’t come up with a picture from the other side.

Another sake jug lamp peeks from the corner in a very differently styled room by Jeffrey Bilhuber.

Tokkuri, the smaller Japanese stoneware sake bottles, decorated with not much more that the names of their distillers are also wonderful accents when grouped in a vignette.

They too make excellent lamps. Which do you prefer? A dark shade…

…or light ones?

Tsunodaru, the red lacquer ceremonial horn/two-handled barrels used at wedding ceremonies are less commonly found, but out there nonetheless. Again, note the mock “ropes” carved from wood. They often are offered as a gift to the bride and groom together with lacquered cups as sake is always drunk to mark important occasions. Because it is meant to be enjoyed with friends and family, tradition holds that a person must never pour their own sake; instead another person pours for you, and you do the same for them, which is such a lovely custom.

Can you spy the pair of ceremonial jugs in this London home?

So would you rather drink sake or illuminate your room?

Image credits: 1-3. courtesy M. Wilce and L. Border, 4-9, 14 & 17. me, 10. courtesy M. Small, 11. via Joseph Joseph & Joseph, 12. via Once Upon a Tea Time, 14. The Way Home by Jeffrey Bilhuber, photo credit: William Abranowicz, 15. via Antique Lamp Shop, 16. via 1st dibs, 18. World of Interiors July 2010, photo credit: Bob Smith

May 3, 2012 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Lacquer, Lighting, Porcelain and Pottery, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets 11 Comments Tags: japanese antiques, Japanese porcelain, lamps, sake, sake barrels, sake jugs, Sig Bergamin

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