Celadon Lid Rest for Tea Ceremony 青磁三閑人蓋置

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is 3cm tall celadon I saw at Tokyo National Museum. Do you know what this is?

What does it look like to you? 何に見える？

Three kids are holding their hands!
３人の子が手つなぎ！

This is a 3cm tall kettle lid rest in the shape of three figures made in the 17th century under the Ming dynasty. It's not only kawaii but also beautiful for its celadon color!!

Kettle lid rests of this type, three children holding their hands, are the favorite of the tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591).

If you like celadon pottery, read "Celadon in 16 Forms," too!

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これ、何か分かりますか？分からなくても十分カワイイですが一応言っておきますと「青磁三閑人蓋置」、つまり窯の蓋を載せておく茶道具だそうです。東京国立博物館で出会いました。３人の子供が手をつなぐ形式のものは千利休が好んだものの一つということです。

青磁にご興味ある方は「いろんな青磁」もお読みください！

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Goryeo Celadon and Colors of Japan 高麗青磁は青？緑？

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

The Toyokan Asian gallery of Tokyo National Museum is finally open. It's been five months since I last saw Korean celadon. The celadon green is so beautiful.

Ewer with lotus-shaped lid 青磁蓮華蓋水注

Lobed vase 青磁瓜型瓶

Bowl with stylized flowers and vines
青磁印花宝相華唐草文鉢

Lobed ewer with flowering plants
青磁鉄絵花卉文瓜形水注

Bowl with parrots 青磁鸚鵡文鉢

Bowl with lotus petals 青磁蓮弁文蓋付椀

They are all Goryeo (918-1392) ware, whose production increased in the mid-10th century and culminated in the 12th century. Their pale green, which resembles jade green, and their carved, embossed and inlaid decoration are so elegantly beautiful.

Celadon is called "blue pottery" in Japan, and you should find it strange because celadon is not "blue" but pale "green," but there's a reason for that. In Japan, people use "blue" for "green." For example, they say "blue" traffic lights, "blue" apples, and "blue" leafy vegetables, instead of "green" lights, "green" apples, and "green" leafy vegetables.

According to a television program of NHK (Japan's public broadcaster), Japan used to have only four colors, white, black, red and blue, and the then "blue" included green. In "The Man'yōshū," the oldest existing collection of waka or Japanese poetry, compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period, green leaves were described as "blue" leaves. The color green was differentiated from the blue in the 10th century, but the legacy still lives on....

So, if you have a chance to come to Japan, don't be surprised that green lights, green apples, green leafy vegetable, and even green caterpillars are all called "BLUE (あお)"!!

If you like celadon, read "Celadon in 16 Forms," too!!

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東京国立博物館東洋館の高麗青磁です。１０世紀半ばに中国から技術が導入され、１２世紀に最盛期を迎えました。

日本語では「青磁」ですが、実際は薄緑のものが多く、写真の高麗青磁も「翡色」と表現されています。というわけでいつも思います。青磁じゃなくて「緑磁」でしょって｡｡｡

他にもあります。「青信号」も「青りんご」も「青菜」もみんな実際は「緑」。はい、ググりました！ するとチコちゃんが知ってました。

もともと日本には「白、黒、赤、青」の４つしかなく、緑は青に含まれていたとのこと。（万葉集では緑の木々を「あを（青）」と呼んでいたそうです。）

１０世紀になると「緑」が出てきて、平安時代末期から鎌倉時代には青と緑がはっきり区別されたらしいのですが、その後も日本人は緑のものを青と呼ぶそうです。（出典：NHK第１１回「チコちゃんに叱られる」）

謎が解けました！（ガッテン！！）

青磁がお好きな方は是非、「Celadon in 16 Forms いろんな青磁」もご覧ください！

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Evolution of Chinese Celadon 中国青磁の色進化

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These pictures show a change in the color of Chinese celadon from the third to twelfth century. It was greenish brown (first photo) in the third to seventh century but evolving to opaque bluish green (second photo) through to the eleventh to twelfth century. I wondered how many potters had been involved in this color changing process...

Lotus flower dish, 5th-6th century
Southern dynasties 青磁蓮弁文盤 

Rue ware dish, 11th-12th century, donated by
Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata 青磁盤

Let's go back to the third century....

Box with partitions, 3rd century
Three Kingdoms to Western Jin dynasty 青磁槅

Jar with two handles, 3rd century
Three Kingdoms to Western Jin dynasty 青磁双耳瓶

Lamp, 5th-6th century
Southern dynasties 青磁灯火器

Round jar, 7th century
Sui or Tang dynasty 青磁円盤

They are all on show at Tokyo National Museum. For other celadon, read "Celadon in 16 Forms."

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全て青磁。でも時代で色が違います。2枚目の薄青緑の皿を除き、後は全て3世紀から7世紀に焼かれたもの。別の焼物のようです。

2枚目の薄青緑の皿は汝窯青磁（11～12世紀）。今でもその色を目指す陶芸家がいるほどの美しさです。汝窯の「青」に到達するまで何人の陶工が関わったのかと思うと気が遠くなります。東京国立博物館に展示されています。

「Celadon in 16 Forms いろんな青磁」もご覧ください！

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Symbol of Impermanence Buncheong Ware Jar With Sgrafitto Peony Design 粉青沙器

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is Buncheong ware made in the 15th or 16th century in the Joseon dynasty, Korea. This stoneware features designs painted using an iron pigment and a bluish-green tone. It's not celadon, but its green color is very close to celadon and there is a reason for that.

Buncheong ware with sgrafitto peony design

Buncheong ware is the in-between of celadon and white porcelain, rising to prominence during the 15th century in Korea. So it's understandable for its color to be like its predecessor, i.e., celadon, but sadly the stoneware just disappeared, being almost completely replaced by its successor, i.e., white porcelain.

It reminds me of the importance of embracing impermanence, making me look at this tranquil celadon blue green again.

Buncheong ware in 15th to 16th century
Joseon dynasty, Korea

Buncheong ware is known in Japan as "Mishima," "Hakeme" or "Kohiki." You can see this Buncheong ware with peony sgrafitto at Tokyo National Museum.

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東京国立博物館の粉青沙器。搔き落としの技法を使って牡丹が描かれています。粉青沙器とは、灰色の胎に白土を用いて様々な装飾を施したもので、高麗青磁と高麗白磁の中間に位置する磁器。ただ、白磁の出現とともに消滅してしまったとのこと。こんなに美しいのに残念です。

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Chinese Celadon With Kannyu Crazing 青磁琮形花入

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This flower vase in the shape of a cong* ritual vessel was made in the 12th to 13th century in China and used by the Owari Tokugawa family in Japan as a water jug. Its shape and celadon blue green is so beautiful but look at the kannyu cracks on its surface! They make the vase more uniquely beautiful!
* A cong is a form of ancient Chinese jade artifact.

Vase with kannyu crazing in 12th to 13th century in China

Guan ware with kannyu crazing

Some may say that kannyu crazing is just cracks, so should be fixed, but to me, it's more like an intricate pattern which makes the vase more expressive.

A Japanese author, Yoshiko Shibaki, describes in "Seiji kinuta (kinuta celadon)" a father and his daughter intrigued by celadon porcelain and repetitive high-pitched sound produced when such cracks are being made. I want to hear such sound some day.

The celadon vase is on show at Tokyo National Museum.

Seiji kinuta (or kinuta seiji) is the best quality celadon in Zhejiang Province during the Southern Song period. It is named after a celadon flower vase "Kinuta" owned by one of the greatest Japanese tea masters Sen no Rikyu (千利休). For more, read this.

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東京国立博物館の青磁琮形花入。中国の南宋官窯で12～13世紀に作られ、尾張徳川家が水指として使っていました。「琮」は古代中国で祭祀用に使われた玉器のことで英語では「cong」。この花入がその形に似ているので青磁琮形花入の名がついたそうです。

でも何と言ってもこの貫入です！ 英語では cracks とも言い、ひび割れと言ってしまえばそれまでですが、やはり貫入とひび割れは違います。芥川賞作家芝木好子氏の「青磁砧」には貫入が入る時の様子（ぴきーんと音がするそうです。）が活き活きと描かれています。ちなみに「青磁砧」（あるいは世田谷）の「砧」が何かご存知ですか。答えはこちらをどうぞ！

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Rikyu, Kawabata and Shibaki Loved Celadon 青磁に魅せられた人々－利休、川端、芝木

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are celadon potteries which used to be owned by Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel prize winning Japanese author, but were donated to, and therefore are currently on show at, Tokyo National Museum.

Dish, celadon glaze, in 11th to 12th century
Northern Song dynasty

Bowl, celadon glaze, in 12th to 13th century
Southern Song dynasty

The dish (first photo) is Ru ware in the 11th to 12th century, made in the village of Qingliangsi, Baofeng County, Henan in the central part of China.

The bowl (second photo) is Longquan ware in the 12th to 13th century, made in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of China. This is also called "kinuta celadon (砧青磁)" in Japan.

The best quality celadon produced in Zhejiang Province during the Southern Song period is called "kinuta celadon" in Japan, named after a celadon flower vase "Kinuta" also made in Zhejiang Province and owned by Sen no Rikyu (千利休), one of the most influential Japanese tea masters. The term "kinuta" originally means a wooden roller which was used in China, Korea, and Japan to press out the wrinkles of laundered clothes and soften them. Two women, facing each other across a smoothing stone and kneeling on the floor, beat out a rhythm on the cloth. The tea master is said to have compared crazing (hairline cracks) on the celadon vase to the sound made when "kinuta" or the wooden roller hits the cloth on the stone.

A Japanese TV show referred to celadon pottery as jewellery. Akutagawa prize-winning (i.e., Japan's most prestigious literary award) author Yoshiko Shibaki wrote a novel titled "Celadon Kinuta (青磁砧)" depicting a father and his daughter, both of whom are obsessed with celadon. I feel now I am getting closer to their world.

For more on celadon, read my another post "Celadon in 16 Forms"!

東京国立博物館に並んで陳列されていた青磁。両方とも川端康成旧蔵品です。上が北宋時代、下が南宋時代の青磁です。

下の方は「砧青磁」とも呼ばれているとのこと。以前から「砧青磁」て何かなと思っていたので調べたところ、千利休が持っていた南宋時代の花入れが「砧」と呼ばれていたので、南宋時代の品質の高い青磁を「砧」と言うようになったとのこと。ちなみに「砧」は洗濯物の皺を伸ばす木の棒のことだったんですね。全く知りませんでした。

NHKの「美の壺」では青磁を宝石に例えていました。そして日本の女流作家で私の一番好きな芝木好子は青磁に魅せられた父と娘を描いた「青磁砧」という作品を書いています。以前は、青磁にそこまで没頭する心情が理解できませんでしたが、今は共感を覚えるようになりました。

16個の青磁について書いた「いろんな青磁」も是非お読みください。

Celadon in 16 Forms いろんな青磁

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I always wondered why there are so many celadon colors, so looked it up. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Celadon is greenish ceramic glaze that is used on stoneware. Celadon is used both for the glaze itself and for the article so glazed. It is particularly valued in China, Korea, Thailand, and Japan."

I still didn't understand why the green or blue* colors of celadon porcelain vary between articles. So, I went to the Asian Gallery (Toyokan) of Tokyo National Museum to compare celadon ware there. (I say "blue" because in Japanese, celadon glaze is "青磁," meaning "blue porcelain.")

1. Large vase with carved peony design,  China, 14th century