Jar with bird design

Development of Porcelain in Japan

Porcelain is not only hard, durable, and resistant to breakage but also much whiter than stoneware, and so it has become associated with cleanliness and purity. In Japan the manufacture of porcelain began in the early 1600s in the southwest region of Kyushu. The earliest porcelain makers were said to be Korean potters who established workshops in Kyushu after the Japanese regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s unsuccessful military campaigns of 1592–1598 into Korea. Ri Sanpei, one of the immigrant Korean potters mentioned by name in a Japanese document from the period, is credited with having produced the first porcelain wares in Arita after he discovered a large reserve of porcelain clay in the nearby mountains. Early Japanese porcelain makers closely imitated Korean and Chinese models in decorating their wares. In the mid-1600s, ceramists began producing wares with distinctively Japanese ornamental designs; these wares became widely popular in Japan as well as well as in Southeast Asian and Europe.