Author(s): Efe TÃRKEL
This study examines the path of the porcelain tradition followed along with Edo period and, accordingly, the effect of Japan on porcelain craft in Europe. Japan porcelains have been more affected from China and Korea, yet Japan porcelains -adapting these two effects to its culture- similarly created a manner that expose its influence on the porcelain techniques and predilections of these two countries. With its population of more than one million people, Edo had been one of the most populated cities on the world in eighteenth century. During the foreign trade ban until 1858, in which small groups of Dutch and Chinese merchants are excepted, foreigners’ entry to Japan, global cultural exchange, foreign travel from Japan and interaction with different religions were banned. Despite this introversion, Japanese culture displayed significant development in both art and craft, and besides, ceramic culture flourished new features different from previous centuries. Japan witnessed the collapse of Ming dynasty in China, as well. This collapse caused China to lose its place in European market for a long time, as well as conditioning European market to turn to Japan which results in the construction of many workshops producing in accordance with the European preference and also producing different ceramic products. Although large-scale production caused the emergence of tasteless products after a while but thanks to some ceramic masters like Ogata Kenzan who lived at that time, individual workshops sustained their existence and became an important part of contemporary Japanese culture. In spite of destructive aspect of contemporary global cultural apprehension, Japanese ceramists who support and back up their tradition maintain their decisiveness and sensibility on this issue without revising their knowledge, preference and style even after meeting European culture and forms of production by means of trade.
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