Arita ware 有田焼

What is Arita ware?

Arita ware is porcelain from Arita town, Saga Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, and it is generally told as the first porcelain made in Japan. A government cultural-outreach site puts the traditional account plainly: it's said that in 1616 a Korean ceramist named in Japan as Ri Sanpei found a deposit of porcelain stone at Izumiyama, in what is now Arita-machi, and made the first Japanese porcelain from it. Wikipedia's own summary of the historical record notes that this narrative is disputed by many historians, and that Ri Sanpei, honoured today at Sueyama Shrine, died in 1655; either way, the porcelain stone at Izumiyama is not in question, and it turned Arita into a production centre fast enough that a magistrate's office was later set up to keep the overglaze technique from leaking to outsiders.

Why is it also called Imari ware?

Arita's porcelain shipped out through the nearby port of Imari, and in the West the ware became known by the port's name rather than the town's: Imari ware. From the second half of the 17th century into the first half of the 18th, the Dutch East India Company carried large volumes of it out through Nagasaki to Europe, and the gold-heavy kinrande style in particular became a favourite in Western collections under the Imari name. Nabeshima ware, made for the Nabeshima domain's own lords across the same stretch and never exported at the time, is the other major branch of the tradition, generally reckoned finest in the first half of the 18th century.

How did the painted styles develop?

Early Arita porcelain used underglaze blue only, patterns painted straight onto the body before a single firing under clear glaze. That changed in the 1640s, when Kakiemon I perfected akae, a colourful overglaze technique built around red, applied in a second firing over the glaze; the resulting palette of red, yellow, green and blue on a white ground became internationally recognised as the Kakiemon style, later imitated across Europe and China. By the 1690s, makers were combining underglaze blue with detailed overglaze painting and gold, the style now called Ko-Imari, and in the 19th century Arita porcelain shown at the Paris Universal Exposition earned an excellent reputation abroad.

What Arita do we carry?

Our own listings put Arita ware's tradition at over four hundred years, made in Saga Prefecture and once exported to Europe under the Imari name, and several name specific patterns. The Fuchihana flat plate, rim flower, sets a radial indigo pattern against an off-white centre and a scalloped edge. The Indigo Ichimatsu teapot, one of the kyusu we carry, holds the classic ichimatsu checkerboard in deep blue. The Chrysanthemum plate is shaped after the flower itself, offered in blue and red painting. The Yoraku pattern bowl is a small side dish sized for sauces. The Plum Knot small dish, from the Taseigama kiln, is shaped around the ume mizuhiki knot, a symbol of good fortune and connection. Kutani and Mino are the other two coloured and painted porcelain regions we cover.

How do you look after it?

Care depends on the finish. Our own listings for underglaze-only pieces generally say dishwasher and microwave safe, but pieces with overglaze enamel painting, such as the Plum Knot dish, warn that prolonged dishwasher use can lift or dull the painted colour and rule out the microwave entirely, so check the individual listing before either.