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The first
time I saw a piece of Satsuma-style ware was in someone's home in 1982.
The woman who collected it said that she began because "I just liked the
bright colors and intricate designs." Soon after, I began collecting this
Japanese porcelain for the same reason.
Satsuma is a term synonymous with a well-known and long-admired form of
Japanese ceramics, first produced just after 1600. Fine or Royal Satsuma
is faience pottery covered with a glaze possessing a beautiful network of
crackles with ornamentations of varying colored enamels. Satsuma-style
ware, on the other hand, can be pottery or porcelain–generally factories
produced large vases of white pottery and smaller items such as tea sets
of finer porcelain. Produced since 1900, the pieces feature a brown matt
background glaze, which varies from darkest in the earlier pieces to light
reddish brown in the later ones. Workers decorated the pieces with raised
gold and enameled motifs, similar to but more stylized than the original
Royal Satsuma.
World War I cut off the supply of European hard-paste porcelain to the
United States and Canada. Japan became the new source of supply.
In 1596, Shiumazu Yoshihiro of the Satsuma province brought the original
potters of Satsuma from Korea, against their will. These potters became
known as Satsuma yaki. The pottery industry, from its inception to the
time of the Meiji restoration of the emperor in the late 19th century, was
under the patronage of the daimyo, the lord of a fife having more than
10,000 koku (a measure of the yield of rice of a particular land area).
Pottery factories produced Satsuma-style wares beginning in the Meiji
period (1868-1911), the Taisho period (1912-1925), and on into the present
Showa period (1926 to the present). A few are still being produced, but
the peak production period from 1900 to 1935 yielded the greatest
quantities.
Japan has been a society where taste was pre-eminent since the
establishment of the first capital at Nara in 710 A.D. A long time under
isolation, it finally began trading with the West and now many items,
including porcelain and faience have been exported. These exports
increased mostly during the Meiji period (meaning enlightened government),
headed by Emperor Meiji, a period of great creative and cultural changes.
The event with the greatest influence on Japanese pottery was the Cha no
yu (literally meaning hot water for tea), known to Westerners as the tea
ceremony. Potters originally produced all Japanese pottery and porcelain
articles for use in the Cha no yu. Ceramic utensils used included the Cha
wan (tea bowl), the choshi (saki container), the koro (incense burner),
the kogo (incense box), and the mizusasaki (water jar). While these are
purely Japanese, they evolved into tea sets and accessories for use in
Western cultures, especially in England and its colonies, during the
latter part of the 19th century.
Satsuma wasn't always decorated in the manner that we know today–figures
and scenes in brightly colored enamels. It wasn't until 1787 that Satsuma
potters began employing colored enamels, including gold, to decorate their
wares. They employed figures, including the goddess of Kannon and Lohans,
or sages who have reached enlightenment and have been endowed with
supernatural powers, along with processionals and elaborate landscapes
beginning in 1850.
One of the leading companies in the production Satsuma-style wares was
Noritake. Founded in 1904 by Baron Ichizaemon Morimura and using the
Morimura family insignia as its trademark (an "M" in a wreath), it became
the top exporter of chinaware designed with an appeal to the taste and
lifestyle of the American and British markets.
During its early years, the production of porcelain blanks, or unpainted
pieces, played an important part in its export trade. Workers painted
these blanks by hand in many different areas of Japan, so the quality of
the finished pieces varied from mediocre to excellent and rich in gold
trim. the blanks carried a back stamp with both words, "Noritake" and
"Nippon" (the Japanese word for Japan) separated by a curved line.
Mass production by Noritake and other companies became possible with the
invention of the jigger mold. Potters put small quantities of clay into
these molds, forming exact shapes, then trimming the excess outside the
mold. Finishing porcelain wares had to be done by hand, but the jigger
mold made it possible to produce and export large quantities of
Satsuma-style ware. In fact, Noritake used many of the same molds as the
company’s dinnerware, decorated with Satsuma-style designs.
Workers applied these designs using a method known as slip trailing. In
this procedure, workers would employ a rubber bulb, fitted with a cork
into which they inserted one or more quills, to "trail" slip, or liquefied
clay, over a biscuit fired piece, thus producing raised lines. Consistency
was important, particularly when they would trail one line over another
while the other was still wet. Both had to sink into one another to form a
level surface if the process was to be successful.
Generally, collectors find Japanese overglaze enamels on porcelain pieces.
It's difficult to apply these thick enamels and gold. Workers coated
individual pieces with a wash of gum Arabic or size and the gold is
applied using the European method in the form of liquid gold chloride,
instead of the traditional Japanese method, using gold dust mixed with a
small quantity of red pigment to act as an adhesive. This type of raised
clay or enamel decoration, including slip trailing or coralene beading, is
known as moriaga or moriage. Only Noritake wares used moriage techniques.
Coralene beading, also a Noritake process, can be found on the earliest
wares. These "beads" are formed by adding tiny dots of clay to the
surface, a painstaking task done while the ware was in the biscuit state.
The beading design became part of the ware, often colored in gold, to make
them look like tiny jewels. Later pieces used an imitation coralene
beading formed with dots of enamel without the clay dots underneath.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Noritake and others made great use of luster
glazing, especially on the interiors of Satsuma-style pieces. Luster ware
stood out from all other kinds of china because of its brightly colored
underglazes. This process used a thin metallic film over the basic china
glaze. Colors used were gold, tan, red, orange, pearly, blue, and green.
Workers fired the china in a low reducing temperature kiln, producing an
iridescent surface to the glaze and kept the egg-shell thin items from
warping. Art Deco wares and those with nature themes featured luster
glazing.
Shapes of Satsuma-style ware were generally simple in line. Potters
designed pieces for specific purposes–hatpin holders, jam jars, egg cups,
hair receivers, mayonnaise bowls with spoons, nut bowls, vases, children's
tea sets, cigarette holders, facepowder boxes, salt cellars, and cookie
jars. All of these were in addition to the traditional tea, coffee, and
chocolate sets.
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