Japanese Style Pottery

Japanese folklore scenes decorate Sumida ware

THE OWNER: Katie Saintcross of Metairie asks about these pieces of earthenware pottery, which, she notes, appear to be of Asian origin.

"I do not know much about them, but the tall one appears to be a pitcher-like container and the smaller ones seem to be individual cups of sort," she writes. "The tall piece is 18 inches tall, and the three matching cups are 5 inches tall."

THE APPRAISER: Bettine Field Carroll, director of business development/Asian arts, Neal Auction Co.

FOR EXPORT ONLY: Sumidagawa (also known as Sumida ware) is the term given to a distinctive style of Japanese earthenware that originated in the pottery district along the Sumida River near Tokyo in the late 19th century.

Made exclusively for export, these wares were most popular from the 1890s to 1920, a time when Oriental decorative items were in high demand throughout the Western world.

Sumida ware is typically characterized as heavy earthenware decorated with three-dimensional figures in relief and a drip flambé glaze that extends over the top portion of the piece.

In Saintcross' pieces, the areas free from glaze are painted with a red background, the most frequently used color; the tan patches are where the paint has peeled away and revealed the ceramic underneath.

Sumida ware is available in a wide variety of everyday objects, including vases, bowls, pots, jardinières, teapots and cups, jugs, ashtrays and table ornaments.

MONKEYING AROUND: According to experts, scenes from Japanese folklore were often depicted on the wares, and monkeys, an animal common in the tales (seen here on Saintcross' pitcher), were frequently featured along with other creatures, children and monks or elders.

One of the finest examples of Sumida ware, a large vase by Inoue Ryosai, reportedly the most prolific potter of this style, shows 354 monkeys swarming over a village. Another notable example, by potter Ishiguro Koko, includes 500 rakan, or Buddhist disciples.

Plants and landscapes also were used as recurring motifs and molded in relief on the pottery, as were figures of peasants, martial artists, government officials and women in kimonos.

COLLECTING SUMIDA: Although Sumida ware is not well-known, a variety of pieces can be found on Internet sites such as eBay. Smaller pieces are typically priced for a few hundred dollars, while outstanding, larger examples can cost thousands.

Collectors should be wary of misinformation, however. While many of the wares were marked by the individual potter, many others were not; and, since the marks were made in Kanji -- logographic Chinese characters -- they are often misread or illegible to Westerners.

A trip to Yingge, the pottery town | Hear in Taiwan

That’s my niece in town and we were visiting the famous pottery town Yingge in New Taipei City. The town has a beautiful, cobblestone-paved street with shops after shops of pottery and ceramic goods. And they’re for sale at reasonable prices. They sell tea pots to bowls to plates and mugs, you name it. This last time we came back with five matching, versatile noodle eating bowls, and five matching rice bowls (for our family of five). That’s because we don’t have any five eating utensils that match! My husband’s younger sister brings her daughter, who is half-Swiss, half-Taiwanese and trilingual (Swiss German, Mandarin Chinese, and English), to visit every year for the last five years or so. My three, much older children adore her. See how adept she was with her small hands at the pottery wheel! We eventually mailed the glazed huge, handleless purple and blue “Japanese-style” tea cup that she made to her in Zurich.

Japan

The Japanese pottery handbook

Japanese Art & Culture

The Encyclopædia britannica, a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information

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