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History | page 2 of 6 | |
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Asia: The Orient's cultural development as evidenced by their technology is even older than the West's beginnings in the middle east. In areas of southern China Taiwan and Japan the oldest know ceramic objects are found (9 to 12 thousand BC) Earthen ware similar in technique and designs to other areas of the world. By 1,400 BC a few Chinese potters were making the first high temperature ceramics using sophisticated kilns of many different designs. In this way they discovered glazes via the wood ash from their fuel settling on pots and fusing into glass at the high temperature. From this period on the Chinese potters continued experiments with materials and by 700 bc were making glazes independent of the wood ash. By the 7th century AD the Chinese were making true porcelain - there were large deposits of Kaolin in China. The used very elaborate kiln designs - climbing kilns, tunnel kilns.
The Sung Dynasty in China 1000 -1300 AD developed most high fire techniques used today - porcelain, reduction firing control that produced reduction reds celadons. Chinese porcelain was frequently decorated with Cobalt (the purist form of cobalt available was imported from Persia and very expensive) They also developed overglazing techniques with lead based "China paints"
Japanese ceramics was strongly influenced by developments
in China with high fire, glazing and kiln building closely following
the Chinese model.
Persia and the ancient middle east. The many cultures east of the Mediterranean produced ceramics in styles that reflected both the individual culture and the influence of their neighbors. Typical of these ancient people were the Minoans (2500 to 1100 B.C.) on the island of Crete. They made earthenware vessels decorated in colored slips with representations of animal life in the sea. They fired their work in updraft cylindrical kilns with wood as the fuel. Like their European counterparts at a later time, the Islamic potters tried to duplicate the white Chinese porcelains with a low temperature alternative. In Persia potters began making a opaque white low fire glaze using tin and lead. Much of the ceramics of this area took the form of architectural decoration of mosques and palaces as well as vessels.
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In
15th century Japan practiced the Zen form of Buddhism adopted
the tea ceremony introduced by a Chinese monk near Kyoto. Potters
in the Kyoto area started making utensils for the tea ceremony
and in the 16th century a Korean potter settled in Kyoto and
marked his bowls with the symbol for pleasure pronounced "Raku".
The word has since become a noun for this type of pot making
and is sometimes use to mean "simple" or "unpretentious"
in modern Japanese. Originally Raku referred only to the quick
firing of small objects and not necessarily the reduction cycle
in sawdust common in American practice.