Shigaraki: Potter's Valley - Hardcover

Cort, Louise Allison

9780834804319: Shigaraki: Potter's Valley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 083480431X ISBN 13: 9780834804319

Publisher: Weatherhill Inc, 2000

For over seven centuries, farmer-potters of Shigaraki, a rural valley south-east of the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, have used the distinctive clays of their region to make a broad variety of storage jars and tea-ceremony wares that occupy a key place in the esteemed aesthetic of Japanese wood-fired stoneware. This classic study by Louise Cort brings together all facets of the valley's fascinating political, economic and artistic history to present a comprehensive portrait of these appealing wares and the potters who produced them. Throwing, glazing, firing and kiln building are described in detail, while invaluable supplemental information includes commentaries on Shigaraki wares by potters from outside the valley; an account of early twentieth-century life in the valley by a woman who was both the daughter and wife of master potters; a thorough assessment of kiln-site investigations; and complete formulas for the distinctive Shigaraki glazes. Over 350 colour and monochrome photographs, maps, complete appendices, notes bibliography and an index make this an essential volume in the library of all connoisseurs of ceramics.

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Review:

"Astonishing feats of erudition and understanding." --Christopher Reid, Times Literary Supplement

"No Westerner has probed as deeply... into the history of Japanese craft traditions or into the process by which the nation's cultivated intelligentsia came to cherish the products of rustic artisans." --John M. Rosenfield, Professor of East Asian Art, Emeritus, Harvard University

"No Westerner has probed as deeply... into the history of Japanese craft traditions or into the process by which the nation's cultivated intelligentsia came to cherish the products of rustic artisans." --John M. Rosenfield, Professor of East Asian Art, Emeritus, Harvard University

Synopsis:

For over seven centuries, potters of Shigaraki, a rural valley outside the Japanese city of Kyoto, have fashioned storage jars and tea ceremony wares from clay. This book examines the political, economic and artistic history of the valley.

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