Located at 9F Teigeki Building 3-1-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo -- The Idemitsu Museum of Arts was opened in 1966 as an exhibition hall for the Idemitsu Collection.
The building is located on the 9th floor of the Imperial Theater Building looking down over the beautiful Imperial Garden in Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. The museum is designed to incorporate the Japanese spirit of welcome in the setting of the modern building and invites visitors to enjoy the artworks in comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.
Special exhibitions are held about six times a year, with themed exhibitions of selected works from the Idemitsu Collection of Japanese painting and calligraphy, and East Asian ceramics.
The unique feature of the Museum is the Sherd Room where fragments of pottery collected from kilns around Asia and Egypt (Fustat site, Cairo) are displayed.
This extensive collection includes Japanese painting (yamato-e, rimpa, bunjin-ga, ukiyo-e, and works by Sengai and modern painter Kosugi Hōan, etc.) and calligraphy, East Asian ceramics (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean wares, and works of modern potter, Itaya Hazan, etc.). The collection also has works of Western painters (Georges Rouault and Sam Francis). The total works number some fifteen thousand items, including two National Treasures and fifty-four Important Cultural Properties.
Idemitsu Museum of
Arts
FOREWORD
Simple, dynamic and powerful ceramics of medieval Japan –
They are decorated with the earth color of the original clay and the brilliant
red color resulting from the contact with fire in the kiln. Adding to them, the
most astonishing characteristic is the unexpected flow of natural glaze on
their surface giving them an extraordinary decoration which is beyond the realm
of human wisdom. These elements are unique and attractive features of medieval
ceramics. The make us even wonder if life may dwell within.
Started their production in the medieval times, from around
the latter half of the Heian period into the Kamakura and Muromashi periods,
and are still active today, the kilns of Seto, Tokoname, Echizen, Shigaraki,
Tamba and Bizen are called roku koyo, meaning
six old kilns. They have been appreciated as ceramics of the Japanese taste. In
2017, the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan has selected them as “Japan
Heritage. These medieval kilns, in addition to their traditional production
techniques, were influenced by imported foreign artifacts such as karamono (basically Chinese things, but
with some Korean items as well), and created their own unique styles.
Produced in these kilns were mostly vases, jars and mortars
which were simple tools of daily use. But their usefulness made later scholars
call them “three divine treasures” or three precious items of necessities for
the medieval people. The tradition of
production was passed on to the following Momoyama and Edo periods. At the same
time, they caught attentions of tea masters and were reinterpreted as utensils
in the tea ceremony during the Momoyama period. Still later in history, in the
modern times, these ceramics are cherished as art and are appreciated for sheer
visual pleasure. Thus, the ceramics of six old kilns blended into the society
and life of people of each age and sparked their beauty and charm according to
the traditional culture and values of the time.
In this exhibition, we would like to express our sincere
gratitude for all the institutions with their kind contributions by lending
their precious art works to this exhibition.
Chapter 1 Genealogy of Medieval Ceramic-Shiki, Sueki
and Hajiki types
Medieval ceramics from the latter half of the Heian period
into the Muromachi period (from the end of the 11th century to the
15th century) can be classified into three types—shiki, sueji and
hajiki. The shiki type is a group of ceramics developed from the traditional
non-glazed white ceramics or glazed ceramics made by high temperature firing
since the Nara and Heian periods. Representative medieval kilns of this type
are Seto which began production of glazed ceramics and Tokoname and Shigaraki
which fired yakishime type of ceramics making three precious items of necessities
in the high temperature firing condition. Both have the oxidation process at
the very last stage of firing which resulted in producing the reddish-brown
surface color. The sueki type ceramics, on the other hand, derives from the sue
pottery production of the ancient times and are characterized by the reduction
process firing which resulted in the bluish gray surface color due to the
adsorption of carbon to its surface. The
Hajiki type ceramics are those fired in the open-air condition with the temperature
only up to around 800 degrees. In this chapter, mainly shiki and sueki types
are introduced.
Chapter 2 Six Old
Kilns and Other Medival Kilns
The terms roku koyo or six old kilns (referring to kilns of
Tokoname, Seto, Echizen, Shigaraki, Tamba and Bizen) was advocated by Dr. Fujio
Koyama, an ancient ceramics historian, to refer to a group of kilns which had
kept their ceramic production from the medival times, in the Sowa 30s (1950s).
Due to the collapse of the ritsuryo style governing system of ancient Japan
from around the 11th century, kilns which had produced sue pottery
and shiki ceramics (green glazed and ash-glazed ceramics) during the Heian
period began to vigorously produce vases, jars and (spouted) mortars, or three
precious items of necessities, from the beginning of the 12th
century. Vases and jars are suitable for transportation and useful for
preservation and storage while mortars are versatile cooking tools. The demand
for ceramics rooted in people’s lives increased throughout Japan, and they were
produced in many different areas of the country. But in the15th century and
later, from the late Muromachi period to the Sengoku (Warring states) period,
medieval kilns were weeded out to those in the above—mentioned six areas. In
this Chapter, the characteristic and esthetic beauty of ceramics produced in
these six and other kilns of medieval Japan are presented.
Chapter 3 Tea
Ceramics Developed from Medieval Ceramic Tradition
From the end of the Heian period into the beginning of the
Kamakura period, the tea drinking practice was introduced into Japan by Chinese
merchants and together with Zen Buddhism. At first, expensive imported Temmoku
tea bowls of China were used as bowls for drinking tea. From the end of the
Muromachi period into the Momoyama period, a new type of tea drinking practice
called Wabi-cha became popular. It encouraged the use of locally-made yakishime
type (well-fired in high temperature) vases for flower arrangement and daily
utensils as tea utensils in the tea ceremony. Then in the Tensho era (1573-93),
the glazed ceramic production center in the Owari province was moved from Soto
to the Mino region.
Among the kilns for yakishime type ceramics, Shigaraki, Iga and Bizen emerged
as the tea ceramic production centers, and their products were favored by the
tea masters.
Chapter 4 Karamono Favored by Medieval
People
The steady development of Japanese ceramic production owes
partly to the influence of karamono (or Chinese things), which are ceramics and
other items imported from China. From the latter half of the Heian period,
white porcelain, celadon and black-glazed ceramics fired in the south Chinese
kilns were imported in great quantity and circulated throughout Japan.
Luxurious Chinese ceramics were copied in the kilns in and around the Seto
area. Karamono tea utensils of the Kamakura period changed their significance
and became the prestige items of decoration in the zashiki or formal reception
room for the shogunate leaders as well as men of the weatlth during the
muromachi period. As a counter reaction to the gorgeous decoration with
karamono, the wabi-cha type of tea drinking tried to establish a new standard
by using medieval ceramics in the tea ceremony. In this chapter, karamono utensils
which were cherished among medieval Japanese people are presented.
Chapter 5 Medieval
Ceramics Viewed in the Eyes of Later People
Medieval ceramics including those of six old kilns are
utensils of daily use. From the latter half of the Muromachi period, they were
slowly but surely used in the tea ceremony. Also, ingenious new products were
created in these six kilns as well as
other kilns like Shigaraki, Iga and Bizen which also developed around this
time. They gained the favor of tea masters. In the Edo period, the kilns tried
to maintain and strategically make use of the brand image as being a tea
ceramic production center. The best example would be Shigaraki. In the modern
times, medieval ceramics with simplicity and powerfulness and with rich texture
and expressiveness are loved for visual appreciation rather than for practical
use. The last Chapter will introduce the long-lasting charm of medieval
ceramics.