Blue & White Japan. Amy Sylvester Katoh
Three hundred and fifty years of lmari. Seventeenth-through-twentieth-century saba cups, from the collection of Susumu Kakitani.
Blue and white welcome. Umbrella stand and old wooden planting frame covered with paper handmade by Kiyomi Tomi of Wajima and painted by Takaka Fukuchi. A vintage bedcover of patches over patches is the welcome mat.
Amy Sylvester Katoh
Photographs by Yutaka Satoh
TUTTLE PUBLISHING
Boston • Rutland, Vermont • Tokyo
Imari dish in the shape of Otafuku, a jolly household goddess.
For Yuichi, the sun, Mia, Saya, Tai, and Toshi, the stars, Okasama and Obachama. sister moons, and Edmund Quincy Sylvester, who filled the skies with kites and rockets
No book is written alone. This one is the sum of generous servings of help and cooperation from friends and people we admire who shared their blue and white rooms and collections and recipes without stint. To Sanshiro Ikeda for his blessings, Seiji and Harumi Nibe for creative guidance, Bill and Angela Cruger, Martyne and Tom Kupciunas, Hiroshi and Noriyuki Murata of Kosoen, Chie and Hideki Maegawa, Haruri Ginka Gallery, Mr. and Mrs. Susumu Kakitani, Betty and Gil Hoffman for their consummate hospitality, Henk and Alison Hoksbergen, Tamiko and Tsutomu Makishi, Yasuko and Jissei Omine, Mrs. Yoshiko Shimabukuro of the Daiichi Hotel, Naha, Okinawa, the Matsuda brothers of the Yomitan potters' guild, Sachiko Kinjo, the Kumamoto family of Pension Bisezaki, Katsuko and Shungo Shoji, Hiroyuki Shindo for his indigo inspiration, Kenji and Aiko Tanaka, Yoshihiro Takishita of the House of Antiques for his expertise, Kazuko and Tadashi Morita of Morita Antiques for their knowledge, Yoshichika Kitamura, Chikako and Masanobu Matsumoto of the Gifu Bamboo Society, Shokichi Watanabe and Setsuko Shinoda of Gujo Hachiman, Kibo and Keiko Nomoto, Michiko Natsuhara, Noriko Mikawa, Andrea Heinrichsohn, Kim Schuefftan for his knowledge, Koichi Hama for his calligraphy, Takaka Fukuchi and Takaka Enokido for their dedication, Hiroko Izumi, Mitsu Minowa for her cooking, Kyoko Machida, Kazuko Yoshiura for her sashiko, Reiko Okunushi for her quilts, Paula Deitz for her ikat skies. To you all, and unnamed others, thank you.
Published by Tuttle Publishing,
an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
© 1996 Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co., Inc.
All rights reserved.
LCC Card No. 95-62393
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0468-6 (ebook)
First paperback edition, 2002
Second printing, 2002
Printed in Singapore
Carp and waterfall design with bubbles on a fragment of an old hemp futon cover.
Contents
Entrances 17
Artful doors 22
The best rooms 25
Blue and white details 31
Floor cushions 33
All in the details 37
A fair chair 39
Confessions of a collector 40
Porcelain hibachi 46
Bedside manners 51
Yukata 55
A blue and white kitchen 58
Choosing porcelains 65
On the table 71
Blue and white porcelain 73
Japanese porcelain vocabulary 74
A story in a soba cup 91
Blue and white skies 97
Indigo textiles 100
Indigo craftsmen 103
An indigo primer 105
Blues in the house 106
The language of design and pattern 109
Choosing old indigo textiles 111
Out of the blue 112
Banner days 117
Tenugui 118
Introduction
Japan Speaks in blue and white. Azure waves wash over worn Imari shards half-buried in white sand; cotton-ball clouds drift across cobalt skies. Indigo doorway curtains distinguish shop fronts in small mountain towns; old ladies on their way to the neighborhood bath shuffle by in blue and white robes. An unknown dyer has captured the magic of cranes on a graceful padded indigo sleeping kimono. "Mountain flowers like white brocade, valley water brimming indigo," wrote the poet lssa in the eighteenth century. This felicitous marriage of color is loved the world round, but its transcendent expression is found in Japan, where nature's prototype has long inspired artists and craftsmen to apply blue and white to cloth and clay, picture and poem. Blue and white porcelains and textiles in particular have played an integral part in the history of Japan and figure prominently in myth and literature.