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- underglaze blue decorations, heavy potting and the use of a poorer quality clay. Often the bubbly areas of glaze along the rims and ridges would break off leaving holes or chips, which looked �worm-eaten� (mushikui'm Japanese). This was a characteristic highly trea�sured by the tea masters. The most common shapes of this ware include dishes and small plates of simple or complex moulded designs. One of the most popular vessel types is the mukozuke, a small tray for food, usually made in sets of five, used in the tea ceremony. Originality in shape and design was highly appreciated, and the most interesting and whimsical are the mukozuke in the shape of a bird, a dragon, a fish, or a horse (fig. 73).
The Shonzui wares, which gradually replaced the rougher Ko-sometsuke wares, were much finer and represent a more distinct Japanese style of decoration and shape. The features of this ware include solid potting, rims with a brown dressing called kuchibenior lip rouge, and finely painted underglaze blue decorations such as landscapes with figures and boats, figures sitting in contemplation (fig. 77), birds on branches, deer, etc
Qing Blue and White Porcelain
Transitional wares continued to be made into the early part of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) during the reign of Shunzhi (1644-1661) and the early part of Kangxi�s reign (r. 1662-1722). A rebellion led by Wu Sangui between 1674 and 1678 virtually destroyed the ceramic centre of Jingdezhen and curtailed ceramic production for a time. However, by 1683, the emperor Kangxi ordered the imperial kilns rebuilt.
Kangxi took a keen personal interest in ceramic production, and in 1683 appointed Cang Yingxuan as the superintendent of the imperial factory at Jingdezhen. It was largely due to Cang that a brilliant renaissance in the ceramic art of China took place. His skill came to be regarded as something supernatural, and it was said of him �When he was at work, it was as if God guided his hand in designing, and protected the porcelain in the kilns from any mishap.� Under this man, the development of the kilns went in two directions. First, he instigated the revival of fine decorative techniques invented and made popular during the Ming dynasty, and second, he promoted the experimentation of new coloured glazes.
Cang had a tremendous relationship with the workers. His management brought an end to former abuses and oppression against workers. Working conditions were improved and salaries were increased. From this time onward the workers were well cared for and contented.
Under Cang�s leadership, the workers responded to this new sense of well-being by unleashing a tremendous flood of creative energy. So much so, that many ceramic critics, both Chinese and Western, consider that the ceramic art of China reached its greatest achievements in perfection of techniques, quality of material, diversity of forms, beauty of design and brilliance of colour, during this period.
By the early eighteenth century, the population of Jingdezhen numbered about a million. A contemporary first-hand description of this great porcelain centre can be found in two letters, dated 1712 and 1722, written by a Jesuit missionary, Pere d'Entrecolles, who was stationed in Jingdezhen in the early 18th century. All the activity and wealth of the city was engaged in the manufacture of porcelain. Cang introduced mass production methods and division of labour, so that a single porcelain piece, after being thrown, moulded and painted, might have passed through as many as seventy hands before firing.
The shapes of Kangxi porcelains are lively and inventive, and included such forms as club-shaped vases, square vases, trumpet-mouthed vases and egg-shaped jars with covers. The famous porcelains produced during his reign include magnificent mono�chromes and stunning overglaze enamel wares such as famine verte and famine rose wares, but the blue and white porcelain of Kangxi�s reign is in a class by itself without peer. It owes the deep lustrous or luminous tone of its blue to the successful purification of native cobalt from all its impurities, which had frustrated earlier potters. Kangxi blue and white porcelain tends to have a pure snowy white body, a clear thin glaze and magnificent
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