Bittersweet Tale Of Satsuma Pottery
Some stories have endings that are just not what you wantit to be. You kind of want to go back and rewrite it to fix where it got messedup.
The history of Satsuma is one of those things that justneeds a good fix from all those centuries ago. It is such a complex, mixed up andso many variations of who did what and how many different people made Satsuma. It’s confusing to be honest.
Now the way to look at that, there can only be oneoriginal, authentic ‘version’ of something. These ‘spinoffs’ are not authentic Satsuma. Just an opinion.
The authentic Satsuma was actually not produced byJapanese potters. The artisans for these pieces were Koreans who were taken bythe Japanese as war prisoners, in a sense, in the late 16th century.Japan’s purpose for doing this was to build up their economy because Koreanpottery was so valuable on the Japanese market.
The Koreans did their bidding and settled into their newenvironment producing their creations for several centuries. They did this throughout the Edo period whichran from 1603 through 1868.
The Satsuma pieces made prior to the 1868 period weregenerally left unsigned and are minimally decorated with the focus being moreso on function. After that period, you’ll see markings denoting the workshopsthey were made in and more elaborate, illustrative design.
In 1852, the United States decided that they didn’t likethat Japan was keeping to themselves with their economy, art, technology andliterature. They wanted them to be aglobal player, so the U.S. President paid a visit and was able to work withJapan to come to an agreement where Japan would begin to export and do businesswith the west.
After that, Japan decided to export the Samsuta potterythroughout the west into the United States and Europe. They began to massproduce the pieces in factories that were constructed for just this purpose. Thepottery gained such significant recognition that any pottery from Japan duringthis period became known in the west as Satsuma pottery.
The problem with the factory made, exported pieces wasthat the quality was much less than that of the original, authentic Koreanartisans and it was not nearly as attractive. There were some with overdone Japanese themes that bordered on slightly gaudy.
This took something that was so revered and valued andvaluable where people were kidnapped in order to benefit economically fromtheir skills and talents to something that even the western culture didn’t wantanything to do with.
Collectors started looking for the ‘older' more refinedwhat they deemed as ‘early Satsuma’. Thepieces they were actually getting, though, were better qualities from otherpotteries done in the 19th century before Meiji e.g. Kyoto's Awataor counterfeits.
How can you know if you’re getting a counterfeit? Usually a marking will have the name of afamily workshop written in Japanese. There will be a cross with a circle crestof the Shimazu which was an attempt to associate the pieces with the original Satsumakilns. Some may be stamped, hand painted is best. It may say Satsuma or Satsuma Yaki. For thosewho can’t read Japanese, you can go online and find resources to match themarking to a known workshop.
Little trick for authenticity sake: The body of a trueSatsuma piece won’t ring when tapped.
So, Satsuma is divided into two categories. The original, Ko-Satsuma, from the 1600s whichwas plain, dark clay and built for function. Then there was the Kyo-Satsuma, the elaborately decorated, white-bodiedpieces from the 19th century.
There's nothing like an original in my book.