染付がもたらす日常の風趣Elegance of everyday life through sometsuke painted porcelain
陶芸は、作り手の美的感覚や手先の器用さだけで成り立つのではなく、『化学』の力を借りて完成に導かれる工芸です。
書画の世界であれば、自分で描いたものがそのまま作品となりますが、陶芸の場合、土を成形して絵付けや施釉をしたらできあがり——というわけではなく、焼成という最終工程を経なければいけません。この工程が、土や絵具や釉薬に化学的な変化を及ぼし、陶芸という工芸に得も言われぬ深みを与えているのです。
大昔の作り手にとって、焼成による形質の変容は計算外で、作陶にあたってはさぞ頭を悩ませたことでしょう。
ただ、さまざまな試行錯誤が繰り返される中、偶然だと思えた変容の課程を経験知として蓄積させることで、陶芸は、作り手が(ある程度)完成形を想定できる工芸に進化していきました。
たとえば、中国・元朝の時代に発展した青い絵付けの器=「青花」も、化学変化を巧みに利用したもの。
成形した生地に呉須絵具(酸化コバルトを含む顔料)で絵付けを施し、透明な釉薬を掛けて1300度前後の高温で焼成して完成に至る青花。濃いチャコールグレーだった呉須絵具が焼成によって青く発色する『ビフォアアフター』は、かなり劇的です。
この変化に最初に気づいた工人の名前は伝わっていませんが、窯から出して鮮やかな青色を目にしたとき、その人は腰を抜かすほど驚いたのではないでしょうか。
青花が日本国内で花開いたのは17世紀。
豊臣秀吉の朝鮮出兵に付き従った諸大名が朝鮮人陶工を連れ帰ったことで九州に伝わり、日本では「染付」という名で愛されることになります。
画像は、染付磁器発祥の地・佐賀県有田町にある工房禅の小皿。
町内にある磁石場(磁器土の原料となる陶石の採掘場)で採れた泉山陶石を使って制作されたもので、染付黎明期の器を彷彿とさせる素朴な瑞々しさが魅力です。
17世紀には最先端の絵付け磁器だった染付ですが、400年の時を経て、今や日本の食卓のスタンダードに。
これほど長い期間にわたって愛され続けているのは、青という色が持つ清らかさと潔さが食材の色を引き立ててくれるからに他ならないと思います。
陶工たちがこの技法を受け継いできた月日に想いを馳せながら染付の器を使うと、いつもの見慣れた食卓にも特別な風趣を感じることができるのではないでしょうか。
Ceramics is a craft that relies not only on the aesthetic sense and manual dexterity of the maker, but also on the dynamism of chemistry to bring it to completion.
In the world of painting and calligraphy, what you draw becomes the work of art, but in the case of ceramics, the work is not yet completed even though the clay is shaped, painted and glazed. The work must go through a final process of firing. This firing process chemically alters the clay, paint and glaze, giving the craft of ceramics an ineffable depth.
The transformation of the trait of shape and quality through firing must have been a headache for makers long ago, as it lay beyond their calculations.
However, through repeated trial and error, the process of transformation, which was thought to be accidental, gradually accumulated as data, and ceramics evolved into a craft whose creators could, to some extent, envision the finished form.
For example, vessels painted in blue called seika, which developed during the Yuan dynasty in China, were also made with skillful use of chemical transformation.
One seika piece is completed by painting the shaped clay with gosu paint (zaffer – a pigment containing cobalt oxide), applying a transparent glaze and firing at a high temperature of around 1,300°C. The “before and after” of the dark charcoal grey gosu paint, which develops a blue colour through firing, is quite dramatic.
The name of the first artisan who noticed this transformation is not known, but they must have been astonished when they came across the bright blue colour for the first time as they removed works from the kiln.
Seika vessels blossomed in Japan in the 17th century.
They were introduced to the Kyūshū region when the feudal lords who accompanied TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi on his expedition to Korea brought back Korean potters, and became known in Japan as sometsuke.
The image shows a small dish es from the studio called koubo-zen in Arita, Saga Prefecture, known as the birthplace of sometsuke porcelain.
Made using Izumiyama porcelain stone from the local quarry, they have a rustic freshness reminiscent of vessels from the early days of sometsuke.
Sometsuke was the most advanced painted porcelain in the 17th century, but 400 years later it has become common tableware in Japan.
The reason it has remained so beloved over such a long period of time is, I believe, that the purity and gracefulness of the colour blue enhances the colours of the foodstuffs.
When you use sometsuke ware while thinking about the many years over which potters have passed down this particular technique, you can feel a special touch of elegance even on a familiar dining table.
コハルアン KOHARUAN Kagurazaka Store
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