FUKU MARK, EDO PERIOD (LATE 17TH CENTURY)

Kutani is said to have been produced during the seventeenth Century at kilns in Kutani village in Daishoji fief, now in Yamanaka-cho, Ishikawa Prefecture. Based on the evidence of three surviving records, only one of which is roughly contemporary with Ko-Kutani production, the Kutani kiln began operating around 1655. The founder of the kiln is thought to have been the metalsmith Goto Saijiro. Three old kiln sites have been discovered and they were excavated between 1970 and 1974. Because there were almost no enamelled sherds found at these sites, there is ongoing scholarly debate as to the origin of Ko-Kutani ware. The term Ko-Kutani [Old Kutani] is used to distinguish seventeenth Century pieces from those produced at the Yoshidaya kiln in Kutani in the nineteenth Century. Some scholars believe that white procelain products were shipped by sea to Kutani village from Arita in Hizen Province, Kyushu, which was the centre of porcelain production in the seventeenth Century. According to this theory, the distinctive enamel designs were painted onto Arita ware porcelain bodies after they arrived in Kutani. This would account for the fact that there were few enamelled sherds found at the Kutani kilns. The thickly applied Kutani enamels have been compared to the enamels on Kyoto ware pottery, a possible source of influence. Ko-Kutani ware is prized for its rich, dark enamelled colours and its bold designs. Examples such as this which use green enamel are called aode or 'green' Kutani.