Kindred Spirits

From elegant celadon to sophisticated underglaze-blue porcelain, the 100 examples from the renowned Shen Zhai Collection highlight the outstanding beauty, diversity and quality of Japanese ceramics in Chinese style from the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa eras.

The core of this collection comprises works by the court’s ceramic artists, who held the title teishitsu gigeiin (imperial artist) and worked with a wealth of Chinese glazes and decorative techniques from the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing periods. Artists from the Kyoto region, an important Japanese centre of ceramics, are particularly strongly represented.

The Japanese tradition of utsushi builds on the Chinese idea of copying as an act of honouring past creations. Yet it is not about reproduction but rather creating a new work that remains true to the original model while retaining the creative power of the respective artist. In doing so, the clarity of the style and spirit of the previous work is captured and realised anew.

These new creations based on Chinese originals were diligently signed and each one preserved in their own tomobako– a specially made wooden box, inscribed by the artists and sealed, thus documenting the origin of each piece.

The book’s sumptuous layout and attractive aesthetic presents each of the 100 ceramics – arranged by artist – on a double-page spread. Full-page illustrations of the objects and photographs of the accompanying tomobako, makers’ marks and details provide an outstanding visual insight into the subject. Biographies of the artists and scholarly descriptions of the individual ceramics round off the catalogue section. A foreword by the collector, Patrick K M Kwok, and essays by various experts contextualise the ceramics in art history and examine the pieces from different perspectives.

Detailed illustrations and descriptions, makers’ marks, and tomobako inscriptions make this book a valuable reference work for collectors, art historians and all those interested in East Asian ceramics.