Edo is Not Old.......

Last Sunday--May 17th--the Mishima branch of the national Japan Ceramic Society (Nihon Toji Kyokai, in Japanese only: http://www.j-ceramic.jp/index.html) held a special event, that being a lecture by Aichi Prefecture Ceramic Museum's chief curator Inoue Kikuo alongside an exhibition of fine old pots belonging to Mishima members, myself included. Inoue gave a fine talk--despite not being able to hook up his Mac for slides!--on early 8th century to 16th century pottery, notaby styles that oringinated in the Seto region. I had to leave the lecture halfway as we all had to 'monitor' the exhibition room where each member brought in a piece or two from their collections. Wow, some really neat old jars dating from the Yayoi peried to 19th century Edo, with styles such as Atsumi, Tokoname, Bizen, and Seto. I brought in a Muromachi period Bizen jar that is now seen on our gallery at www.japanesepottery.com. After the lecture Inoue walked around the exhibition commenting on each piece; he picked up one 19th century Seto mizusashi and said this is very young! All agreed, yes quite new that one is and they didn't even pay any attention to a 1960s Bizen chawan! For a pot to be old here it has to be at least 300 years okd, preferably early 1700s and backwards. Here are a few photos from the exhibition with parts two and three to follow, I can only upload five photos here. The Aichi Prefecture Ceramic Museum home page is: http://www.pref.aichi.jp/touji/index_e.html