Trade Taste & Transformation

In the declining decades of the Ming dynasty, the Japanese market provided much needed revenue for the kilns at Jingdezhen. The Chinese potters filled the orders from Japan with blue-and-white and enamel-decorated wares made as efficiently and cheaply as possible, often with technical imperfections not tolerated among their domestic patrons. But these imperfections suited the aesthetic taste of Japan’s tea masters, and these wares, which were mainly used for the tea ceremony, are treasured to this day by Japanese collectors. They tell us more than we expect about two different cultures and leave us with a new level of appreciation for the role of commerce in the transformation of mundane objects.