Sansai

The name of decorated pottery in which two or more different colored glazes are used. In many cases, lead glazes, which are fired at low temperatures, are used for these colored glazes, and by convention, it is not called sansai even if several types of high-fired glazes are combined on one piece of pottery. The basic glazes for sansai pottery are brown glaze with iron coloring, green glaze with copper coloring, indigo glaze with cobalt coloring, and transparent glaze without coloring agents.

In China, primitive Sancai was attempted as early as the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 8 AD), and by the late 6th century, at the end of the Six Dynasties period, the technical basis of Tang Sancai, in which a transparent glaze is applied to a white clay body and green glaze is poured over it, was perfected, and from around 690 AD when the Tang Dynasty began, the gorgeous Tang Sancai, which matched the tastes of the aristocracy, matured. From then on, Sancai was fired throughout the ages, and a lineage of styles followed, including Song Sancai, Liao Sancai, Yuan Sancai, Ming Sancai, and Fahua (a special Sancai using a semi-strengthened glaze containing soda water), and in the late Ming period, So Sancai, in which a Sancai glaze is applied to a porcelain body, became popular. In addition, outside of China, styles such as Bohai Sancai (Bohai Kingdom), Silla Sancai (Korean Peninsula), Nara Sancai (Japan), and Persian Sancai (West Asian countries) were created in the 8th and 9th centuries based on these Chinese techniques.

[Yoshiaki Yabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

陶器に2種以上の色釉(いろゆう)を染め分けた加飾陶器の称。この色釉には低火度で焼ける鉛釉が使われる例が多く、習慣上、高火度釉を一器に数種かけ合わせても三彩とはよばない。鉄呈色で褐釉、銅呈色で緑釉、コバルト呈色で藍(らん)釉、そして呈色剤のない透明釉が三彩陶の基本の釉(うわぐすり)である。

　中国では早くも前漢時代（前202～後8）に始源的な三彩が試みられ、六朝(りくちょう)時代末期の6世紀後半には、白色の胎土に透明釉をかけ、緑釉を垂らし込む唐三彩の技術母胎が完成し、唐朝に入った690年ごろから貴族趣味に合致した豊麗な唐三彩が熟成した。以後三彩は終始焼造され、宋(そう)三彩、遼(りょう)三彩、元(げん)三彩、明(みん)三彩、法花(ファーホワ)（ソーダ水を含む半強化釉を用いた特殊な三彩）などが系譜を連ね、明後期には磁胎に三彩釉を施す素(そ)三彩が流行した。また中国以外でも、この中国の技法を受けて、渤海(ぼっかい)三彩（渤海国）、新羅(しらぎ)三彩（朝鮮半島）、奈良三彩（日本）、ペルシア三彩（西アジア諸国）などが8～9世紀につくられた。

［矢部良明］

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