Color painting - Iroe

It is also called Akae, Nishikide, and Gosai. It is one of the basic methods of decorating ceramics, and is a technique in which various colored glazes such as red, yellow, and green are used to paint the glaze surface of white-glazed ceramics and white porcelain. The transparent glazes used to make white-glazed ceramics and white porcelain are fired at high temperatures of 1250 to 1300 degrees Celsius, so large-scale main kilns are used. On the other hand, the glazes used for paint are also a type of glaze, but since they are based on lead glazes, they are prepared at around 800 degrees Celsius. Therefore, when the transparent glaze ceramics refined in the main kiln are placed again in a small kiln called a Kingama and various glazes are fired with a low-temperature oxidizing flame, the transparent glaze that makes up the base is still in the slightly melting stage, and the overglaze paint here shows its color well and blends in well with the glaze surface. These glazes are broadly divided into red and other colors (yellow, green, navy blue, black, etc.), and are prepared differently. The basis of all lead glazes are fritted lead glaze balls, which are mixed with baked and bleached iron sulfate (green sulphate) to make red paint, and the brilliant red paint is so popular in overglaze porcelain that the general term "akae" was created in the early Edo period to refer to overglaze porcelain. Other glazes include lead oxide (white lead) and silicic acid (hinooka) in addition to fritted lead, and various coloured glazes are made using iron sulfate, copper oxide and other colouring agents. In other words, the principle of overglaze porcelain is to place a low-fired lead glaze on top of a high-fired feldspar glaze, and as these two types of glazes were the two major glazes that made up Oriental ceramics, it was only natural that overglaze porcelain began to be fired in the Orient before anywhere else in the world.

The world's first overglaze ware was invented by the Cizhou kilns in northern China during the Jin dynasty at the end of the 12th century. Initially, it was based on white-glazed pottery, but in the latter half of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century, overglaze ware on white porcelain was developed at the Jingdezhen kilns, and five-color ware in the Chinese style was created, becoming the favorite of Ming and Qing dynasties ceramics. In Japan, it was developed around 1640 (Kan'ei 17) in the early Edo period by Sakaida Kakiemon of Arita, Kyushu, who learned from the Chinese. In Persia, overglaze ware was probably devised independently around the 13th century, and the so-called Minai-te style was created. In the West, inspired by Japanese Imari ware, overglaze porcelain was created at the Meissen kilns in Germany in the 1720s.

[Yoshiaki Yabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

赤絵、錦手(にしきで)、五彩(ごさい)ともいう。陶磁器の基本的な加飾法の一つで、白釉(はくゆう)陶、白磁胎の釉面に赤、黄、緑など各種の彩釉を使って上絵付けする手法。白釉陶や白磁をつくる透明釉は高火度の1250～1300℃で焼製されるため、大規模な本窯が用いられる。一方、絵の具に用いる釉彩はやはり一種の釉薬であるが、これは鉛釉を基礎にしているところから、800℃前後で調製される。したがって、本窯で精製された透明釉陶磁を再度、錦窯(きんがま)とよばれる小規模な窯に入れて低火度の酸化炎で各種の釉彩を焼き付けると、素地(きじ)をつくる透明釉はまだわずかに溶ける段階にあり、ここで上絵の具は良好に呈色して釉面としっくり溶け合うことになる。この釉彩は赤と他の色（黄、緑、紺、黒など）とに大別され、調整が異なる。いずれも鉛釉の基礎をなすのは白玉（フリット）とよばれる鉛釉の玉であり、この白玉に硫酸鉄（緑礬(りょくばん)）を焼いてさらしたものと混合して赤絵の具をつくり、色絵陶磁は華やかなこの赤絵の具が活躍するために、江戸時代の初期から赤絵という色絵の総称語がつくられたほどであった。他の釉彩は白玉のほかに酸化鉛（鉛白(えんぱく)）やケイ酸（日の岡(ひのおか)）を加え、呈色剤に硫酸鉄、酸化銅、その他を使って各種の色釉をつくる。すなわち長石質の高火度釉の上に、鉛釉の低火度釉を上のせしたのが色絵の原理であり、この2種の釉(うわぐすり)こそまさに東洋陶磁器を形成する二大釉であったところから、世界に先駆けて東洋で色絵陶磁が焼かれ始めるのは当然のことであった。

　世界で最初に色絵を考案したのは中国華北の磁州窯(じしゅうよう)であり、12世紀末の金(きん)時代であった。初めは白釉陶が基礎となっていたが、14世紀元時代後半には景徳鎮窯(けいとくちんよう)で白磁胎の色絵、中国流にいって五彩がつくりあげられ、明清(みんしん)陶磁の寵児(ちょうじ)となった。日本では江戸前期の1640年（寛永17）ごろに九州有田の酒井田柿右衛門(かきえもん)が中国人に学んで開発した。ペルシアでは13世紀ごろおそらく独自に色絵がくふうされて、いわゆるミナイ手がつくられている。西欧では日本の伊万里焼(いまりやき)に刺激を受けて、1720年代に色絵磁器の創成がドイツのマイセン窯で進められた。

［矢部良明］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例