Okuda Eikawa - Okuda Eikawa

A potter from Kyoto in the late Edo period. He is known as the father of porcelain in Kyoto because he was the first to create porcelain there. His real name was Tsunenori Kagekawa, and his pen name Kagekawa comes from this family name. It is said that his ancestors were naturalized Chinese who fled the turmoil at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Okuda was the surname of his adopted parents. He was adopted into the pawnbroker Maruya in Daikokucho, Gojozaka, Kyoto, and took over the family business, while also becoming a literati potter who pursued pottery making. He is thought to have been around 30 years old at the time. The kiln was located at Kenninji Temple, and the painter Tanomura Chikuden from the late Edo period wrote in his "Takeda Shoshi Garoku" that he lived at the temple while making pottery. As evidence of this, the temple has a Sansai Dokou (a wooden porcelain vessel with three colors), and its subtemple, Daichuin, has a collection of porcelain products such as a blue and white water jar and a red-glazed fired jar. It is unclear where Eikawa learned how to make porcelain, but since Arita porcelain kilns were being transplanted to various places around the country at this time, it can be said that he was an early pioneer of this trend. However, unlike Imari ware, he mainly copied ancient blue and white porcelain and gosu red-glazed porcelain from China at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which were popular among hobbyists in the late Edo period, and this can be said to be a choice of style unique to Kyoto.

[Yoshiaki Yabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸後期の京都の陶工。初めて京都で磁器を創始したために京焼の磁祖とよばれる。本名は穎川庸徳(つねのり)といい、号の穎川はこの本姓に由来する。祖先は明(みん)末の動乱を避けて帰化した中国人と伝え、奥田姓は養子先の姓。彼は京都五条坂大黒町の質商丸屋に養子に入って家業を継ぐかたわら、作陶に進んだ文人陶工であった。ときに30歳前後のことと推測される。窯は建仁寺(けんにんじ)にあり、この寺に寄寓(きぐう)して作陶したと江戸末の画師田能村竹田(たのむらちくでん)は『竹田荘師画録』に記している。それを裏づけるように同寺には三彩兕觥(どこう)、その塔頭(たっちゅう)大中院には染付水指(そめつけみずさし)、赤絵火入(ひいれ)などの磁器の製品が所蔵されている。穎川がどこから磁器の製法を学んだか不詳であるが、この時期は各地で有田(ありた)の磁器窯が移植されているところから、その動向をいち早く先取りしたといえよう。ただ伊万里(いまり)焼とは異なり、江戸後期の趣味人の間で人気の高い、中国明末期の古染付、呉須(ごす)赤絵をおもに写したのは、やはり京都ならではの作風の選択といえよう。

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