The production of Japanese porcelain started in the 17th century, later than that of Korea and China. Japanese porcelain comprises of a highly exceptional white to an off-white hard paste made with ball clays and kaolin blended with silica and feldspar. Methods and ideas entered Japan all the way from China through Korea together with the methods and ways for producing pottery, Korean and Chinese designs. In the beginning, the wares used European shapes and Chinese decoration, just as done by the Chinese. Nevertheless, the innovative Japanese styles developed progressively. At present, Japanese porcelain is considered to be one of the best in quality and the finest in the world.

As the name implied, China is the first nation to produce real porcelain in the whole world. The discovery of porcelain in China was said to be an improvement that transformed the face of art all over the world. It took many years for the process to be replicated somewhere else. Ultimately, porcelain and the know-how needed to generate it started spreading to other parts of East Asia. Porcelain wares were exported to Europe in the period of Ming dynasty of 1368 AD to 1644 AD. The Ming dynasty was in control of much of the porcelain trade, which later extended to Europe, Africa and Asia.

Translated to “golden joinery,” Kintsugi (or Kintsukuroi, which means “golden repair”) is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a special […]