Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere’s compact Vessels of Influence: China and Porcelain in Medieval and Early Modern Japan manages to contain three strikingly distinct chapters, as well as a long introduction that counts as a fourth component. Although the four segments are interrelated, it is easy to imagine that each would appeal to a separate reader for a different reason. Whether read in isolation or in sequence, they are highly informative concerning the impact of the long presence of Chinese porcelain—“vessels of influence”—in Japan. Rousmaniere’s book is especially important for introducing the findings of Japanese archaeologists and art historians—a realm of discourse largely cut off because it takes place almost entirely in Japanese.

The history of Chinese porcelain in Japan is the focus of chapter 2, “Chinese Ceramics in Japan during the Medieval Period, and Their Significance in Tea Gatherings.” The term “medieval period” in the Japanese context refers to two eras known as the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and the Muromachi period (1333–1573), during which Japan was ruled by a military government, located first in the eastern city of Kamakura and then in the ancient capital of Kyoto. Rousmaniere distinguishes between the fact of Chinese origins and the all-important image of China in Japan as it affected the status of Chinese ceramics: “China held up to Japan an image to be admired, emulated, and at times even superceded” (76), and the presence of Chinese ceramics in the interior décor of noble residences, Buddhist temples, warrior households, and wealthy merchant homes “added a much sought-after continental lustre” (76).

Song dynasty (960–1279) Chinese ceramics were present in quantity in Japan from the twelfth century onward. Many utilitarian wares disappeared into the earth, only to be identified by modern archaeological excavations, but the elite Chinese wares—especially tea bowls—that became part of the increasingly important cultural practice of drinking Song-style whisked tea also became valued heirlooms and have been well preserved. They were at the center of the appreciation of Chinese goods, karamono suki. When the best were in the hands of the ruling military class, they were curated by professional connoisseurs, who followed themselves, and wrote down for the benefit of others, rules for orthodox display in formal reception rooms. In the sixteenth century, however, many Chinese tea utensils moved into the possession of the thriving merchant class in cities such as Sakai, where new rules were invented for use in a compact tea room. Chinese heirloom tea bowls tended to be combined and contrasted with more modest objects, including water jars and bowls from Japanese kilns.

The Song Chinese ceramics used for tea drinking were glazed stonewares. Rousmaniere turns from them to the less familiar evidence for the presence of Chinese porcelain in Japan. Archaeological study of sixteenth-century sites has revealed surprising quantities of porcelain plates and bowls, typically decorated in cobalt, and significantly occurring in sets—amassed not for tea-drinking but for banqueting, a role that would contribute to the importance of Chinese porcelain into the modern day. Rousmaniere presents a study by Ohashi Kōji defining five chronological stages for the presence of Chinese porcelain in excavation sites on the large southern island of Kyushu between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century (98–99); the study reveals that the quantity of imported porcelain expanded and diversified between 1585 and the 1640s.

Rousmaniere takes up the reasons for this pattern in her third chapter, “The Genesis of Japanese Porcelain.” Here, in addition to presenting evidence amassed from excavation sites and other studies, she takes a strong stance to advocate a new methodology for interpreting the evidence. The subject matter is the beginning of porcelain production in Japan, in the 1610s, at kilns around the town of Arita within the domain of the Nabeshima daimyo. She points out that discussions of causation in Arita and elsewhere have so far focused on the impact of the arrival of Korean potters in Japanese domains, bringing advanced knowledge of working with porcelain clay; she describes this as the “longing for a founding myth” (44). Instead, she argues, the decisive factors that motivated the great efforts required to establish a ceramics industry that could successfully rival that of China arose within Japan from a variety of economic causes. She enumerates the expanding population; the establishment of new cities, commercial centers, and trading routes; the flourishing of ceramic trade under a stabilized atmosphere achieved by strong, centralized political rule; the rise of materialism in a prosperous society; advances in record keeping; and technological improvements yielding products of higher quality and market appeal (143).

Lastly, in a sense (in terms of the level of importance to dedicated specialists), comes Rousmaniere’s first chapter, “Porcelain Debates in Japan and in the West.” This section gives a fascinating view of the development of scholarship pertaining to Chinese (and other) ceramics in Japan since the late nineteenth century. She takes as her starting point the debate that raged between two Western collectors, each advocating for authentic insight into the “true” Japanese taste in ceramics: Edward Sylvester Morse (1838–1925) spoke out on behalf of stoneware, based in the tea aesthetic, while James Lord Bowes (1834–1899) advocated the primacy of porcelain and decorated stoneware. Rousmaniere then turns to what Japanese scholars and collectors have said for themselves in the course of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. She notes an enduring focus on connoisseurship and typology and claims that “the study of ceramics within Japan is basically the preserve of museums, tea aficionados and collectors’ circles” (49), even though she also states, somewhat contradictorily, that “in archaeological circles in Japan ceramic research is advanced” (50). Indeed, it has been the formation of an alliance between art historians and archaeologists that has led to the fundamental changes in understanding of the position of ceramics in Japan, with productive efforts to match up the findings of heirloom collections and kiln-site excavations while explicating the sometimes challenging contradictions. Museums (not just art museums but the numerous museums focusing on ceramics and/or archaeology) are often the venues for the presentation of new findings, including broken fragments. For anyone interested in the study of ceramics, Japan is a heaven of exhibitions, scholarly conferences, research presentations, lectures, museum and professional journals, all supported by a mixed crowd of archaeologists, curators, art historians, connoisseurs, and potters. Rousmaniere’s perspective arises from regular participation in such activities, and this chapter constitutes a deeply informed and illuminating “report from the field.” She concludes this chapter insightfully: “The porcelain debates in Japan are founded on narratives about places of origin, direct connections with historical personages, links with traditional local famous products, and, most sensitively, about national histories and international relations” (75).

The introduction helpfully defines terms (earthenware, stoneware, porcelain; kaolin, feldspar, silica), gives an overview of ceramic production in Japan over the last ten thousand years, and introduces the chapters that follow. Unfortunately, this small book suffers from lack of color plates and from the sorts of infelicities arising commonly from the absence of attentive editors to catch repetitive phrasing, mistaken locations on maps, missing bibliographical citations, and other details. Nevertheless, it serves as a remarkably detailed guidebook to an understanding of one of the most important dimensions of Japanese material culture.

Louise Allison Cort is acknowledged by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere in Vessels of Influence: China and Porcelain in Medieval and Early Modern Japan for her advisory role during the author’s Smithsonian History of Art Predoctoral Fellowship in 1993–1994.