The Rough, the Smooth, and the White in ca. 1600 Hizen: The Rhetoric of Porcelain

Research Seminar

  • Public event without registration
  • Date: Mar 19, 2025
  • Time: 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Edward S. Cooke, Jr
  • Location: Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online
  • Contact: mara.freiberg@biblhertz.it
The Rough, the Smooth, and the White in ca. 1600 Hizen: The Rhetoric of Porcelain
The Portuguese, like many Europeans at this time, brought with them to Hizen province (modern Saga and Nagasaki prefectures), in northwestern Kyushu, a certain ceramic theory of classification and taste that did not allow them to understand Japanese preferences on the local terms. Nor did these nanbanjin (Southern barbarians) comprehend the preference for a seemingly random assemblage of a wide variety of local and imported ceramic works.

This talk focuses upon the difficulties of using written documentation alone and instead acknowledges the histories of materials and the agency of local producers within a regional network. By focusing upon the actual ceramic objects, one can counter the difficulties of translation relying solely on language and begin to focus upon the transformative editing embodied in locally produced objects.

Edward S. Cooke, Jr., the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University, focuses upon material culture and decorative arts, especially from the 16th century to the present. His books include Making Furniture in Pre-industrial America: The Social Economy of Newtown and Woodbury, Connecticut (Johns Hopkins Press, 1996), Inventing Boston: Design, Production and Consumption in the Atlantic World, 1680–1720 (Yale University Press, 2019), and Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History (Princeton University Press, 2022). At Yale, Cooke teaches lecture courses on American material culture from the fifteenth century to the present as well as an introductory course on global decorative arts and offers seminars on a variety of topics including material culture theory, embodied artisanal knowledge, the American interior, American furniture, and modern craft.

For following the event on our VIMEO platform the link will be published soon: HERE


Scientific Organization: Anna Dumont & Lara Demori

Image: Tea leaf storage jar (named “Chigusa”), Guandong, 13th-14th century; wheelthrown stoneware with iron oxide and wood ash glaze. Cover: China, 15th century; gold brocaded red silk in Tomita Kinran pattern. Freer Gallery, F2016.20.1



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