107 In Edo Japan, to become a courtesan of the highest class required years of training, and getting access to these women was not granted to just anyone. Their clients had to pay them high sums of money and also needed to ‘win them over’ to gain their favour. The pleasure industry of which the bijin were a part was known as ukiyo, meaning ‘floating world’, and their beauty and expensive garments formed a major source of inspiration for the ukiyo-e – images of the entertainment industry in general – in which the subjects were often portrayed on an undecorated background (fig. 2).1 These prints were purchased by people who had visited the pleasure district and served as mementos. It is likely that ukiyo-e served as models for the porcelain bijin and also possible that the figures were reminders of a wonderful evening spent with a high-class courtesan. Interestingly, the oldest Japanese reference to a porcelain bijin from 1807 mentions that a figure in a seated pose was owned by the famous haiku poet Konishi Raizan (1634–1716), who wrote the short essay Onna ningyō noki (Account of a female figurine) in which he refers to his piece.2 These porcelain figures were produced at Arita on the island of Kyushu, where Japanese porcelain was first developed in the early seventeenth century with the help of Korean potters forcibly relocated from Korea. By the late seventeenth century production was in full bloom and the highest-quality products were made at the Kakiemon kiln. The popularity of this porcelain with its bright enamel colours led to other makers in Arita starting to produce pieces in the Kakiemon style. It is not clear whether these Kakiemon bijin figures were produced at the actual Kakiemon kiln or in other workshops. It is very unlikely that European collectors were aware of what these figures embodied, but with their foreign looks and dress they must have been veritable curiosities. They would have been displayed together with other porcelain pieces, either placed on a pedestal on a wall, on a console table, or other pieces of furniture, as can still be seen in the mirror room at Schloss Weikersheim (see essay Van den Berg, fig. 9). The fact that a relatively limited number of bijin figures arrived in Europe will have made them more expensive than other objects such as vases, dishes and the like. Figures of various kinds were already being shipped by the Dutch from Japan to Europe as early as 1659.3 Those produced in the Kakiemon palette were mainly exported between 1670 and 1700. It seems that from the eighteenth century onward the demand for these objects diminished, probably to a large extent because of the development of European porcelain at Meissen, Vienna and elsewhere. These manufactories were able to produce figures that were more in line with European taste, such as chinoiserie sculptures or representations of ‘gallant’ loving couples. Fig. 2 A courtesan and her servant Japan, 1661/1672 Ink and colours on paper Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum (on loan from the Vereniging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst) Inv. AK-MAK-1167 1 Not only women were portrayed in the ukiyo-e, but also, for example, famous kabuki actors. 2 Van den Berg 2017, 29. 3 Ayers, Impey and Mallet 1990, 175.
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