Cochin ware or Kochi ware or Jiaozhi ware () is a type of Vietnamese pottery from Northern Province, Vietnam.

History

Koji pottery was brought to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

in the 19th century. The English term "Cochin" derives from the Taiwanese pronunciation '' Jiāozhǐ'' (), which was used to denote

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

( Vietnamese: ''Giao-chỉ''). The region of

Cochinchina Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; ; ; ; ) is a historical exonym and endonym, exonym for part of Vietnam, depending on the contexts, usually for Southern Vietnam. Sometimes it referred to the whole of Vietnam, but it was commonly used to refer t ...

is an example of the term. At that time, Cochin ware consisted mainly of decorations for the walls and roof ridges of temples, including human figures, animals, birds, and flowers in bright, glossy colors. Today, there are only a handful of craftspeople who still possess the traditional Cochin skills, most of whom are in the central-island city of

Chiayi Chiayi (,), officially known as Chiayi City, is a Provincial city (Taiwan), city located in Chianan Plain in Regions of Taiwan, southwestern Taiwan, surrounded by Chiayi County with a population of 263,188 inhabitants as of January 2023. The H ...

Japan

In Japan it is known as Kōchi ware (''Kōchi-yaki''). In the old capital city

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

the masters of the tea ceremony esteem Kōchi ware as small figures of animals, fish, flowers, dragons, the phoenix etc. Initially imported as '' shimamono'', it became a part of

Japanese pottery is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and Japanese art, art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Types have included earthenware, pottery, stoneware, porcelain, and Blue and white porcelain, blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exception ...

. The Koshun kiln () is also a production centre in Kyoto.

References

External links

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Pottery and Porcelain

Chiayi City Koji Pottery Museum

A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Chinese pottery Japanese pottery Arts in Taiwan Cantonese folk art Traditional Chinese architecture