| Methods & Techniques of Imari Decoration |
Earliest Imari porcelain ware was hand painted in under glazed blue. This method is known as sometsuke in Japanese. Later when the color decoration was applied over the glazed porcelain, this became known as akae which means colored ware. A term, iroe can be also used to describe of this type of porcelain. Kakiemon style porcelain was produced in this period. Nishikide porcelain is a type of iroe porcelain with more colors & designs which resembles to the colorful nishiki weaving. When European market found Imari ware as highly decorative art, they desired more colors & more patterns spread to the ware. By combining the methods of sometsuke & nishikide with much gold decoration they produced the gorgeous kinran-de porcelain which can be also known as somenishiki for the domestic market. A term, iroe can be also used to describe all the porcelain or pottery ware with color decoration in general.
