Kowatari, Nakawatari and Shinto: Chinese Pots in Japan

For centuries the most admired bonsai pots in Japan came from China, above all from the potteries of Yixing in Jiangsu. Japanese collectors sort these Chinese pots not by Chinese dynasty but by when they crossed to Japan, watari 渡り, a system that has become the international language of antique bonsai pots.

Term Japanese Meaning Approximate period
Kowatari 古渡 Old crossing Made before about 1800
Nakawatari, chūwatari 中渡 Middle crossing Exported roughly 1816–1911, mostly late nineteenth century
Shinto, shin-watari 新渡 New crossing Made roughly 1911–1940, often to Japanese order

Different authorities draw the lines a little differently; treat the dates as a guide rather than a rule.

Kowatari

The oldest pots are rare and revered: usually unglazed Yixing stoneware in purplish browns and reds, of quiet, perfect proportions and a surface softened by centuries. Many were not made as bonsai pots at all, but adopted for trees by Japanese connoisseurs.

Nakawatari

Pots of the middle crossing arrived in numbers in the late nineteenth century, when Japanese demand grew with the Meiji enthusiasm for bonsai. Some began as incense burners or other vessels, with carved feet and shallow forms that suited trees.

Shinto

In the early twentieth century Yixing workshops produced pots specifically for the Japanese trade, sometimes to designs sent by Japanese dealers. Good shinto pots are well made and widely used; they taught the Tokoname potters much about form.

Collecting notes

  • Old Japanese wooden boxes with inscriptions, hakogaki, are valuable evidence of a pot's history. See the Glossary of Box Inscriptions.
  • Patina, wear on the feet and the colour of the clay inside the drainage hole help to judge age.
  • Later copies of famous forms are common; a good provenance in a Japanese collection is reassuring.

In the collection

Browse bonsai and suiseki and Chinese decorative arts. Our curator desk can search Japan for a particular pot, stone or stand; replies follow within 1–3 business days.

See also

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