Hakuji

Hakuji (白磁^?) is a form of Japanese pottery and porcelain, normally white porcelain, which originated as an imitation of Chinese Dehua porcelain. Today the term is used in Japan to refer to plain white porcelain.

It's always plain white without colored patterns and is often seen as bowls, tea pots, cups and other Japanese tableware. It was also used for small figurines, mostly for Buddhist and sometimes Christian religious figures and Japanese genre figures. Like other plain wares, it was appropriate use for various types of vessels for religious use. It was originally developed for the Japanese market, but became one of Japanese export porcelain.

Dehua white porcelain is traditionally known among Japanese as hakugorai or “Korean White Ware.” Although Korai is a term for an ancient Korean kingdom, the term also functioned as a ubiquitous term for various products from the Korean peninsula.

This is not to suggest that historically Japanese were entirely oblivious to the existence of the Fujian province kilns and their porcelain, now known as Dehua or Blanc de Chine ware (a French term for Chinese white porcelain which is in common usage in the West).

The Dehua kilns are located in Fujian province, opposite the island of Taiwan, was traditionally a trade center for the Chinese economy with its many ports and urban centers. Fujian white ware was meant for all of maritime Asia.

However, a large quantity of these ceramics were intended for a Japanese market before drastic trade restrictions by the mid 1600s. Items were largely Buddhist images and ritual utensils utilized for family altar use. Wares associated with funerals and the dead have perhaps led to a certain disinterest in this ware among present day Japanese, despite an intense interest in other aspects of Chinese ceramic culture and history.

Many examples of the great beauty of this ware have made their way to collections in the west from Japan. Among the countless Buddhist images meant for the Japanese market are those with strongly stylized robes that show an influence from the Kano School of painting that dominated Tokugawa Japan. It seems certain that Dehua white ware was made with Japanese taste in mind.

...
Wikipedia