Detail: For over 1,000 years, from the late 10th to the early 20th century, ceramics for both local use and export have been produced in what are now Fujian and Guangdong provinces. The kilns in this area of South China were privately owned, producing ceramics with a robust and casual quality.

In Japan, the upper classes used these ceramics in daily life and for ceremonial preparations of powdered and leaf tea. Inspired by these ceramics, potters in 18th-century Kyoto began reproducing them at their own kilns.

This exhibition looks at the allure of these ceramics from South China and explores how they influenced the aesthetic tastes of people in Japan.