Things you must know about Jian kiln

1. Introduction

In June 1935, James Marshall Plumres (1899-1960), an American who worked at the Shanghai Customs in China, inspected the site of a kiln and wrote the book “Investigation of Tenmoku Porcelain”.

He hired local villagers to excavate eight baskets of black glazed ceramics and transported them back to the United States. One year later, the London News Illustrated published three full-page pictures of Pluma’s investigation in Jianyang, which attracted the attention of scholars. Since then, Jian kiln has come into people’s sight.

Jian kiln, one of the eight famous kilns of the Song Dynasty. The kiln site is located in Shuiji Town, Jianyang County, Fujian Province, and is famous for firing black glazed porcelain. It originated in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and stopped firing in the Ming Dynasty.

In the 1960s and 1970s, teachers and students from Xiamen University excavated the Luhuaping kiln site in Jianyang. They achieved many significant results, confirming that Jianzhan was fired in the local “Loong Kiln” (A traditional form of kiln in southern China, named after its shape resembling a dragon built on a hillside).

2. Shuiji Town – The main location of Jian Kiln

Shuiji Town is a hilly area with beautiful mountains and waters and a pleasant climate. It has been a famous tea-producing area since ancient times. There are six kiln sites in the Houjing and Chizhong Village area in Shuiji Town: Luhuaping, Niupilun, Dalu Houmen, Yingchangqian, Yuanyuankeng, and Anwei Mountain.

Through archaeological excavations, it was found that there were dozens of ‘Loong kilns’ distributed in this small mountain valley, with a total area of about 130000 square meters.

The largest 135-meter Loong kiln can burn 100000 pieces of pottery at once, but its qualification rate is not high. Therefore, the kiln’s firing will generate a large amount of waste, which is also an essential reason for its decline.

3. Jian Zhan Tenmoku Tea Cup – Jian Kiln’s iconic product

Jian Kiln has been producing ceramics since the Tang Dynasty, but the earliest production was not the well-known black glazed porcelain but celadon.

The product is not limited to tea bowls but includes tea cups, plates, boxes, jars, pots, lamps, and more. After a long development period, it mainly focused on firing black glazed tea bowls and peaked in the Song Dynasty.

Jianzhan Tenmoku Tea Cup is a representative of black glazed porcelain. Every tenmoku tea cup comes to the world after hardships, and each one is unique, which makes people cherish it.

There are no two identical Jianzhan in the world because people cannot control the pattern of the Jianzhan; even the craftsmen themselves can’t predict the kind of appearance of the Jianzhan, so each Jianzhan is a work of art.

4. Characteristics Jian Kiln’s craftsmanship

The main product of Jian kiln is the black glazed tea bowl, characterized by high iron content and thickness in the cup body, appearing black-grey or purple-black, rough and rugged in texture, and dark and dull in exposed areas.

The design is diverse, with different forms, such as large and small openings. The circular feet at the bottom of the tea bowl are tiny.

The Jianzhan cup has a metallic lustre, the glaze is black, the cup body is covered with glaze, and the bottom of the cup is bare without glaze. There are apparent sagging and kiln changes on the glaze surface, including famous varieties such as “hare’s fur “, “oil spot”, “yohen tenmoku”, and “partridge spot”.

5. The decline of Jian Kiln

Although kilns were produced in the mid to Yuan Dynasty, they were not as good as before. After investigating the reasons, there are generally the following points:

1) The trend of tea-fighting customs in the Yuan Dynasty had declined, and the method of brewing and drinking tea replaced the method of Diancha in the Song Dynasty. The tea bowl begins to transition to a white cup. The change in tea drinking habits has led to a decrease in demand for black glazed porcelain, which is the fundamental reason for the decline of Jian kiln.

2) Changes in aesthetic concepts. Song porcelain is famous for its simple and steady style, with Jianzhan being one of its representatives. In the Yuan Dynasty, pursuing luxury and worshipping colourful teaware led to gradually replacing Jian kiln porcelain with other colours.

3) Competition from replicas. With the spread of tea culture, tea planting, and porcelain-making technology, Jian kilns have cultivated their competitors—for example, Seto Tenmoku in Japan. The imitations in Mount Wuyi, Fuqing and other places in Fujian Province were also fired in large quantities, which eventually interrupted the firing of Jian kiln in Shuiji Town.

6. Jian Kiln’s Revival

1) Starting in 1979, artisans resumed their skills in Jian kilns and pottery, and after years of hard work, they finally got the Jianzhan

2) In 2009, the craftsmanship of Jian kilns and cups was included in the intangible cultural heritage list of Fujian Province

3) On May 23, 2011, the craftsmanship of Jian kilns and cups was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list

In recent years, the Song Dynasty Jianzhan has been popular in the auction market, with transaction prices steadily increasing. The skills of modern artisans have gradually matured, resulting in many excellent works and masterpieces.

From Shuiji Town to Jianyang, as well as other provinces and cities in Fujian Province, mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, and Spain, many people are studying and imitating the Jianzhan. Modern Jianzhan handicrafts have also begun to form a stable market, and Jian kiln has ushered in its prosperous period.