Pillow with three-color lotus pond and poetic prose produced by Cizhou Kiln in the Jin Dynasty

Cizhou Kiln was a large kiln system of the northern China in Song and Yuan Dynasty. It had many kilns, which produced various porcelains with different decorative methods. Cizhou Kiln was a big family in the chinaware industry. As for the porcelain pillow, it had different shapes. This pillow represents one type of three-color porcelains in Jin Dynasty. It is the shape of half moon with flat bottom and slight indented surface. The wall of the pillow is gradually large from the top to bottom and is shaped by connecting the mud boards. The surface of the bowl is decorated by a circle of broken tresses and peony patterns engraved with needle-shaped tool.  The central part of the bowl is decorated by the rhombus-shaped and square-shaped patterns.  Incise a lotus, lotus leaf and arrowhead pattern along the two sides of the patterns. The composition of picture is compact and the lines look strong and natural. Inside the area of the patterns, a poem is written in running hand. The poem comes from the “Joy in a Pastoral Life” written by Wang Wei in Tang Dynasty:
“Matured peach is companied by the night rain again, while the willow green brings you the morning smoke. Falling flowers have not been swept by the child monk, and the oriole sings while the mountain visitors are still sleeping”
The old edition is different from the current one, which is as follow:
 “Matured peach is companied by the evening (at night) rain again, while the willow green brings you the morning smoke. Falling flowers have not been swept by the child monk (from monk’s family), and the oriole sings while the mountain visitors are still sleeping”
Thus, people can know that the edition adopt by the kilnmen in Cizhou Kiln is earlier, which shows that the poem on pillow also has its value.
The unique feature of this kind of pillow is that the central part of the pillow is decorated by three colors on the white surface. The same type of pillows, which can be seen in Tokyo National Museum (Picture 1), Idemitsu Museum of Arts (Picture 2)and Masaki Art Museum (Picture 3) in Japan, are similar with the pillow in clay of the molding bed, glaze and decorative methods. Thus, the four pillows can be demonstrated to be in the same kiln. Japanese scholars think that Cizhou Kiln in Hebei (especially Guantai, Hebei) is the production place for these pillows. However, no porcelain of these pillows is found in this area. In recent years, more and more materials prove that those pillows were produced by the kiln in the central part of Henan Province.

Picture 1 Tricolored pillow with the okra pattern on the white surface produced by Cizhou Kiln in the Jin Dynasty, the collection of Tokyo National Museum (donated by Mr.Yokogawa)

Picture 2 Pillow with lotus leaf pattern produced by Cizhou Kiln in the Jin Dynasty, the collection of Idemitsu Museum of Arts

Picture 3 Tricolored pillow with parrot and butterfly patterns on the white surface produced by Cizhou Kiln in the Jin Dynasty, the collection of Masaki Art Museum