Correlation between the Izumiyama porcelain ceramics and the red-overglaze enamels of the Kakiemon-style porcelains

Abstract

The Kakiemon-style porcelains made from 17th century at Arita are famous Japanese porcelains, characterized mainly by their colored underglaze and overglaze and by their original design of coloring spatial patterns in the porcelain surface. Raw materials of the red-overglaze enamels have been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectra using synchrotron radiations. It is found that Izumiyama porcelain ceramics of yellow color can produce the Kakiemon red-overglaze enamels by thermal treatment and water-washing, where Izumiyama is a collecting place of the raw porcelain ceramic at Arita. The brightness of the red-overglaze enamels is related on the local structure around Fe ions and the electronic band states of Fe ions near a Fermi level in alpha-Fe2O3, in addition to the spatial density of the alpha-Fe2O3 fine particles. The structural and electronic properties are slightly affected by an electron-hybridization between Fe ions of alpha-Fe2O3 and oxygen ions of the (SiO2-Al2O3) complexes in the red overglaze. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All fights reserved.