What is kakiemon?

CONCLUSIONS

In order to study the ancient porcelain-techniques of the famous Kakiemon-style porcelains developed in the early Edo period of Japan, we carried out the X-ray diffractions (XRD) using the synchrotron radiation for the red-color overglazes and the transparent glazes. The XRD results showed that the elegant brightness of the red-color overglazes results mainly from the micro-structural correlation between the α-Fe2O3 crystalline fine powders, as a red-color emission source, and the surrounding raw oxides of SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, MgO, K2O, Na2O, PbO. Especially, the weak extra peaks observed in the diffraction patterns of the red-color overglazes suggested that the oxygen complexesbased on the Al2O3-SiO2 system having a lager crystallographic unit cell are grown in the fritted overglazes. We are interested that some extra peaks in the diffraction patterns can be indexed by the complex structure of (K,Na)AlSi3O8 and/or CaAl2Si2O8 grown in the red-color overglazes. The complexes are usually observed in natural alumina silicates of Al2O3-SiO2 system including the other oxides of CaO, MgO, K2O, Na2O, PbO so on, as referred in Table I. It is well known that the complexes have a lot of nano-scale cavities. Thus, we consider that the cavities can keep the α-Fe2O3 fine particles, as the red-color enamels, in the glazes and contributes to the elegance and brightness of the red-color overglazes for the Kakiemon-style porcelains. In Figs. 2, 3, 5, and 6 the diffraction patterns of the red-color overglazes and the transparent glazes also show the hallo-like diffuse scatterings, which indicate the glass-state of short-range order in both glazes. Thus, we also consider that the glass-state play an important part for the structural stability of the red-overglaze on the porcelain surface, as a porcelain adhesive. The adhesive function is related to an interfacial fusion of the glasses on the porcelain body.