Marketing Conditions in Britain for Japanese Potters through the eyes of a Japanese Potter

　

Makoto Hatori　　

　　

Artistic works are not exceptions to m arket principles in a market economy. lt is not case that the prices of Japanese artwork is translated into foreign prices simply through application of a starightforward exchange rate, rather, they are influenced by the size of market in each country.

　

I recently had a chance to visit Britain again, one year after my last stay. I frequently heard that the prices for the work of Japanese potters were surprisingly high, but this time I realised that they were not as high as prices for the same goods in Japan.

　

One day I visited an auction house, Bonhams, which is next to the Victoria and Albert Museum. As it was not an auction day, there were few people around. I bought a catalogue and, lookiIlg around the place, I found a Japanese pottery comer. Some of the work there was exhibited together with boxes made from paulownia wood, on which " Hakogaki " (potters' signs) were inscribed. I felt a bid ashamed and sad standirtg there, as Hakogaki, also a very old Japanes tradition, distorts the price of ceramic works in the Japanese market. Some people seem to be buyingi something attached to Hakogaki, not the works themselves. The exhibition of Hakogaki with the pottery gave me the impression that this odd tendency was imported together with the pottery.

　

The works there are quietly waiting for the auction coming a few days later, as if they know the heat of auction. Sma11 pieces by Bearnard Leach, who is we11 known in Japan as we11 as in Britain, cost around 300 pounds, while very Leach-like works cost arou.d 3000 pounds. But these prices are surprisingly low for me.

　

There is no doubt that London is even now the world-center of the antique trade. While the center of new artistic works is considered to be New York, London, is still the center as far as trading is concerned, both in quality and quantity. Considering this, it is interesting to see that Japanese potters' suggested prices at Bonham are considerably lower thatl those in the Japanese maeket. Vases or pots by famous Japanese potters we11 knovm in Britain cost only 600 to 900 pounds. Superbly well-done natural-glazed works cost about 60O pounds. These are the prices for liviflg national treasure's works. Exceptional the prices for big plates, suggested prices for which are from l500 to 1800 pounds. Still the prices are several times higher in Japan. What's more, the suggested prices are nothing more than a target, as there must surely be cases where they are traded at much lower prices.

　

British byers may be confused if they see Japanese potters show, say, in London, where their works are priced according to the Japanese domestic price, as market prices in Britain are obviously quite different from those in Japan. What would happen if the prices of "chato" (peices used in the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony), which are detemined by a very specific formula in Japan's very close'd and special market, are directly imported to Britain?

　

I am commenting only on the problem of pricing here: the artistic value of such work is quite another matter. I know not all British are interested in exhibitions whose name includes the word "Japan". Only those who are specially interested in Japanese arts are attracted to them. Even for those who have a good knowledge of Japanese pottery, it might be confusing to see a small tea-bowl costing more than very big works such as plates.

　

Even if some works in exhibitios are sold at the potters' suggested prices, we cannot say they are traded according to market principles if they are sold to Japanese companies or Japanese buyers in Britain. The suggested prices in Bonham, which are much lower than in Japan, seem to correspond to nonnal market prices in Britain.

　

The prices of works of Bernard Leach or Hamada Shoji, both beihg much respected figures in Britain, are surprisingly low for buyers who are used to Japanese pricing. This shows that Japanesce pricing is determined not only on artistic value or market principle but also crucially by the "name value" of individual potters. British pricing may reflect a tendency in Britain in which a wide range of Japanese pottery is getting attention from a wider perspective, unlike in the past where they were regarded mostly as folk handicrafts, advocated by Leach and Hamada.

　

It is not dsirable to impose the pricing system peculiar to the Japanese ceramics market, which is not on1y based on the artistic values of the works but also on the namel-values of individual potters. Like industrial products, ceramics as art will obtain universality by world-wide trading through internationally accepted pricing.

　

LA CERAMIQUE MODERNE, JOURNAL TECHNIQUE ET ARTISTIQUE MENSUEL, Nombre 337, pp.10-11 (FEVRIER 1994) 22, rue Le Brun -75013 PARIS

　

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