Remembering Local Stories With Beitou-Yaki

Text / 洪侃
Picture provided / 洪侃、楊燁

In 1912, Matsumoto Kametaro, the founder of the hot spring hotel Song Tao Yuan, invited Taizan Yohai, the 9th generation owner of the "Awata ware" (粟田燒) kiln of the Kyowa branch from Kyoto, to establish Beitou Pottery Workshop. The picture is a postcard of Beitou Pottery Workshop, collected by the Hong Ye Studio. (Picture provided: 楊燁 )

Beitou, a small town located at the northernmost tip of Taipei City, is probably one of the most unique administrative districts among the 368 rural urban areas in Taiwan. One reason for this is the geographical characteristics. On a land area of only 57 square kilometers, there is the Guandu Plain, which is as high as the sea level, and the Tatun volcano group, which has the highest elevation of 1,092 meters, presenting diverse geology, natural resources, and natural landscapes. Secondly, it focuses on history. After all, Beitou is one of the first regions in Taiwan to be developed and has a long and glorious history of cultural and social development. Beitou has a rich and long-standing industrial culture that has been nurtured by the intersection of geographic features and historical contexts. Among them, the well-known "Beitou yaki" is not only a product of the combination of nature and humanity in this mountain town, but also the origin of the birth and development of the fine ceramic industry in Taiwan.

Geographically, the area around Guizikeng, which is located at the end of the Datun Mountains in the hilly terrace of the Beitou region, is a Miocene sedimentary area that contains a rich white clay with properties similar to those of porcelain, commonly known as "Beitou clay". Pottery-making techniques have been mastered by Taiwanese indigenous peoples for 6,000 years. As early as the mid-18th century in the Qing dynasty, fine pottery for daily use was also made in Tainan and Nantou. However, it is only in the last hundred years or so that the higher and more delicate porcelain pieces have been made from clay.

Collector and Beitou history researcher Yang Ye has recently discovered the Beitou-yaki Song Tao Yuan Blue and White Pine Branch Cup, which is also marked " Song Tao Yuan " on the body of the cup, proving the connection between Song Tao Yuan and Beitou-yaki. Photo shows "Beitou-yaki Song Tao Yuan blue and white pine branch cup" with its base and sides. 5.7 x 2.7 cm.
(Picture provided: 楊燁)

The Founder of Song Tao Yuan Is Also Known as the "Father of Beitou-Yaki"

Pottery is made from water-washed clay or porcelain clay, which is then dried and burned in a kiln to produce objects with glazed or painted surfaces. The raw material for pottery is colored clay, and the raw material for porcelain is white porcelain and kaolin clay. Chinese ceramics produced in the same region were often named by the name of the place plus the name of the kiln, such as: Yaozhou kiln, Yue kiln. In Japan, it is called "yaki", such as: Arita-yaki. In Taiwan, ceramics made in Beitou were called "Beitou-yaki", following the usage of the Japanese rule.

Before the Japanese rule period, Beitou was an agricultural society. Oral history records that pottery was made in Beitou during the Qing Dynasty. It was only after the early Japanese rule that porcelain production began to develop into a regular industry, capable of producing porcelain with a high temperature firing for people's livelihood. After the Japanese rule, the hot spring tourism industry developed rapidly, and hot spring hotels sprang up in Beitou, which led to its prosperity. Beitou's Guizikeng area is rich in porcelain resources and has abundant hydroelectric resources in the area. Moreover, due to its proximity to Neihu, Songshan, and Keelung, where fuel coal is produced, many factors have contributed to the creation and development of the ceramic industry in Beitou.

Early studies on the history of Beitou ceramics suggest that Beitou pottery began to be manufactured in the late 19th century, at the beginning of the Japanese rule. However, according to more historical and physical discoveries in recent years, as well as Chen Xinsheng's research, it has been confirmed that the first person to introduce Japanese porcelain making techniques to Taiwan wasMatsumoto Kametaro(松本龜太郎) , the founder of the hot spring hotelSong Tao Yuan(松濤園). In 1911, in response to the development of his hot spring hotel business, he started to build a porcelain kiln with the help from Japanese craftsmen and the sufficient resources for porcelain production and objective conditions. It was not until 1912, when he introduced advanced porcelain-making techniques from Japan andinvited Taizan Yohai, the 9thgeneration owner of the "Awata ware" (粟田燒)kiln of theKyowabranch from Kyoto, to establishBeitou Pottery Workshopin Taiwanthat he succeeded in producing ceramics from Beitou clay.Matsumoto Kametaro, who introduced this technique, was thus regarded as the "father of Beitou-yaki".

Collector and Beitou history researcher Yang Ye has recently discovered the Beitou-yaki Song Tao Yuan Blue and White Pine Branch Cup, which is also marked " Song Tao Yuan " on the body of the cup, proving the connection between Song Tao Yuan and Beitou-yaki. Photo shows "Beitou-yaki Song Tao Yuan blue and white pine branch cup" with its base and sides. 5.7 x 2.7 cm.
(Picture provided: 楊燁)

Like Kyoyaki Style, Rich in Elegant Cultural Beauty

Many of Taizan 's works in circulation today have his signature "Beitou" on the bottom of the vessel. Collector and researcher of the history of Beitou, Yang Ye, has recently discovered a rare Beitou-yaki small porcelain cup with the same body, glaze, and painting style as the handiwork of Taizan Yohai, as well as the same Beitou mark on the bottom of the cup. What is special about the cup is that it is also inscribed with "Song Tao Yuan", which is a very important proof of the relationship between Song Tao Yuan and Beitou-yaki. Unfortunately, the period of manufacturing at Beitou Pottery Workshop was very short, ending with the death of Matsumoto Kametaro in 1918, a period of less than seven years.

The style of Beitou-yaki during the Beitou Pottery Workshop is similar to the Japanese Kyoyaki (京燒) style, with the glaze surface densely covered with small open flakes, and the monochromatic glazed ware has a calm and restrained color. The color glaze ware is mostly made of cobalt oxide and iron oxide as raw materials, presenting small and medium-sized vessels in blue and black colors. Although most of the porcelain was made into cups, calendars and vases for people's daily use, the original purpose of the porcelain was to serve as a souvenir for hot spring travelers, which was quite different from our general understanding of daily necessities. Both those with monochromatic glaze and those with literati-like floral painting glaze have beautiful lines and sophisticated brushwork, adding to the artistic elegance to the vessels. This shows the profound skills of the pottery making family in Kyoto, Japan at that time.

In 1919, the Japanese Ushiroku Shintaro acquired the Beitou Pottery Workshop and reorganized it as the Beitou Kiln Co.In 1934, the name was changed to Taiwan Kiln Co., Ltd. and more capital was invested in the establishment of factories to expand the production of tableware, ceramic tiles and industrial refractory tiles for people's livelihood. Beitou-yaki, in the narrow sense, refers to the porcelain for people's livelihood produced by Ushiroku Shintaro during his time in Beitou, as well as the earlier ceramics made by Matsumoto Kametaro in Beitou. The broad definition of Beitou-yaki includes the architectural tiles produced by Ushiroku Shintaro during his time, such as the exterior tiles of existing buildings built during the Japanese rule, such as the Presidential Palace, Zhongshan Hall, and Taipei First Girls High School. Some scholars and experts also classify the post-war Beitou Refractories Factory of the Taiwan Industrial and Mining Corporation as Beitou-yaki because the production of ceramics was made from Beitou clay.

However, Beitou-yaki, in both the narrow and broad definitions, refers to ceramics made in Beitou using local clay and burned in Beitou durinf nearly half a century since 1912. The ceramic wares made by the Tatun Pottery Workshopfounded by Shozaburo Kahmoto in 1923 in Beitou are called "Tatun-yaki". The cups, bowls, and other household utensils made from Beitou clay in Guizikeng were also listed as famous items produced in Beitou during the Japanese rule, along with Beitou-yaki.

Start with Beitou-yaki and Dig into Local Stories

The Beitou Museum, where the author works, was formerly known as the Kazan Hotel, a high-class hot spring hotel built in 1921. The Kazan Hotel is a two-story wooden structure built with a juxtaposition of Japanese and Western styles. The hotel went through several rounds of construction and additions, using Beitou-yaki tiles, a local specialty at that time, in seven hot spring bathrooms and toilets, with more than ten different shapes and types of tiles, such as "13 grooves tiles", "relief tiles" and "cloth tiles". Most of the tiles are glazed in simple and calm colors such as gray-green, brown, light brown, blue, and camouflage. These Beitou-yaki tiles, popular during the Japanese rule period, can still be seen at the museum and at the Tao Ran House.

In 2011, on the occasion of the centennial of the birth of Beitou porcelain, the Beitou Museum together with Mr. Chen Hsin-shang curated the "Porcelain Source - Beitou-yaki Special Exhibition". The exhibition brought together dozens of pieces of Beitou-yaki ceramics from all over Taiwan, almost all of which had been registered at the time, as well as more than a hundred precious artifacts from the ceramic industry and the livelihood of the ceramic industry, including tiles, refractory materials, dishes, vases, etc., which originated in a similar vein from the development of Beitou-yaki. The development and legacy of the ceramic industry in Beitou was systematically presented in a chronological manner. These artifacts, which directly or indirectly bear witness to history, have experienced the changes in Taiwan's society, the development of people's livelihood, and industrial progress. It is all the more meaningful that they have returned to Beitou after a hundred years.