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Hello. Some fellow collectors of older Japanese pieces are quite adamant that moriage refers only raised matte slip decoration, but that doesn't seem to be what I see here. How would you define moriage? Does it translate into English? Thank you very much.

The online Japanese-English dictionary maintained by Australia's Monash University defines 'moriage' in the ceramics context as 'to pile up' or 'to heap up', and in other usages as 'to stir up' or 'to enliven'.

For reasons unstated, the Noritake Collectors Guild limits the definition of 'moriage' to the beadwork seen in gilt on many pieces, although the technique generally has come into use with regard just about any Japanese raised decoration brushed onto ceramics in the thick mixture of clay and water called 'slip'. This is particularly the case in the elaborately decorated dishes commonly called 'dragonware'.

Some sources attribute the innovation and early popularization of 'moriage' slip painting to studio potter Shofu Katei AKA Shofu Kajo (1870-1928).

Best regards,

Bill H.

Hello Shawn,

I would say; the use of slip (or clay)decoration to give an object a three dimensional look.
Sometimes only dots but it was also used to make bigger surfaces on f.i. dragonware.
What I don't understand is why you wrote that that doesn't seem to be what you see here.

Regards,

Arjan

Thank you for your interesting answers! I collect dragonware, moriage and raised-enamel pieces, and people have different definitions, so I've always been curious.

On here, I saw beading being referred to as moriage. But most of the beading I see is shiny raised enamel glazes, which would mean beading is not moriage in the strict "slip" definition.

Mostly, I've wondered if this "strict" definition was correct and whether the people who actually made these pieces were as precise in naming the different parts of the decorations.

Bill, I've always wondered where moriage started and why I never see any really old pieces. And it died out due to the rising cost of labor (as I understand it), so it actually was a short-lived technique. Interesting!

Thanks again!

In my actual experience with enhancing ceramic surfaces, the terminology for the unglazed matt surfaces and the shiny surfaces differ . The matt is much more highly raised off of the surface and is generally referred to as Moriage. The other is usually over painted with gold and is shiny and generally called raised enamel.

I am searching for the proper combination of clays to make the actual moriage and one that will anneal at a low fire...AKA cone 018 to 010. I suspect that the early moriage of the twentieth century probably contained a lot of lead as did many of their mineral paints. I hope some of you will weigh in on this and maybe even come up with a recipe for the matt 3D clay surface called moriage.

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