Japanese name meaning 'Old Blue and White'. 17th century Chinese blue and white porcelain exported to Japan.
Rather coarsely potted blue-and-white porcelains ordered by Japanese tea masters for specific use in the tea ceremony. These wares are entirely in Japanese taste: they often have delightfully eccentric, un-Chinese shapes, and their nonchalant decorative style, as well as many of their motifs, also are Japanese. The bulk of the Ko-sometsuke ("old blue-and-white") wares was produced during the Tianqi period and into the Kangxi period.