Please cite this article in press as: R. Montanari, et al., A polychrome Mukozuke (1624–1644) porcelain offers a new hypothesis on the introduction of European enameling technology in Japan, Journal of Cultural Heritage (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2017.12.010 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model CULHER-3323; No. of Pages 6 Journal of Cultural Heritage xxx (2017) xxx–xxx Available online at ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com Case study A polychrome Mukozuke (1624–1644) porcelain offers a new hypothesis on the introduction of European enameling technology in Japan Riccardo Montanari a,∗ , Maria Francesca Alberghina b , Annalaura Casanova Municchia c , Emanuela Massa d , Anna Pelagotti e , Claudia Pelosi f , Salvatore Schiavone b , Armida Sodo c a Via Giacinto Carini 32, 00152 Rome, Italy b S. T. Art-Test di S. Schiavone & C, Italy c Università Roma Tre, Dipartimento di Scienze, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Rome, Italy d Art-Test di E. Massa & C, Italy e CNR-INO, L. go E. Fermi 5, 50125 Florence, Italy f University of Tuscia, Laboratory of Diagnostics and Materials Science, Largo dell’Università, 01100 Viterbo, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 19 June 2017 Accepted 19 December 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Arita overglaze yellow enamel Lead antimonate yellow Italian Renaissance Jesuit Kakiemon Japanese porcelain a b s t r a c t This study was carried out in an attempt to resolve the issue of the introduction of overglaze enamel- ing in Japan through non-destructive analysis of the overglaze enamels that decorate the only known polychrome mukozuke dish (to be used in the tea ceremony) bearing the early Japanese date mark ‘Kan’ei Nen Sei’ (made in the Kan’ei period) (1624–1644). The investigation focused specifically on the overglaze yellow enamel and the underglaze blue pigment, for they could provide valuable information on the pro- duction workshop and geographical area of origin. Owing to the extraordinary importance and extreme rarity of this newly-discovered dish, it was mandatory not to sample it. Therefore, Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) and Raman spectroscopy were used to obtain, in a non-destructive way, both elemental and molecular information about the coloring agent present in the yellow overglaze enamel. The underglaze-blue pigment at the base mark was also investigated. Besides a detailed lit- erature research, a comparison was made with the chemical composition of fully identified and dated polychrome decorated Chinese and Japanese porcelains, and the results are reported in this work. The obtained analytical evidence has proved to be crucial in identifying the first use of Naples Yellow in Japan, and in resolving the issue of the origin of overglaze enameling, providing the missing step that actually led to the first development of the technique in Arita in the 1630s. Furthermore, it has shown that the Raman shift of the Pb mode of the A 2 O’ lattice is greatly affected by the firing temperature for enamel decoration, and that this specific characteristic of Naples Yellow, along with its elemental composition, can help determine its area of origin and period of manufacture. © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction and research aim The introduction of overglaze enameling in Japan is a case still open today. It has been suggested that this technique may have been introduced from China in the late 1640s [1,2], although the early enamels developed in Arita, the center of porcelain production in Japan, included an overglaze blue, made of cobalt salts coming from imported cobalt ores [3,4], that did not belong either to the late Ming Jingdezhen palette or to the Swatow repertoire, the latter ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ckrm97@yahoo.com (R. Montanari). exhibiting an overglaze enamel which is turquoise rather than blue [5–8]. Another possible origin of the technique has been identified in the early Kyoto wares, Japan [5], but enamels developed in Arita do not resemble them [5] and may have been as early as those decorating Kyoto wares. So, the opposite may be true [7,8]. The recent discovery of an extremely rare and precious overglaze-enameled mukozuke dish (belonging to a European private collection) bearing the earliest Japanese date-mark ever inscribed on any piece of colored porcelain ‘Kan’ei Nen Sei’ (made in the Kan’ei period) (1624–1644) (Fig. 1 a, b) could be an important contribution to this open debate. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2017.12.010 1296-2074/© 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.