In Japanese history, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are generally described as a period of political upheaval leading to relative social stability, a time when Japan was transformed from the late mediaeval "Country at War" or "Warring States" to the unified bakuhan system of the early modern period. This process involved not only a change of rulers and a cessation of fighting but a fundamental transformation in the structures of government, social relations, and the economy. These two centuries overlap three separate units in the standard periodization of Japanese history: the Muromachi period (1333-1568), the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600) and the Edo period (1600-1868). Despite the political changes that define these temporal divisions, there are underlying themes of continuity that stretch across the periods. These themes are visible in the realms of cultural development, markets and networks of commodity exchange, and international relations.

There is a body of largely untapped historical resources that could significantly aid in the study of these two centuries - ceramic objects that have been preserved in collections, unearthed from archaeological sites, or recorded in tea diaries, transport logs, and tax documents. Due to their unique "temporal tenacity," ceramic objects represent a tangible record of divergent historical forces and events waiting to be read along with documentary evidence by scholars. Unlike frail paper, flammable wood, fragile glass, or rustable metal, pots possess a quality of durability practically unmatched in other products of human labor. Once a ceramic object has been fired in the high temperatures of a kiln, the clay undergoes a chemical transformation that fixes its form in a permanent signature. Even when no longer used, pots are most often given away, broken into pieces (called shards or sherds), buried, or thrown into the sea, where they are preserved until excavation. Such records of the production, exchange, and consumption of ceramics represent a huge body of historical evidence, particularly valuable when used together with documentary sources.

This essay briefly reviews the range of sources on ceramics and then proposes several methods of situating them in the study of Japanese history, focusing on proto-industrialization, East and Southeast Asian commerce and cultural flow, patterns of collection and commodification, and status and social relations. It concludes with two short case studies from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, perhaps the most important period in the development of Japanese ceramics. Detailed bibliographic notes have been included throughout in an attempt to point the way towards the broad range of source materials and theoretical models that are available for the study of ceramics in the history of Japan. Greater use of such sources would reinvigorate the study of that country's past by making more explicit the role of the arts and material culture in the social, economic, and political spheres.