Japanese Pottery Marks: How to Read and Date Them

To identify a Japanese pottery mark, first read any English words, because they date the piece: NIPPON means about 1891 to 1921, and JAPAN or MADE IN JAPAN means after 1921. Then read the Japanese characters, which usually name a maker or kiln, a place, or add a phrase such as 大日本 (Great Japan) or 製 (made by).

The English words come from US import law. The Nippon Collectors Club explains that the McKinley Tariff Act of 1891 required porcelain to be marked with its country of origin, so Japanese makers wrote NIPPON, the Japanese word for Japan. In 1921 the US government required JAPAN instead. Our Nippon mark page covers that period in detail, including the fake Nippon marks that appeared after collector demand rose.

The second dated marking is OCCUPIED JAPAN or MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN, used during the Allied occupation, which the US State Department's Office of the Historian dates to 1945 to 1952. See Occupied Japan mark.

Most Japanese marks are short and follow a pattern: place or country, maker, then a word for made. Oriental Antiques, a UK dealer, gives these building blocks:

• 大日本 (Dai Nippon): Great Japan, a prefix found from the Meiji period onward.
• 製 (sei): made by, as in 真葛香山製, made by Makuzu Kozan.
• Place names such as 九谷 (Kutani) or 薩摩 (Satsuma) name a ware or region rather than a single factory.
• Auspicious characters such as 福 (fuku, happiness) appear alone in a square on many pieces and are not a maker's name.

At the PBS Antiques Roadshow in Boston in 2012, an appraiser read a Makuzu Kozan mark as Dai Nippon Kozan tsukuru, made by Kozan in Great Japan, and noted it was painted in underglaze blue to look like a Ming dynasty mark.

A Chinese reign mark does not prove a piece is Chinese. Oriental Antiques lists apocryphal six-character Chenghua marks and Wanli marks in underglaze blue within double circles on Arita (Imari) porcelain of the Edo and Meiji periods, and Qianlong-style seal marks as well. If a piece with a Chinese reign mark has Japanese-style decoration, an Imari palette or a Japanese maker's mark alongside, compare it with Japanese Arita examples before assuming it is Chinese. Our page on red marks on pottery covers Chinese seal marks.

• Noritake: founded 1904, known for the M in a wreath mark; see Noritake marks.
• Fukagawa Seiji: established 1894, uses a Mount Fuji mark (Oriental Antiques).
• Koransha: the orchid mark, used from the 1870s to today (Oriental Antiques).
• Makuzu Kozan: underglaze blue marks reading 真葛香山製; four generations worked into the mid-20th century (Oriental Antiques).
• Kutani: many workshops, including Kaburaki, founded in 1822, and Taniguchi, 1875 to 1954 (Oriental Antiques).
• Satsuma: many decorating studios, including Kinkozan and Kusube Sennosuke, 1859 to 1941 (Oriental Antiques).

Studio potters sign with a seal or incised signature instead of a factory mark. Chano-yu, a tea-ceramics dealer, notes that Nonomura Ninsei, active 1655 to 1673, is considered the first potter to add his own seal as well as the kiln's name, and lists later names such as Ogata Kenzan (1663 to 1743), Hamada Shoji (1894 to 1978), Kato Tokuro (1896 to 1985) and Bernard Leach (1887 to 1979).

The marks of Meiji-period art studios and named potters carry the highest prices, while generic NIPPON, JAPAN and Occupied Japan export ware is usually modest. Makuzu Kozan is a good example of the top end:

• Makuzu Kozan blue and white bamboo vase, 56 cm, signed Makuzu Kozan sei in underglaze blue: £13,750 including premium at Bonhams Knightsbridge, 9 May 2017.
• Makuzu Kozan porcelain vase of the late 19th century: appraised at $10,000 to $12,000 for auction at the Antiques Roadshow in Boston, 2012 (PBS).

At the other end, Adirondack Girl @ Heart values hand-painted Nippon butter pats at $10 to $15 each (checked 25 September 2026). The mark tells you who made the piece; size, quality of decoration and condition set the price, and famous marks are also the most copied.

Turn the piece over and photograph the mark straight on, filling the frame; for an incised or impressed seal, light it from a low angle so the strokes throw shadows. Take a second photograph of the whole piece. AntiqLens reads the characters and suggests the maker, kiln and period. Check any date it gives against the NIPPON, JAPAN and Occupied Japan rules above.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Prices are copied from the named auction house, dealer or guide with the sale date where the source gives one and the date we checked it; asking prices and estimates are labelled as such, and where a figure could not be confirmed we say so rather than estimate. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.