China began to export porcelain by sea in the sixth century. In the 17th century exports fell due to political turmoil. Through the centuries, the techniques of porcelain making expanded to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and in the 17th century, Imari porcelain from Japan was sold to the West, according to Degawa Tetsuro, director of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics Osaka in Japan.

Degawa has supplied the exhibition with fine examples of Imari porcelain from the museum's collection.

For about 100 years, Japan-made ceramics were shipped from the port of Imari to Europe by Holland's East India Company. It was a period when porcelain from the East enjoyed great popularity in Europe, and Imari ceramics became as well-known as those from Jingdezhen in China.