"Imari" was simply the trans-shipment port for Arita wares, from where they went to the foreign trading outposts at Nagasaki. It was the kilns at Arita which formed the heart of the Japanese porcelain industry.[4]

Arita's kilns were set up in the 17th century, after kaolin was discovered in 1616. A popular legend attributes the discovery to an immigrant Korean potter, Yi Sam-pyeong (1579–1655), although most historians[who?] consider this doubtful. After the discovery, some kilns began to produce revised Korean-style blue and white porcelains, known as Early Imari, or "Shoki-Imari".