Japanese Pottery Glossary

Bisque-fired bowls lined up on a workshop shelf, unglazed, only throwing rings showing on the pale body

Suyaki (Bisque Firing): What Happens in the Fir...

Suyaki is the first firing, in which a formed piece is hardened at low temperature — around 800°C — before any glaze is applied.

Suyaki (Bisque Firing): What Happens in the Fir...

Suyaki is the first firing, in which a formed piece is hardened at low temperature — around 800°C — before any glaze is applied.

A hakeme shallow bowl on a white ground, white slip swept horizontally across red clay with the brown body showing between the streaks

Hakeme: The Brush-Marked White Slip Technique

Hakeme is the decorative technique of applying white slip with a coarse brush and leaving the vigorous brush marks as scenery.

Hakeme: The Brush-Marked White Slip Technique

Hakeme is the decorative technique of applying white slip with a coarse brush and leaving the vigorous brush marks as scenery.

Close view of a large lobed enamelled plate, peonies, cherry blossom and net patterns filling every space to the rim in red, green, yellow, deep blue and gold

Gosai: The Five Colours of Kutani Overglaze Pai...

Gosai is the style of overglaze painting that colors a surface pictorially around five colors: red, green, yellow, purple and deep blue. It is also called gosai-de.

Gosai: The Five Colours of Kutani Overglaze Pai...

Gosai is the style of overglaze painting that colors a surface pictorially around five colors: red, green, yellow, purple and deep blue. It is also called gosai-de.

A bowl held up in both hands seen from above, fine crazing across an unbleached glaze with a blue crystal spreading like a flower at the centre of the well

Keinen Bika: Pottery That Gets Better With Age

Keinen bika is the idea that pottery grows more beautiful through use and the passage of years.

Keinen Bika: Pottery That Gets Better With Age

Keinen bika is the idea that pottery grows more beautiful through use and the passage of years.

Ko-Kutani style enamelled small bowls arranged together, birds and plants painted in green, yellow, deep blue and red inside fan-shaped panels, each composition different

Ko-Kutani: The Lost 17th-Century Kutani Porcelain

Ko-Kutani refers to the earliest Kutani porcelain, made for only a few decades in the mid-17th century, early in the Edo period, in and around the Kaga domain (now Ishikawa...

Ko-Kutani: The Lost 17th-Century Kutani Porcelain

Ko-Kutani refers to the earliest Kutani porcelain, made for only a few decades in the mid-17th century, early in the Edo period, in and around the Kaga domain (now Ishikawa...

An overhead view of many different pieces laid on linen — a brush-marked bowl, a blue and white small plate, a black square plate, a wooden dish — with two hands lifting a green-glazed bowl at the centre

Ichigo Ichie: One Encounter, Once in a Lifetime

Ichigo ichie means that this encounter will never come again. A phrase from tea, derived from Zen teaching, it expresses the spirit of treasuring a meeting that happens once in...

Ichigo Ichie: One Encounter, Once in a Lifetime

Ichigo ichie means that this encounter will never come again. A phrase from tea, derived from Zen teaching, it expresses the spirit of treasuring a meeting that happens once in...