How Japanese Pottery Takes Shape
From the same clay and the same glaze, the form still changes with the character of the maker and the technique used to shape it — and that is what makes japanese ceramics so interesting.
A bowl thrown on the wheel is strikingly thin, evenly balanced, and holds the smooth concentric marks your finger can trace. A bowl formed by hand (tebineri) varies in thickness from place to place, its rim rippling slightly, and settles into the palm as though drawn to it. Neither is better than the other. When the making method differs, the character a piece expresses differs with it.
In the previous article on glaze, we wrote about what decides colour. This time it is form. Once you can recognise how the shape of a piece came about, the way you choose changes.
This article traces the full sequence by which clay becomes a finished piece, introduces five shaping techniques, and finally explains how to choose a piece by its shaping technique.
We have covered how glaze changes the expression of a piece in the article below — please have a look.
From Clay to Finished Piece
Before turning to shaping techniques, it helps to see the whole of how a piece is made. Shaping is only one scene within a long sequence.
① Digging the clay
Everything begins with clay. Its properties differ completely from region to region, and that difference decides the character of the piece. Shigaraki clay is coarse and holds grains of feldspar; Arita clay is white and dense, ground from porcelain stone. Clay can be carried, but some qualities belong only to the ground it came from.
② Wedging the clay
Clay cannot be used as it comes out of the ground. Stones and impurities are removed, it is slaked in water and strained, then left to rest until it develops plasticity. After that come two stages of wedging.
Ara-neri (rough wedging) — the first wedging, which drives out the large air pockets and makes the body uniformly firm.
Kiku-neri (chrysanthemum wedging) — the finishing wedging. As the clay is turned and pressed, a spiral resembling chrysanthemum petals appears, which is how the technique got its name. It exists to drive out every last air bubble, and if it is neglected, those bubbles expand during firing and the piece cracks.
Three years for kiku-neri, ten years for the wheel — the saying tells you how much practice this unglamorous stage demands.
③ Shaping
This is our subject. Throwing on the wheel, forming by hand, coiling, building from slabs, casting in a mould. We look at each in detail in the second half of this article.
④ Trimming and decorating
The shaped piece is dried to leather-hard, the kodai (foot ring) is trimmed away, and the thickness is evened out overall. Carved decoration such as mentori (faceting) or shinogi (fluting) may also be applied at this stage. Trimming is sculpture by subtraction, not addition — and it is here that the weight and the feel in the hand are decided.
Hakeme (brushed slip) and tobikanna (chatter marks), and the slip ground for kohiki, also belong to this stage.
⑤ Drying
The piece is dried completely. Rushing causes warping and cracking, so it is given time, with an eye on the season and the weather.
⑥ Bisque firing
Fired at a low temperature of around 800°C to produce a porous body. Going through suyaki (bisque firing) makes the piece easier to handle and helps the glaze take.
⑦ Underglaze painting
Designs are painted onto the bisque-fired piece. The indigo patterns of sometsuke, drawn in cobalt, belong here. Because they sit beneath the glaze, this is called shita-etsuke (underglaze painting).
⑧ Glazing
Dipping, pouring, spraying. For the detail, please see the article on glaze.
⑨ Glaze firing
Fired to 1,200–1,300°C. Here the glaze vitrifies and the clay body tightens. This is the moment the piece takes its final form, and the atmosphere in the kiln (oxidising or reducing) together with the temperature decides the colour.
⑩ Overglaze painting
On top of the glaze-fired piece, designs are painted in red, gold, green and other colours, then fired on at around 800°C. Akae (red overglaze) and the polychrome enamels of Kutani belong here. Because uwa-etsuke (overglaze painting) sits on the glaze, you can feel a faint relief when you run a finger across it.
⑪ Finished
Getting this far takes a few weeks at the fastest, and several months for a wood-fired kiln. This is how many stages it takes for a single piece to come into being.
The Five Shaping Techniques
Now to our subject. The ways of giving a piece its form divide broadly into five. Each shaping technique gives a piece a different expression — and when the strength of the maker’s hands and their own distinctive skill are added to it, that expression changes further still.
Tebineri (hand forming) — the oldest and the freest
Tebineri is shaping clay with the hands alone, using no tools. A thumb is pushed into a lump of clay to open a hole, and the wall is raised by pinching between the fingers. It is how humankind first made pottery, and it is still the freest method there is.
A hand-formed piece is never uniform in thickness. The rim ripples, and the cross-section never quite closes into a circle. But that is precisely the value of tebineri: the trace of a human hand turned directly into form, the opposite pole from the balance of the wheel.
Raku ware tea bowls are made this way. Even though the wheel would be faster and more accurate, the maker chooses the hands instead. What Sen no Rikyū sought was not a perfect circle but a form made to be cradled. Pick up a raku tea bowl and it settles into the hollow of your palm with startling ease. That is no accident — it was made within a palm.
Himozukuri (coiling) — building by stacking
Coiling is a technique in which clay is rolled into long ropes and stacked in a spiral to build up the wall. The stacked coils are smoothed and joined with fingers or a rib, and the inside and outside are worked even.
Its greatest advantage is that it can produce sizes and shapes the wheel cannot. Large storage jars, tall urns, asymmetrical flower containers. The wheel can only make circles; coiling is free to make ovals or angles. Jōmon earthenware and the great jars of the six ancient kilns were both made this way.
Smoothed carefully, the traces of the coils disappear — but some makers deliberately leave the ridges of the coils showing. It is a way of thinking that treats the visible record of the stacking itself as part of the piece’s landscape.
Tatara-zukuri (slab building) — assembled from sheets
Tatara-zukuri is a technique in which clay is cut into sheets (tatara) of even thickness and assembled into a form. Cutting, bending, joining — the working method is closer to woodwork or paper craft.
It produces the flat planes, straight lines and angles the wheel can never make: square plates, long plates, square bowls, flower containers with clearly defined faces. Pieces made from slabs have a distinct edge to their outline, and that tightens the composition when food is placed on them.
Bend a slab over a mould and you can also make gentle curves. Because even thickness is a precondition, shrinkage during drying is predictable, which brings the practical benefit that even large flat plates are unlikely to warp.
Ikomi (slip casting) — poured into a mould
Slip casting is a technique in which liquid clay called slip is poured into a plaster mould. As the plaster draws out the water, a layer of clay forms along the inner wall of the mould. At the right moment the excess slip is poured off, and the layer that remains becomes the piece.
Its greatest advantage is that the same form can be made accurately, many times over. Complex shapes such as handles and spouts can be reproduced as long as the mould exists. In regions that make everyday japanese pottery, such as Hasami ware, this technique plays a major role.
“Made in a mould, therefore mechanical and of lesser value” is a common reading, but it is not an accurate one. Making the mould is itself an advanced act of form-making — designing the master model, calculating the shrinkage rate, working out how the mould divides — and every part of it involves an artisan’s judgement. Above all, an even thinness and lightness is a territory only casting can reach.
Rokuro (wheel throwing) — the balance that rotation creates
Rokuro, throwing on the wheel, is a technique that uses centrifugal force on a rotating disc to draw the clay up into a form. It is the most widely used method in Japan, and the emblematic image of pottery-making itself.
There are two kinds of wheel. The electric wheel (denki-rokuro) is turned by a motor. The kick wheel (ke-rokuro) is turned by the foot, and because its speed is not constant, that fluctuation shows up in the piece.
The defining feature of a thrown piece is the concentric ridges left on the inside, called rokurome, or throwing lines. Run a finger along them and the speed and pressure with which the maker drew the clay upward is transmitted straight to your fingertip. Stroke the inside of a piece you have bought. If there is a spiral trace, that is proof it was thrown on the wheel.
While it can produce thin, light, evenly balanced forms, it cannot escape the circle. Ovals and angular shapes must either be altered after throwing, or left to another technique.
Choosing Japanese Pottery by Shaping Technique
The point is not to memorise the names of techniques. The point is to become able to choose japanese pottery that suits your own life. Let us think about it from three angles.
① Choosing by use
| What you want | Suited technique | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Light, thin everyday pieces | Wheel throwing, slip casting | Both can be made evenly thin. For pieces washed and stacked daily, these two are strong |
| A matching set | Slip casting | The same form is reproduced accurately. For guests or for the whole family, this is the one |
| Something to cradle in the hand | Tebineri | A form made within a palm fits a palm. Ideal for tea bowls and guinomi sake cups |
| To tighten the outline of a dish | Tatara-zukuri | Straight lines and edges compose the food. Square plates, long plates |
| Large pieces with presence | Himozukuri | Sizes beyond the diameter of the wheel, and asymmetrical forms |
② Choosing by how it feels in the hand
This is something we would like you to confirm by actually touching. Even the same “bowl” feels completely different in the hand depending on the shaping technique.
With a thrown piece, the finger travels smoothly. You feel the concentric ridges, but nothing catches. Lightness and balance are the source of the comfort.
With a hand-formed piece, the finger stops. Differences in thickness, faint unevenness, asymmetry. Your hand holds it while searching out the form, and you are that much more conscious of the piece. For a yunomi tea cup you use every morning the wheel is easier, but for a bowl you drink tea from slowly on a day off, the catch of tebineri becomes a kind of richness.
With a slab-built piece, the edge of the rim meets the finger. A clearly defined outline becomes, directly, a sense of touch.
③ Choosing by what matters most to you
Finally — and this may be the heart of it.
If you want a one-of-a-kind piece, choose tebineri or coiling. No two are ever the same. The condition of the maker’s hands on the day it was made comes out directly in the form.
If you want to trust it as a tool, choose the wheel or casting. Even, easy to handle, and if one chips there is a chance of obtaining the same thing again. The japanese ceramics that support daily life need this stability.
And here is what matters most: which technique was chosen is a statement of what the maker wanted from that piece. There are makers who can use the wheel and deliberately form by hand. There are makers who could make a mould and instead throw each one. When you can see as far as the reason for that choice, a piece stops being “a product” and becomes “that person’s judgement.”
So when you choose japanese pottery, try asking this. Why did this person choose this way of making?
How to Tell the Shaping Techniques Apart
Finally, here are the practical points for telling how the piece in your hands was made.
Where there are concentric ridges on the inside, it is wheel throwing. Run a finger along and you feel the spiral.
Where the thickness varies from place to place and the rim ripples, it is tebineri, hand forming. Often the cross-section is not a complete circle either.
Where seams or ridges run horizontally, it is coiling. They show when the smoothing has not been carried all the way.
Where there are angles, broad flat planes, or the appeal of a straight-edged rim, it is most often slab building.
Where a seam runs vertically, where the piece is extremely even and light, or where several of the same form exist, you can take it that slip casting has been used to achieve that evenness. The join of the mould can remain as a vertical line.
Choosing a Piece with Its Glaze Colour and Its Making in Mind
At Nokaze we handle japanese pottery from makers who throw on the wheel, makers who form by hand, makers who assemble from slabs — pieces that keep the trace of each of those hands. For every one of them, you know the maker’s name and their own words.
Which way of making suits your hand? Begin simply by looking at the pieces.
See japanese pottery at Nokaze →
Where to Buy Japanese Pottery Online
Looking for authentic handmade japanese pottery for sale? At Nokaze, every piece is sourced directly from Japanese ceramic artists and kiln studios across Japan — thrown, hand-formed, coiled, slab-built or cast, with the maker’s name and story attached. Whether you are looking for japanese gift ideas or building a first collection of japanese ceramics, you can browse the full collection online.
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