Artisan Furutani Pottery | Making Kohiki White an Everyday Piece in Shigaraki
There are two kinds of white pottery: pieces where the clay itself is white, and pieces where white has been laid over colored clay.
Furutani Pottery in Shigaraki, Shiga, makes the second kind. Iron-rich red clay is covered with white slip, then glazed and fired. The technique is called kohiki, and the white sits there as an applied layer.
This article covers how the kohiki white is made, and why Furutani's pieces get chosen as an everyday white.
What has arrived from Furutani Pottery is gathered in Furutani Pottery. The white falls differently on every piece, so compare them in the photographs.
Kohiki: white laid over red clay
Furutani works with iron-rich red clay blended in-house. Fired bare it would come out red-brown, so white slip is laid over it to make it white.
Kohiki white is therefore not the even white of porcelain. The depth of white shifts with the thickness of the layer, and at the rim and around the foot the white thins out and the red clay shows through. That red-brown edge is where kohiki looks most like itself.
For the technique itself, see kohiki and white slip; for how it differs when the slip is swept on with a brush, see hakeme.
The slip layer is less dense than glaze and takes in water. That is why kohiki pieces develop over time, and also why they ask for a little attention.
Fired twice, at low heat
What sets Furutani apart is that the main firing is done twice, at a low temperature.
Kohiki is usually bisque-fired, slipped, glazed, then tightened in a single hot firing. Furutani splits that, firing twice at lower heat. It takes more work, and in exchange the white comes out soft, with no hard edges.
Kohiki tightened in one hot firing is crisp and sharp. Kohiki fired twice low returns light gently. Even within kohiki, where you stop the firing changes the character of the white.
Shigaraki ware is known for coarse, rugged clay, but Furutani's work runs in a different direction: local clay, resolved in white. Within Shigaraki ware it is a clearly distinct group.
See the kohiki white in the photographs
Fired twice at low heat, the white shows its red-brown rim clearly even in a photograph. Every rice bowl in the same size carries the slip differently, so you can compare and choose.
Browse Furutani PotteryIn Shigaraki since 1970
Furutani Pottery was founded in 1970 by Nobuo Furutani. It works with Shigaraki clay but builds around kohiki rather than the unglazed firing the region is known for.
Their stated aim is to stay close to daily life. As eating and living change, the same shape gets adjusted a little at a time. Rather than protecting a finished form, they let it move with how it is used.
Everything is made by hand at every stage. So even two large rice bowls differ slightly in how the white falls and in weight. These are pieces where comparing them one by one in photographs is worth doing.
Not only white: iron lines, gosu lines, sabi glaze
Kohiki is the axis, but the surfaces divide into a few families. Here they are, set out so you can compare.
| Name | How it looks | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Fuchi-ara kohiki | Kohiki white with rough iron breaking at the rim. The border of white and red-brown becomes the view | The baseline. Takes any dish |
| Tate-tessen, ara-tessen | Iron lines drawn vertically or horizontally on white. Width and spacing change the effect | When plain white feels thin. Works with Japanese and Western food |
| Gosu-sen | Blue lines in gosu. The clearest contrast against the white | Rice dishes, the morning table |
| Sabi glaze, tetsuchiri | A brown glaze settled dark, or a surface scattered with iron specks | Pale food, bread, or as a Western plate |
Some pieces step away from kohiki entirely, like the grey-glazed octagonal plates. Keep everything white, or mix one darker piece into the white. Either resolves. What is currently in stock is on Furutani Pottery.
The apple pieces, Furutani's signature
Say Furutani Pottery and the first thing named is the apple pieces.
They take the form of an apple exactly, worked down to the stem when seen from above. In an otherwise round piece, that one point rises. Your finger meets the stem as you lift it, so the shape returns to the hand instead of staying decorative.
The small bowl is roughly 15cm wide, 13cm deep and 7cm high, holding about 280ml filled to eighty percent, a size that works for a main dish or a side. There are two sizes, the same form scaled up and down.
The glazes are kohiki, tetsuchiri with black iron specks on white, amber ame glaze, and deep blue ruri glaze. The same apple form reads as a different piece under each glaze. Keep them all white, or mix the colors. How many you set on the table changes the impression.
How many apple pieces are in stock changes with each delivery. See what is here now on Furutani Pottery.
See what is in stock now
Apple bowls, rice bowls, bread plates, soup cups. Because they share the same kohiki white, adding across shapes keeps the table together. Stock arrives one piece at a time, so check the photographs for anything that catches your eye.
Browse Furutani PotteryFrom rice bowls to bread plates
Working to the phrase close to daily life, Furutani's range is built to map directly onto an everyday table.
- Rice bowls Large and small. Gosu lines, vertical iron lines. The one you use every day
- Bowls Rinka petal bowls, oval deep bowls, octagonal deep bowls, small straight-sided rim bowls
- Plates Bread plates, octagonal plates, rinka plates, ruffle plates
- Cups Handled soup cups, egg mugs, free cups
Read the names and it is clear this workshop makes tools for an everyday table rather than Japanese tableware as a category. Bread plate, egg mug, soup cup. Those are breakfast words.
Light enough not to tire the hand, easy to hold, sized right. Because every stage is done by hand, each piece in the same shape differs slightly in measurement and in how the white falls.
White does not compete with food
Kohiki white is strong for daily use because it does not interfere with the color of the food.
It is not the taut white of porcelain but something closer to unbleached cloth. The brown of a simmered dish and the green of leaves both read honestly. These were made for Japanese food, but pasta, curry and salad sit on them without any friction.
What is harder is pale food. Tofu and white fish lose their outline on white. Mix in one sabi glaze or tetsuchiri piece and the table tightens up. As noted in our article on tableware and taste, the color of a piece shifts the impression of the flavor.
What changes with use
A kohiki piece is at its whitest the day you buy it.
Because the slip layer holds water, tea and soy sauce soak in slowly. It settles a little within six months, and after a few years the crazing lines surface like the veins of a leaf. The white moves from a cold white to a soft, unbleached tone.
To keep the staining even, do medome at the start. Dipping the piece in water before use also helps. Whether you read this as dirt or as keinenbika is the question kohiki puts to you.
How pieces change over time is covered in our article on pottery that develops, and daily handling in caring for Japanese tableware.
Choosing your first piece
If this is your first Furutani piece, there are three ways in.
- 1. A rice bowl The piece you use most. Because it is in your hand every day, you see the kohiki change fastest. Two sizes, so choose by hand size
- 2. A bread plate or octagonal plate The breakfast piece. Kohiki white suits bread and salad and does not look out of place on a Western table
- 3. A handled soup cup The handle makes hot things easy. Soup or cafe au lait, so you can see when it will get used
As a gift, the apple pieces read as the greeting themselves and are easy to be pleased by.
Whichever you choose, it sits inside the same white. Adding across shapes later never makes the table look scattered.
Related reading
The techniques
- What is kohiki | White slip and a white that develops
- What is shirogeshou | White over red clay, a white that grows
- What is hakeme | The mark of white slip swept with a brush
- What is gosu | The pigment that turns blue inside the kiln
About Shigaraki
- What is Shigaraki ware | Clay that glows, 1,200 years on
- Shigaraki Ware | Handmade Shigaraki Pottery from Japan
Using and developing a piece
- What it means for a piece to develop | What actually changes
- What is keinenbika | Time making a piece more beautiful
- How to do medome | The one thing to do before first use
- Caring for Japanese tableware | Washing, storing, stains
- Does the piece change the taste | Tableware and the palate
Browse by shape
- Japanese Bowls | Rice Bowls, Soup Bowls and Matcha Bowls
- Japanese Plates | Handmade Ceramic Plates from Japan
- Japanese Mugs | Handmade Ceramic Mugs from Japanese Potters
See Furutani Pottery
White slip over red clay, fired twice at low heat into a soft kohiki white. How the red-brown shows at the rim differs on every piece. From rice bowls to plates to cups, everything sits in the same white, so adding a piece at a time keeps the table together.
Browse Furutani PotteryFAQ
What kind of workshop is Furutani Pottery?
Doesn't kohiki get stained with use?
Won't a table of all-white pieces look monotonous?
New to Japanese pottery? Start here — its history, how pottery differs from porcelain, the clays and glazes behind each style, and how to care for a piece. → Japanese Pottery: The Complete Guide