Hagi Ware: The Tea Bowl That Changes Colour as You Use It

First Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu. In the world of Japanese tea, this phrase ranking tea bowls has been passed down unchanged for centuries. Hagi ware has held that position among tea ceramics for hundreds of years.

But the reason tea practitioners love Hagi ware is not its place in a ranking. It changes every time you use it, absorbs the life of the person using it, and after ten years becomes a piece that exists nowhere else in the world. This quality as a "living piece" is what makes Hagi ware compelling.

Made in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Hagi ware traces its origin to kilns opened by Korean potters more than 400 years ago, around the same period as Arita Ware: Japan's First Porcelain, 400 Years On, and it grew up inside the tea culture of the Choshu domain. From its birth to the present, it is still in the hands of tea practitioners and ceramics lovers across Japan at this very moment.

The origins of Hagi ware

The arrival of Korean potters in the 16th century

The history of Hagi ware goes back to the 16th century and the Korean campaigns launched by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then ruler of Japan.

Those campaigns are sometimes called the "potters' war." Alongside the many warlords who sailed under Hideyoshi's orders, skilled potters came from Korea to Japan. Japanese tea culture was at its height at the time, and a potter who could make a fine tea bowl was a valuable person in a warlord's eyes.

Mori Terumoto, lord of the Choshu domain, invited the Korean potters Yi Sukkwang (Ri Shakko) and Yi Kyong (Ri Kei) to Hagi. The two opened kilns at Matsumoto and Sanonose in Hagi, and this became the beginning of Hagi ware.

Korean aesthetics: the influence of Korai tea bowls

The Korean ceramic techniques the Yi brothers brought with them ran deep in the same direction as the "Korai tea bowl" aesthetic that Japanese tea practitioners were then pursuing with real passion.

Korai tea bowls is the general term for tea bowls made during the Korean Joseon period. Plain, unaffected shapes made for practical use, natural distortion, thickly pooled glaze — all of it resonated perfectly with the Japanese aesthetic of wabi tea.

Hagi ware belongs to that Korai lineage. Its refusal of showy decoration, and its care for the beauty of the material itself and for the accidental scenery that firing produces, still run through Hagi ware four centuries later.

The three great kiln families that keep Hagi ware alive

Since its founding, the Hagi tradition has been maintained by several kiln families. The three best known are the Miwa, the Saka and the Kaneta. Many other kilns in Hagi also continue to work while keeping the history and tradition they inherited.

• The Miwa family　One of the most authoritative kilns representing Hagi ware. Known for a distinctive style called oni-hagi, with dramatic scenery across the surface. The line has continued through thirteen generations and works to this day.
• The Saka family　A distinguished Hagi house. Together with the Shimizu and Tahara families, they served the Choshu domain as official kilns and produced formal tea ceramics of high standing.
• The Kaneta family　Known for work that follows the traditional Hagi forms carried down from the Edo period while adding a contemporary sensibility, and highly regarded by collectors in Japan and abroad. Their kiln is named Tenchozan.

The clay and glaze that give Hagi ware its softness

Daido and Mitake: the clays unique to Hagi

The defining feature of Hagi ware is the softness of its body, and that comes from the clay.

Two clays are mainly used: daido clay and mitake clay. Daido contains a moderate amount of iron and fires to a warm white or cream. Mitake, dug near Mount Mitake, fires whiter and softer.

Compared with the dense, tightly fired clay of Bizen Ware: Pottery With No Glaze at All, or the coarse, powerful clay of Shigaraki Ware: Why Its Clay Sparkles After 1,200 Years, Hagi clay is plainly softer. That gives Hagi pieces a particular lightness and a texture that seems to cling to the palm.

Most important of all, Hagi clay is porous. Those pores are the fundamental reason Hagi ware is a "living piece." Pour tea into it and the compounds travel through the Crazing (Kannyu): Cracks in Glaze That Aren't Damage and seep slowly into the porous body. Over years of use, what accumulates inside the clay oxidises and settles across the whole piece, and the color and sheen deepen.

Bizen and Hagi were established as pottery regions at very close moments in history, yet their backgrounds and characters differ enormously. Learning how regions differ is one of the pleasures of Japanese ceramics.

• Bizen vs Hagi: Two Opposite Ideas of Wabi-Sabi

The milky white glaze

Hagi glaze is made mainly from locally gathered wood ash and feldspar.

After firing, the glaze shifts subtly across a single piece — milky white, cream, pale pink, light grey. That drift of color is proof that the glaze is organic rather than uniform.

Applied thickly, the glaze gives the surface a particular plumpness. It is neither the crisp, hard face of porcelain nor the plain fired skin of Bizen, but something soft to the touch. When you pour hot water in, the warmth reaches your palm gently — a texture only Hagi ware has.

Crazing that shifts through many faces

Some Hagi glazes carry a feature called kannyu, or crazing. As the piece cools after coming out of the kiln, the difference in shrinkage between body and glaze opens countless fine cracks across the glaze surface. That is crazing.

It is not a defect. It is an intentionally designed, essential characteristic of Hagi ware.

Through the narrow gaps of the crazing, daily use lets tea, sake and water soak little by little into the body. Combined with the porous clay, this absorption builds up and the expression of the piece changes. That is the mechanism behind the "seven transformations of Hagi."

The crazing keeps increasing day by day and grows into a pattern that is yours alone. Since only the glaze layer cracks, it causes no problem in use.

The seven transformations: the experience of a piece that grows

The one thing that separates Hagi ware from every other kind of pottery is hagi no nanabake, the seven transformations of Hagi.

What the seven transformations means

The phrase means that Hagi ware changes so much through use that it seems to transform seven times over. There is no strict count of seven; it carries the sense of changing again and again, continuously.

Drink tea from a Hagi cup every day and the compounds in the tea — tannins, catechins — seep little by little into the body through the crazing. Repeated over months and years, this shifts the color of the piece.

A timeline of the transformations

The seven transformations of Hagi progress roughly through the following stages. Timing varies greatly with how often the piece is used.

• First use (0–1 month)　The original milky white of the glaze. Nothing has begun to change yet. This is the stage of soaking the piece in water before starting to use it.
• 3–6 months　A faint brownish tone begins to enter from the rim and the interior. Used daily, this change happens without fail.
• 1 year　A warmth spreads across the whole piece. The pigments of the tea have reached everywhere, and the expression is clearly different from the milky white of the first day.
• 3–5 years　The color gains depth and the piece develops scenery of its own. At this stage a Hagi piece has a presence no mass-produced item can match.
• Beyond 10 years　It can shift to deep amber or brown, a color entirely unlike the original milky glaze. The history of daily use is written into it, and there is no other piece like it anywhere.

The transformations are the user's own history

The most important thing about the seven transformations is that the pattern of change differs completely from one user to the next.

The bowl of someone who whisks matcha every day and the bowl of someone who brews gyokuro every day will look entirely different after a few years, even if they came from the same kiln, the same maker, the same form. A Hagi piece filled with black tea and one filled with sake each follow their own path of color.

In other words, a Hagi piece used for ten years reflects the life of the person who used it. There are no two alike anywhere in the world.

This is part of what the ranking "first Raku, second Hagi" really means. If Raku Ware: The Hand-Formed Tea Bowl, 15 Generations On is where the maker's will resides, Hagi ware is where the user's history resides.

The form of the Hagi tea bowl

What characterises a Hagi bowl

The most highly valued Hagi pieces are, unsurprisingly, tea bowls. A typical Hagi bowl has features that set it apart from bowls of other regions.

• An open rim　The mouth is relatively wide and open so that both hands can wrap around it. The form is also calculated so that the interior scenery — the expression of the glaze and the staining from the transformations — is clearly visible once matcha has been whisked.
• A three-notched Kodai (Foot Ring): The Part Collectors Check First　Turn a Hagi bowl over and you may find three small notches cut into the foot. Called mitsugiri, this is a form unique to Hagi and one of the marks of Hagi character. Not every Hagi bowl has them, however; it depends on the maker's school and preference.
• Soft walls　A Hagi bowl is never a perfect circle but carries a slight sway. That organic shape makes it settle better in the palm and adds to the comfort of everyday use.

Using Hagi ware every day

Beyond tea bowls, Hagi ware appears in many everyday forms.

The Yunomi: How to Choose a Japanese Tea Cup is probably the easiest Hagi piece to obtain. Many collectors start with a yunomi as their entry into enjoying the transformations through daily tea.

A pairing of Ochoko, Guinomi, Sakazuki: Japanese Sake Cups Compared and a tokkuri is especially popular with sake drinkers. The tannins and acids in sake seep into the Hagi body and produce a distinctive pattern of transformation.

Caring for Hagi ware so the transformations grow beautifully

Because Hagi ware is porous, it needs handling that differs from other pottery. Proper care is also the condition for the transformations to develop well.

Care for Japanese ceramics is covered in more detail in the article below, so please do take a look.

• How to Care for Japanese Ceramics: A Practical Guide

Collecting Hagi ware

• For beginning collectors　The best starting point for a Hagi collection is a yunomi or a small guinomi. They sit in an approachable price range and let you experience the transformations while using them daily. What matters is using them every day. Left on a shelf, nothing transforms. Hagi ware is one of the rare kinds of pottery that gains value by being used.
• For intermediate collectors　If you are studying tea, or your understanding of ceramics has deepened, a tea bowl is worth the investment. Bowls by working makers of the major kilns — Miwa, Saka, Kaneta — can be found within reach.
• For advanced collectors　Tea bowls by Living National Treasures and celebrated makers are among the highest works in any Japanese ceramics collection. Properly documented pieces are also valued as long-term assets.

Hagi ware grows through collaboration with the person using it

When choosing a tea bowl, understanding how Hagi differs from the tea ceramics of other regions makes the choice much clearer.

If Raku ware is the concentration of the maker's will, Hagi ware is a collaboration with the user. The maker gives it form, the kiln settles the glaze, and from then on the user changes the piece a little with every pour. The maker of a Hagi piece is not only the artist; the person who uses it daily takes part in making it too.

Where Arita ware pursues the static, finished beauty of white porcelain, Hagi ware embodies a beauty that lives in change and in an ongoing relationship. There is no "finished"; it keeps shifting a little every day. That quality is why Hagi ware feels less like a craft object than a living partner.

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• Bizen vs Hagi: Two Opposite Ideas of Wabi-Sabi
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