Artisan Higuchi Maki | From Cranes to a Coelacanth, Hand-Painted Japanese Pottery
Working along a shelf of Higuchi Maki's pieces, your hand stops once, somewhere in the middle.
Cranes and tortoises. Pine, bamboo and plum. Plum blossom. Karako children. So far, these are the auspicious motifs anyone who knows Japanese pottery expects. And then, right next to them, there is a coelacanth. Keep going and there are crows. Pandas. A tiger in bamboo. Okame. A banquet scene of continental settlers.
The motifs are scattered far too widely to look like one maker's shelf. But this is not indecision. It is a style the potter states plainly: the designs are deliberately not unified, so as not to fall into a mould.
Higuchi's work is gathered in one collection. Even in the same shape, the painting differs from piece to piece, so it is worth comparing the photographs.
Every piece is one of a kind, by definition
All of Higuchi's work is one of a kind, and the reason is explained like this.
The workshop is neither a kiln in a pottery region nor a studio with staff on hand. The wheel, the painting, the glazing, the firing: every stage is done by one person. So perhaps it is inevitable, they say, that no two pieces in the world come out the same.
It sounds like modesty, but it is actually the core of how the work is made. Because the person painting and the person forming are the same, the brush can be decided after looking at how the clay body has come out. In their own words: the way the brush goes in is varied according to the character of the body being thrown. That back-and-forth is impossible when the work is divided between hands.
What was inherited was an attitude, not a style
Higuchi studied under Motohashi Tsutomu and set up independently two years later. By Higuchi's account, Motohashi was the only pupil of the Living National Treasure Tamura Koichi.
The lineage runs through tetsue, iron-oxide painting. Yet nothing on Higuchi's shelves traces the teacher's style directly. What was inherited was not a technical template but a way of facing the work.
Higuchi looks back on it this way: while turning the teacher's words over from time to time, they realised, unexpectedly, that they had a style of their own. Not found by searching, but noticed as already there. The refusal to unify seems to have taken its outline exactly that way.
Auspicious motifs, and a coelacanth
Sorting the designs currently on the shelf by character gives this.
| Group | Motifs | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Auspicious | Cranes and tortoises, pine and bamboo and plum, plum, karako | New Year and celebrations. The meaning of the motif becomes the greeting itself |
| Creatures | Rabbits, roosters, a tiger in bamboo, crows, pandas | The everyday table. One piece softens the whole setting |
| The unexpected | Coelacanth, Okame, a banquet of continental settlers | Days with guests. The conversation starts there |
| Plants | Peach, grapes | For fruit and sweets. Painting and contents answer each other |
What is interesting is that with all that range, the pieces do not fight when set out together. The reason is in how they are painted. Rather than pulling a hard outline and filling it in, a great deal of white is left and the motif goes down in one breath. So even across different designs, the quietness of the pieces themselves is consistent.
Painting in cobalt under the glaze is sometsuke; laying colour on the fired glaze is overglaze enamel. Higuchi paints according to the body, so even the same rabbit carries a different momentum of line on every piece.
Everyday, with strength somewhere in it
The stated aim is a single line: to make work that is for everyday use while still showing strength or brilliance somewhere in it.
And the range of sizes is entirely everyday. Five-sun plates (about 15cm), six-sun plates (about 20cm), seven-sun plates (about 21cm), mame-zara, long plates, oval bowls, teacups, mugs, free cups, and teapots. Not pieces for special days, but a line-up you could use again tomorrow morning.
- Five-sun plate As a small serving plate. With rabbits or plum, a Japanese sweet sits on it perfectly
- Seven-sun plate For the main dish. A painting like the banquet scene comes alive when the food is placed in the empty space
- Long plate Grilled fish, sashimi, a single dish laid out lengthways. Peach and karako suit the narrow frame
- Oval bowl Salads and simmered dishes. The 28cm coelacanth becomes the centre of the table
- Teacups and mugs Picked up every morning, so the painting settles into daily life
Choosing by type of piece is covered in the Japanese tableware guide, and the size conversions in the sun to cm chart.
Choosing one piece, not a type
Because every stage is done by one person, even two plates both called a five-sun rabbit plate differ in which way the rabbit faces and how thick the line runs. So with this maker you are not choosing a product type. You are choosing one particular piece.
For hand-painted work in general there is hand-painted and sometsuke, and for anyone drawn to animal motifs there are related pieces in animal motifs.
Higuchi's pieces are one of a kind. The same motif may come back into stock, but the exact same piece will never appear twice. If something catches your eye, compare them in the Higuchi Maki collection.
Related reading
Understanding the painting
- Sometsuke: Blue and White Porcelain, Explained
- Uwa-etsuke: How Overglaze Enamel Painting Works
- Japanese Pottery Patterns: What the Motifs Actually Mean
Choosing pieces
- Japanese Tableware Complete Guide
- Japanese Plate Sizes: Sun to cm Conversion Chart
- How to Care for Japanese Ceramics: A Practical Guide
Worth seeing alongside
- Japanese Blue and White Pottery | Hand-Painted Sometsuke
- Japanese Animal Pottery | Cat, Rabbit & Crane Ceramics
- Japanese Plates | Handmade Ceramic Plates from Japan
See Higuchi Maki's work
From the wheel through painting, glazing and firing, all by one pair of hands. Cranes and a coelacanth stand on the same shelf: a style that refuses to unify. Even the same motif carries a different line on every piece.
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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