Japanese Pottery Decorating Techniques
If glaze is what clothes a piece in colour and atmosphere, decoration is work that touches the clay itself.
A single ridge pared away by the tip of a blade; the rhythm of a kanna blade chattering across a piece turning on the potter's wheel; a small window opened to let the light through. The speed of the maker's hands, their breathing, even how firm the clay happened to be that day — all of it stays behind as landscape.
This article introduces five decorative techniques long handed down in japanese pottery — tobikanna (chatter marks), shinogi (fluting), mentori (faceting), hotarude (rice-grain translucency) and sukashibori (openwork carving) — together with the handwork behind them. None of them rely on painting or colour. Each raises beauty out of the form of the clay itself.
Tobikanna — a rhythm running across the clay
Tobikanna is decoration made by touching the tip of a springy metal kanna blade to a leather-hard piece as it turns on the wheel.
As the piece rotates, the blade skips across the surface of the clay, leaving a continuous run of regular marks. The character of the pattern changes from one piece to the next with the speed of the wheel and how dry the clay is, holding a fluctuation no machine can produce.
The technique is deeply rooted in the mingei traditions of Koishiwara ware and Onta ware in Kyushu. The fine marks fanning outward from the centre are like small notes played by the tool. Pick the piece up and that rhythm passes straight into your fingertips.
Shinogi — the beauty of a pared ridge
Shinogi is a technique in which the surface is pared away with a blade or a kanna to raise a run of continuous ridges. The word comes from the ridge that runs between the back and the cutting edge of a sword blade.
Glaze pools slightly in the pared valleys and thins over the peaks. That difference gives even a single glaze a gradation across the whole piece. Shinogi worked on celadon or kohiki shifts its expression with the angle of the light, making a landscape that is quiet and deep at once.
Straight paring and gently twisting paring each reveal the habits of the maker's hand. That the glaze matures with use, gaining a soft sheen along the ridges, is one of the pleasures of owning a shinogi piece.
Mentori — a quiet geometry of flat planes
Mentori is a technique of paring away parts of a rounded form to link a series of flat faces, or facets. The smooth curve thrown on the wheel turns into a set of planes.
For all the decisiveness of the look, mentori is work where timing is everything. Too soft and the corners blur; too dry and the clay cracks as it is cut. Makers throw the wall a little thicker than the finished piece needs, allowing in advance for what will be pared away.
Worked on the strong, iron-bearing clays of Iga or Shigaraki, the pared planes sharpen the roughness of the clay and give weight and presence in the hand. Corners and faces catch the light, and the shadows shift with where the piece is set down — that too belongs to mentori alone.
Hotarude — windows of light in porcelain
Hotarude is a technique in which fine holes are pierced through the body, filled with a clear glaze, and then fired. After firing, the glaze-filled areas turn thinly translucent, and held up to the light they surface like the soft glow of a firefly. In English the effect is usually called rice-grain porcelain.
The size of the holes has to be judged finely. Too large and the glaze will not hold; the wall itself has to be thrown thin enough to pass light. Alongside the traditional komedōshi, expressed as points like grains of rice, there are other faces of the technique — linear hotarude, for instance, piercing fine lines along the flat planes of a faceted form.
Restrained under daylight, quietly luminous near a lamp. Hotarude, which changes its impression with the hour and the place it is used, is a technique that turns the piece itself into a small lamp.
Sukashibori — carved openings that hold shadow
Sukashibori is a technique of carefully cutting parts of a piece away to make openings within the form. Its origins reach as far back as the Jōmon period, roughly 10,000–300 BCE.
Unlike shinogi and mentori, which pare the surface, sukashibori is distinguished by altering the structure of the form itself. The shadow of the interior shows through the cut openings, giving the piece lightness and depth.
The technique has often been used for incense burners, sweets bowls and display pieces. Run a continuous band of piercing around the rim of a celadon bowl, for example, and a heavy form is visually lightened, with light and shadow passing through it in rhythm. It stands in the space between use and ornament.
In closing — the many landscapes that rise out of clay
Pared ridges, faceted planes, carved openings. Without relying on painting or colour, this many expressions rise out of the clay itself.
And decoration and glaze are often inseparable. Glaze pools in the pared valleys and creates gradation; a pierced window changes the path of the light. A landscape is only complete when form and glaze answer one another.
At nokaze, we deliver makers' pieces with these traces of handwork intact. The rhythm of tobikanna, the ridges of shinogi, the small light in hotarude — no two are ever the same. The next time you pick up a piece, run your fingertips across the surface and feel the breathing of the maker carved into it.
Related reading
Going deeper into technique
- Japanese Pottery Glazes: An Introduction
- How Japanese Pottery Takes Shape
- Japanese Pottery Keshiki: How to Read Glaze Drips, Flame Marks, and Kiln Effects
Terms used in this article
- Mentori (faceting)
- Rokuro seikei (wheel throwing)
- Celadon (seiji)
- Kohiki (white slip ware)
- Kodai (foot ring)
Other decorative techniques
- Hakeme
- Icchin (trailed slip decoration)
- Japanese Pottery Patterns Guide: Traditional Motifs, Eitsuke Techniques
By kiln region
- Mingei and the Beauty of Use: Japanese Pottery's Mind
- Iga Ware: The Rustic Beauty Born of Flame and Ash
- Shigaraki Ware: Echoes of the Earth and 1,200 Years of Ceramic Mastery
Using and caring for your pieces
- Japanese Ceramics That Grow: How Handmade Pottery Changes and Deepens with Every Use
- Japanese Ceramics Care Guide
Where to buy japanese pottery with the traces of handwork
Looking for handmade japanese pottery for sale? At nokaze, every piece comes from a named ceramic artist or kiln in Japan, listed with the maker's own words. The rhythm of tobikanna, the ridges of shinogi, the shadows of a faceted plane — landscapes of handwork, no two alike, available to browse online.
Browse nokaze ceramicsFAQ
What is the difference between tobikanna and shinogi?
As a result, tobikanna creates texture on the surface of the vessel, while shinogi defines its silhouette. The rhythm of tobikanna is determined by the rotation of the potter's wheel, while the lines of shinogi are determined by the hand of the maker.