Pottery That 'Grows': How Ceramics Change With Use
Have you ever picked up a tea bowl or mug you use every day and noticed something is different from when you first brought it home?
A faint deepening of colour on the surface. A texture that has become smoother, warmer, more at home in the hand. This is not deterioration, and it is not dirt. In Japanese ceramic culture, it is called utsuwa ga sodatsu — "the piece is growing" — and it is a beautiful, valued transformation.
"Growing" describes the process by which moisture, oil from food and drink, and the natural oils of the hands gradually work their way into the clay body over time, slowly changing the colour and feel of the piece. The unique expression that emerges from this process is called kao ga kawaru — "the face changes."
This article explores the appeal of this Japanese ceramic culture: a culture of loving and nurturing a single object across years, in direct contrast to the disposability of mass production and mass consumption. By the time you finish reading — from the science of why japanese ceramics grow, to the different ways each pottery region changes, to the simple habits of care that support the process — the piece in your hands will feel a little more irreplaceable than it did before.
How Living Clay Changes Japanese Ceramics
The phenomenon of a piece "growing" is a physical change created over time by clay, fire, and the person who uses it. But not all tableware grows. Let us begin with the fundamental mechanics — and the very different ways each pottery region and technique shapes how a piece changes.
How Japanese Ceramics Grow: The Fundamental Difference Between Earthenware and Porcelain
Fired ceramics divide broadly into two categories: porcelain (jiki) and earthenware or stoneware (tōki).
Porcelain — represented by Arita Ware: Japan's First Porcelain, 400 Years On and Hasami Ware: Everyday Japanese Porcelain from Nagasaki — is fired from powdered tōseki (ceramic stone) at high temperatures of 1,200–1,400°C. The result is a material as hard as glass, with virtually zero water absorption. Staining cannot seep in. After years of use, a porcelain piece retains the gloss and whiteness of the day it was bought. In other words, porcelain hardly grows at all.
Earthenware — known as tsuchimono, "clay things" — is shaped from clay and fired at the comparatively lower temperature of 900–1,200°C. Inside earthenware, invisible to the eye, countless tiny pores (kikō) remain open: the clay breathes, absorbing water like a sponge. Tea, food moisture, and the oils from human hands slowly enter these pores and accumulate there, gradually changing the texture of the piece. These "gaps where clay can breathe" are the absolute precondition for a piece to grow.
| Property | Earthenware (clay) | Porcelain (stone) |
|---|---|---|
| Raw material | Clay | Powdered ceramic stone |
| Firing temperature | 900–1,200°C | 1,200–1,400°C |
| Water absorption | Yes — countless open pores | Virtually zero |
| How it grows | Changes dramatically | Barely changes at all |
| Typical regions | Hagi, Bizen, Shigaraki, Mashiko | Arita, Hasami |
For a detailed comparison of earthenware and porcelain, the articles below go further.
- Stoneware vs Porcelain: How to Tell Them Apart
- Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain: The Real Differences
Kohiki: From Pure White to Warm Cream — the Most Visible Change
The technique that allows you to experience the joy of a growing piece most quickly — and most visibly — is Kohiki (white slip ware).
Kohiki is a technique in which a reddish-brown clay body is coated with white slip (Shirogeshou (Slip Japanese pottery), white clay applied like a layer of cosmetics), then covered with a transparent glaze and fired.
Before and after
When first bought, kohiki has a surface of pure, matte white — clean as fresh snow. With use, the microscopic network of cracks in the glaze called kan'nyū (Crazing (Kannyu): Cracks in Glaze That Aren't Damage) slowly absorbs the colour of tea and coffee, and a beautiful pattern of veins gradually emerges across the surface.
At the same time, the colour of the clay body beneath the white slip begins to show faintly through — and over a period of years, the cold white shifts to a warm, creamy off-white. The piece takes on a soft, almost atmospheric quality: a gentle, lived-in expression that no new piece can replicate.
White slip is applied in several distinct ways, including Hakeme, which leaves visible brush strokes. For the parent technique itself, see Shirogeshou (Slip Japanese pottery).
Hagi Ware: The Dynamic Nana-bake — Seven Transformations with Use
Hagi Ware: The Tea Bowl That Changes Colour as You Use It — the traditional pottery of Yamaguchi Prefecture — is essential to any account of japanese ceramics that grow. Hagi clay is extraordinarily soft and coarse, giving it an absorption rate far higher than most earthenwares. Fired at a relatively low temperature, the clay body remains loosely packed and highly porous, producing the dramatic changes that are Hagi ware's defining quality.
This is captured in the old saying Hagi no nana-bake, "Hagi's seven transformations" — the idea that Hagi ware changes its colour and character so many times over the course of use that it becomes something entirely different from what it began as.
Before and after
A new Hagi ware piece has a delicate, soft character — a gentle blush of pale pink, or a quiet white. But with daily tea-drinking, the compounds in tea penetrate deep into the clay body. Fascinatingly, the piece of someone who drinks green tea regularly develops a deep, astringent green-brown; the piece of someone who drinks coffee develops a warm amber tone. Two pieces fired in the same kiln on the same day, given to two different people, will look entirely different after a few years — shaped by the lifestyle of the person who used them.
Yakishime: How Touch Changes in Bizen Pottery and Shigaraki Ware
Yakishime (unglazed fired ware) is perhaps the most elemental technique in japanese ceramics: no glaze at all, no glass coating — only the force of the clay itself and the kiln's flame. Among the most celebrated examples are Bizen Ware: Pottery With No Glaze at All from Okayama Prefecture and Shigaraki Ware: Why Its Clay Sparkles After 1,200 Years from Shiga Prefecture, both counted among Japan's Six Ancient Kilns: All 6 Regions Compared.
Because there is no glaze, there is no crazing through which colour can seep — but yakishime shows the most pronounced tactile transformation of any japanese ceramics technique.
Before and after
Fresh from the kiln, a yakishime piece has the rough surface of bare earth — matte, light-scattering, without gloss. But with daily use — held in both hands, washed, dried — the oils and moisture of human contact work steadily into the clay.
The roughness gradually softens; the surface takes on a smooth, adhering quality; and a deep, supple luster emerges that seems to rise from inside the clay itself. With yakishime, you feel the piece growing not only through the eyes but through the hands.
| Technique | The day you buy it | After it has grown | Speed of change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kohiki | Matte white, clean as snow | Colour seeps into the crazing; warm cream | Fast (months) |
| Hagi ware | Pale pink or quiet white | Green-brown for tea, amber for coffee | Medium (years) |
| Yakishime | Rough, matte bare clay | Smooth to the hand, with a deep luster | Slow (several years) |
What Does It Mean for Japanese Ceramics to "Change Expression"?
We have been exploring the passage of time in which japanese ceramics "grow." But what exactly is the expression — the kao — that emerges from this process?
Enjoying Keshiki: The Beauty of Changing Pattern and Colour
Japan has a unique term for the patterns and colours that appear on the surface of a ceramic piece: keshiki, literally "scenery" or "landscape." The spread of staining across a piece, the expanding network of crazing — these are understood as a kind of miniature landscape, appreciated in the way one might appreciate an ink painting or a natural view. A piece that has grown through use carries a complex, deep keshiki that was simply not there when it was new.
The depth of keshiki in japanese ceramics is inexhaustible. Explore it further in the articles below.
The Beauty of Negative Space That Lets Food Shine
A piece of japanese ceramics is incomplete on its own; it fulfils its true role only when food is placed on it. Where Western tableware is often decorated to the very edge, japanese ceramics deliberately leave space — yohaku, negative space — as an aesthetic principle.
The negative space of a brand-new piece is simply empty. But the negative space of a piece that has grown through use carries keshiki — the fine web of crazing, the settled moisture of the clay. When seasonal ingredients are placed at the centre, the negative space of a grown piece gently receives the vivid colours of the food, framing them the way a mount frames a painting. The changed expression of the space transforms an ordinary meal into something slightly more special.
The piece you choose changes the food itself. On the relationship between japanese ceramics and cooking, see below.
Why Japanese Culture Has Always Loved Nurturing Things
Where does the sensibility that finds beauty in this kind of change come from? The answer lies in a distinctive aesthetic that developed over Japan's long history.
Finding Beauty in Imperfection: The Spirit of Wabi-Sabi
The culture of appreciating a ceramic piece flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — the Sengoku period through the Azuchi-Momoyama era — in the practice of chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony. Sen no Rikyu, who elevated the tea ceremony to an art form, found value not only in the perfect, symmetrical imported porcelains of the day but in the asymmetrical pieces fired by Japanese craftspeople, and in the humble, colour-changed pieces that had been used and used again.
This is the spirit of wabi-sabi: not the perfection that lasts unchanged forever, but the change that time brings — the impermanence, the incompleteness, and the quiet depth that accrues only in an object that has been touched by many hands over a long span of years. The Japanese have long considered this the highest form of beauty.
The word for this change itself is Keinen bika (beauty through aging). For the aesthetic behind it, see Reading Wabi-Sabi in a Single Bowl and Zen and Japanese Ceramics: Where the Aesthetic Began.
Welcoming Even Damage as History: Kintsugi
The fullest expression of the culture of nurturing japanese ceramics is kintsugi, the traditional repair technique. When a beloved piece chips or breaks, rather than discarding it, the cracks are rejoined with urushi (natural lacquer) and the seams decorated with gold or silver powder.
Rather than erasing damage — pretending it never happened — kintsugi accepts the breakage as part of the piece's history, and makes it beautiful. This spirit represents the depth of care with which the Japanese approach the objects in their lives: cherishing what is owned, and continuing to use it.
The appeal of kintsugi is explored in a separate article.
Nurturing What You Own Is a Sustainable Choice
The value of using a single object across years — finding beauty in the way it changes — is a powerful counterpoint to the culture of disposability.
Rather than buying new things to keep up with trends, a slower way of living: sitting quietly with the objects already in your hands. This very old Japanese aesthetic connects, unexpectedly, with two of the most important currents in contemporary global culture — sustainability, the care for the natural world that comes from using less and using longer, and minimalism, the philosophy of living with only what truly matters. Nurturing japanese ceramics is a choice that is gentle on the environment and genuinely enriching for the person who makes it.
On why choosing japanese pottery is itself a sustainable decision, see the article below.
Habits for Caring for and Beautifully Nurturing Japanese Ceramics
With this aesthetic in mind — what do you actually do to help japanese ceramics grow well? The answer is not complicated. It begins simply with paying a little more attention to the pieces in your daily life.
Initial Seasoning: Medome Before the First Use
New earthenware should not go straight into use. As explained above, earthenware has countless open pores, and if strongly coloured foods are placed in an unprepared piece, colour and odours can seep in rapidly and permanently, creating conditions for mould or unpleasant smells.
The solution is Medome(Sealing,Seasoning). Place the piece in a pot of rice washing water — or water with a little flour dissolved in it — and simmer on a low heat for 20–30 minutes. The starch in the rice water enters the pores of the clay and acts as a gentle seal, preventing rapid, unwanted absorption.
After simmering, do not immediately remove the piece to cold water. Leave it in the pot to cool naturally to room temperature. Earthenware is sensitive to sudden temperature change — placing a hot piece in cold water can cause it to crack.
Making Daily Care a Ritual
In daily use, there is one simple practice that makes a real difference: before placing food on the piece, quickly rinse it in clean water. The moisture forms a barrier that prevents oils and strong flavours from absorbing too deeply.
After a meal, wash as soon as possible. Do not leave pieces soaking in the sink — water will penetrate deep into the clay. The dishwasher is best avoided: the high-pressure water jets and rapid temperature changes can damage japanese ceramics. Hand washing is recommended. The microwave is also generally inadvisable — it heats the water trapped in the clay body too rapidly.
"That sounds like a lot of effort," some people think. But this small daily attention is itself the enriching time of nurturing a piece. In the midst of a busy day: washing a favourite piece carefully, drying it with a cloth, setting it in a well-ventilated place to rest. That quiet routine becomes something more than housekeeping — a moment of mindfulness that gently settles a restless mind.
Dry Thoroughly Before Storage
The single most important secret to keeping japanese ceramics in good condition is thorough drying. Wiping the surface with a cloth removes only the surface moisture; the interior of the clay body is still saturated. Put a damp piece straight into a closed cabinet and mould is almost certain to follow.
After washing, leave the piece in a well-ventilated location for half a day to a full day, allowing it to dry naturally. Japanese ceramics are described as "breathing" — and they need open air, not enclosed spaces. Time to dry slowly in a place where air can move is how a piece rests well.
The better you care for japanese ceramics, the more beautifully they grow, and the longer they last. Full care guidance is collected below.
The Quiet Joy of Loving the Time Your Japanese Ceramics Spend Growing
A piece of japanese ceramics that "grows" is not deteriorating. It is acquiring a unique expression — one that only the combination of this specific piece, this specific user, and this specific span of shared time could have produced.
In an age when anything can be obtained immediately and discarded just as quickly, the time spent slowly nurturing a single object brings a depth of richness to daily life that no new purchase can replicate.
Tonight, reach into your cabinet and take out a favourite piece — hold it in both hands. It will show you, in its expression, the warmth of all the time you have spent together.
Related Articles
Japanese Ceramic Culture and Philosophy
- A Short History of Japanese Ceramics, Jomon to Now
- Reading Wabi-Sabi in a Single Bowl
- Kintsugi: How to Repair Pottery With Gold (and Why)
- Zen and Japanese Ceramics: Where the Aesthetic Began
- Ichigo Ichie: Why No Two Handmade Pieces Repeat
- Keshiki: How to Read the 'Landscape' on a Pot
- Crazing (Kannyu): Cracks in Glaze That Aren't Damage
Japan's Kiln Regions
- Japanese Pottery by Region: A Buyer's Map
- Arita Ware: Japan's First Porcelain, 400 Years On
- Bizen Ware: Pottery With No Glaze at All
- Shigaraki Ware: Why Its Clay Sparkles After 1,200 Years
- Hagi Ware: The Tea Bowl That Changes Colour as You Use It
- Bizen vs Hagi: Two Opposite Ideas of Wabi-Sabi
How to Choose Japanese Ceramics
- Why Japanese Pottery Is Worth Buying (and Keeping)
- Stoneware vs Porcelain: How to Tell Them Apart
- Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain: The Real Differences
- Japanese Teapots: Kyusu, Houhin and Dobin Compared
- How to Choose a Japanese Rice Bowl (Chawan)
How to Buy Japanese Ceramics
- About Us｜Japanese pottery & culture
- Buying Japanese Pottery Online: What to Check First
- New Arrivals
Find Japanese Pottery Worth Growing
At Nokaze, japanese pottery made one piece at a time by artists and kilns across Japan is presented alongside the story of the maker. Every clay, every glaze, and every way of ageing is different. Take your time choosing the piece that will change its face over the years ahead.
Browse unglazed stonewareFAQ
「器を育てる」とはどういう意味ですか？
手の油分やお茶のタンニン、お酒などが多孔質の素地に少しずつ染み込むことで、器に独特の光沢が生まれたり、色が深まったりします。使い手の日々の暮らしの記憶が器に刻まれ、「自分だけの器」へと変化していくプロセスそのものが、侘び寂びの大きな魅力となっています。
産地や技法によって、器の育ち方にどのような違いがありますか？
粉引（こひき）
表面の微細なヒビ（貫入）に色がゆっくり染み込み、雪のような白から温かみのある生成り色へと変化します。
萩焼（はぎやき）
「萩の七化け」と呼ばれ、緑茶なら深い緑褐色、コーヒーなら琥珀色へと、使い手のライフスタイルに合わせて劇的に色合いが変わります。
焼締（備前焼・信楽焼など）
釉薬を使わないため、毎日の摩擦や手の脂によってザラザラした質感からしっとりとした滑らかな艶へと育ちます。