Japanese Pottery Articles
Regions and kilns, techniques, how to choose and care for your pieces. Articles to start your journey into Japanese pottery.
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Artisan Kawai Taichi | Ice-Like Crackle for Your Everyday Mug
Kawai Taichi makes pottery at Tobo Usurai in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, using a hyoretsu kannyu (ice-crackl...
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Artisan Shibaoka Chikara | Raised in Imbe, Carrying Bizen Saikumono Forward
Shibaoka Chikara was born into Shibaoka Tosendo, a kiln in Imbe, the heart of Bizen ware, and grew up in a ...
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Artisan RiRiN | Black Clay Split, Torn and Finished Without Glaze
RiRiN makes pottery from black clay in Tokyo and finishes it without glaze, through contrast with white sli...
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Artisan Suzuki Takashi | Growing Mikan Trees to Make Blue Glaze From Their Ash
Born and raised on a mikan farm in Odawara, Suzuki Takashi began making pottery, self-taught, at 35. Burnin...
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Artisan Shoen Kiln | Ten Days of Fire, Bizen for Every Day
At Shoen kiln in Bizen, Okayama, loading the climbing kiln takes four days and firing it with split red pin...
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Artisan Shokozan | Hagi Ware Shaped by Hand, Down to the Rim
What Matsuura Takaharu of the Hagi ware kiln Shokozan cares about most is the rim. Not thinner for its own ...
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Artisan Fujiwara Akira: Pulling Bizen From the Kiln to Make It Black
After two years each training in Kyo ware and in Shigaraki, Fujiwara Akira was drawn to the subdued, deep c...
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Ichirun Tobo: Reading Glaze as Landscape in Miyazaki
Ichirun Tobo is a studio run by a husband and wife in Miyazaki Prefecture. A landscape in blue, a landscape...
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TATA pottery studio | The Charming Kyoto Porcelain Two People Make Together
TATA pottery studio is a two-person unit: ceramic artist Daiki Tanaka, who forms with moulds and the wheel,...
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Artisan Kawasumi Tomokazu | The Look of Time in Kasama Clay
In the first year of high school, Kawasumi Tomokazu gave up on becoming a painter, until an art teacher sai...
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Artisan Maeda Asami | Japanese Porcelain Patterned in Relief, Not Paint
White porcelain shaped like petals and leaves; at the centre, a scrolling flower that is not painted on but...
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Artisan Higuchi Maki | From Cranes to a Coelacanth, Hand-Painted Japanese Pottery
Cranes and tortoises, pine and bamboo and plum, karako children. Then, right beside those familiar auspicio...
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Artisan Furutani Pottery | Making Kohiki White an Everyday Piece in Shigaraki
Furutani Pottery in Shigaraki, Shiga makes kohiki: iron-rich red clay covered with white slip. Founded in 1...
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Artisan Masanori Yamamoto | Carving Only Shinogi, in Shigaraki
Almost everything Masanori Yamamoto makes in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture, is shinogi. In a kiln inherited f...
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Living National Treasures: Japan's Greatest Potters
Japan’s world-class ceramic quality is sustained by two key official honors: "Traditional Craftsmen," certi...
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Kyo Ware and Kiyomizu Ware: Kyoto's Refined Ceramics
Representing the court and tea cultures of the ancient capital, Kyoyaki and Kiyomizuyaki embody the Japanes...
