Japanese Painted Ceramics

Pieces painted by brush, above the glaze or below it. A brush laid down once is fired exactly as it fell, so each line keeps the breath of the moment it was drawn.

Sometsuke blue drawn under the glaze. Berries and leaves crossing a rim. A rabbit that differs slightly from plate to plate, because the hand moved slightly differently that morning. Line them up and those differences are the whole point.

Blue painted before glazing is sometsuke. The gosu pigment goes on grey and only turns blue in the kiln, so the painter is working blind. Colour laid on top of a finished glaze is fired a second time at lower heat, and that second firing is the only way to get red and gold. Knowing what the motifs mean changes how you choose.