Shino Ware: Japan's First White Glaze, and Its Red Blush

Shino is the pottery born in the Mino region of Gifu Prefecture, the first in Japan to carry a genuinely white glaze. It developed as tea ware in the Momoyama period.

A white as soft as snow; countless small pores opening across the surface (yuzuhada, citron skin); designs drawn in iron pigment beneath the glaze (e-Shino); and the red hiiro, fire color, brought out by the kiln's flame. These four are what to look at in Shino.

White, but not the pure white of porcelain. Because a feldspar-based glaze is laid on thickly and plumply, the result is a milky white carrying a faint red or yellow. Within Mino ware it is one of the four great styles alongside Oribe, Ki-Seto and Seto-guro.

Citron skin and fire color

When the thickly applied feldspar glaze melts at high temperature, bubbles within it burst at the surface and set. Those traces become a fine unevenness like the peel of a citron. That is yuzuhada.

Fire color is the faint red that arises as iron in the body reacts to the kiln's flame. It appears most readily where the glaze runs thin, at the rim and around the foot, and its contrast with the white glaze creates a dreamlike expression.

Neither can be produced precisely to order. Glaze thickness, position in the kiln, how the flame strikes. The maker sets the conditions, and the last word belongs to the kiln.

Kinds of Shino

• Muji Shino　No drawing; shown through the white glaze alone. The scenery of citron skin and fire color takes the lead itself.
• E-Shino　Plants and geometric designs drawn in iron pigment beneath the glaze, a form of underglaze painting.
• Nezumi Shino　An iron-bearing slip is applied all over, scraped away to reveal a design, and Shino glaze laid over it. White designs surface on a grey ground.
• Beni Shino　Thinner in iron than nezumi Shino, giving a reddish ground color.

Using Shino

Shino is stoneware, and thick as the glaze is, the body retains absorbency. Carrying out medome at the start makes tea stains and odour less likely to enter.

With use, tea enters the pores of the citron skin and the crazing, and the white slowly turns toward a natural, unbleached tone. This is not dirt but keinen bika. Shino is the leading example of pottery whose expression comes out through raising it.

Related terms and guides

Related terms

• Oribe Ware: The Green Glaze That Broke the Rules
• Ki-Seto: The Yellow Glaze With Green Bleeding Through
• Shita-etsuke: Underglaze Painting and Why It Never Fades
• Keinen Bika: Pottery That Gets Better With Age
• Medome: How to Seal Unglazed Pottery Before First Use
• Japanese Pottery Glossary | Terms, Techniques & Kilns

Read further

• Mino Ware Guide: Oribe, Shino and Japan's Biggest Kiln
• Tajimi: Where Contemporary Mino Ceramics Are Made
• Seto Ware: The Kiln Town That Named Japanese Pottery
• Japanese Pottery Glazes: The Main Types Explained

Pieces available at Nokaze

• Tajimi Pottery | Mino Ware Kilns of Shino & Oribe