2005 Winter - Intro - Visiting Japanese Kilns - Bizen - Tokoname - Seto & Tajimi
Seto & Tajimi
photography by Yasunobu Kobayashi, Masayuki Sakamoto, Ryuichiro Sato / lead text by Masanori Moroyama / text by Kyoko Tsukada
Combining to form one of Japan's key centers of traditional pottery, Seto and Tajimi have generated several styles, including Oribe, Ki-Seto, and Shino, which have come to symbolize the aesthetics of Japanese ceramics. Evidence for this is the use of the word setomono in eastern Japan for ceramics in general. In Tajimi and Toki, where urban sprawl is fast approaching, a new generation of ceramic artists has come of age, investing the region with a new dynamic.
Shinya Kato
 Graceful, soft-toned Ki-Seto born of a bent for detail
Akazu boasts the longest ceramics history in the Seto region, which itself was Japan's first pottery center to fire glazed wares. Today, Akazu is where Shinya Kato, who has assumed the family-head name of Sakusuke Kato V, carries on in the traditions of his forefathers. He continues to produce primarily Ki-Seto (yellow Seto) and Oribe-style wares.
His compound, with the look of a traditional Seto pottery workshop, has a storehouse with a mountain of unrefined clay as well as vats of clay and glazes ready for immediate use, a throwing studio, and other function-specific structures, known locally as muro, all surrounding an inner courtyard garden.
Kato complains that commercially processed clay is too refined, so he oversees the refining of his clays. For his glazes he selects his own straw, the raw material for the ash so vital to Ki-Seto. Even the building of his highly unusual single-chamber climbing kiln involved several adjustments by kiln engineers before it met Kato's standards.
There is pleasure to reap from his scrupulous attention to detail: The somewhat scholarly ceramic artist creates vessels with a softness in color and form that imbues them with an indescribable sense of refinement. Kato says, "It doesn't have the power of Oribe, but dressed with cookery it shows its true value. That's Ki-Seto."
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Ki-Seto dishes include octagonal mukozuke side dishes and an octagonal mukozuke dish with cryptomeria-wood cover. Each dish is part of a five-piece set, from 20,000 yen.
Sakusuke-gama
85 Akazucho, Seto, Aichi
Tel. 0561-82-2505
Call in advance to visit the showroom. |
Hanjiro Mizuno
Vessels with a folk-art heritage shine in everyday use
With the start of Seto porcelain production in the late Edo period (1603-1867), traditional Seto stoneware acquired the moniker hongyoyaki (literally, original ceramic business). Hongyoyaki preserved Seto stoneware traditions and, by focusing on tableware and everyday utensils, continually strived to produce articles to suit the changing needs of each era.
In 2000 Hanjiro Mizuno VII assumed the family-head title from his father and teacher Hanjiro Mizuno VI, who had been influenced by Muneyoshi Yanagi's folk-art movement. The new master's vessels, largely of the Ki-Seto and Sansai (three-color) styles, have a folk-art warmth that makes them pleasant to behold and use.
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Front: Sansai-nagashi (flowing three-color) bowl, 21,000 yen; behind it a sansai-nagashi footed compote, 23,000 yen
Seto Hongyo-gama
1-6 Azumacho, Seto, Aichi
Tel. 0561-84-7123
Call in advance to visit the kiln and workshop. The gallery across from the kiln exhibits and sells works. |
Masanobu Ando
 Refinement to match urban lifestyles
The multi-talented ceramic artist Masanobu Ando is a sculptor by training and a tea master. Perhaps the most fitting description of his pottery, reflecting a balance of sensibility and philosophy, is the word refinement. The striking forms of his solid white or black semi-matte vessels bear minimal ornamentation. His dishes and tea cups take inspiration from the opaque earthiness of Delftware. An urban sophistication marks his pieces. Continually expanding his range, his recent work includes an approach he calls ginsai pewter, a baked and polished silver finish that expresses the qualities of old pewter.
Gallery Momogusa
Ando's gallery is in an old minka (farmhouse) he moved to the site and rebuilt. Besides his own work he exhibits ceramic, glass, washi, textiles, and so on by other artists.
2-8-16 Toeicho, Tajimi, Gifu
Tel. 0572-21-3369
Open 11 AM to 6 PM; closed Wednesdays |
White crescent plate, 8,400 yen; round gray plate, 10,500 yen; round black plate, 3,500 yen. |
Visiting Seto and Tajimi
Getting to Seto
Travel 5 minutes from Nagoya Station to Sakae Station on the Higashiyama Line subway, then 30 minutes from the adjacent Sakaemachi Station to Owari-Seto Station on the Meitetsu Seto Line express.
Getting to Tajimi
Travel 35 minutes from Nagoya to Tajimi Station on the JR Chuo Honsen Ltd. express.
Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum
It presents the history of ceramics in the different regions through collection and preservation of works and related materials, both old and new. A pottery-making and decorating workshop is open to visitors.
234 Minamiyamaguchi-cho, Seto, Aichi
Tel. 0561-84-7474
Open 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM, closed Mondays (Tuesdays when Monday is a national holiday)
Admission 400 yen (special exhibits extra)
Kamagaki-no-Komichi Museum
This renovated late-Meiji (1868-1912) house, on a hongyoyaki kiln site, presents the history and culture of Horacho-area ceramics.
39 Nakaboracho, Seto, Aichi
Tel. 0561-82-0714
Open 10 AM to 3 PM, closed Wednesdays (Thursdays when Wednesday is a national holiday)
Admission free
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu
This splendid new museum, designed by Arata Isozaki, opened in 2002. It collects and exhibits Japanese and international ceramic art, modern and contemporary.
4-2-5 Higashimachi
Tajimi, Gifu
Tel. 0572-28-3100
Open 10 AM to 6 PM, closed Mondays (Tuesdays when Monday is a national holiday)
Admission 320 yen (special exhibits extra)
Articles from the 2005 WINTER issue:
Kateigaho International Edition Issues:
2005 SUMMER - 2005 SPRING - 2005 WINTER
2004 AUTUMN - 2004 SUMMER - 2004 SPRING - 2004 WINTER
2003 AUTUMN - INAUGURAL ISSUE
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