"First the clay, next the firing, and then the form." As this local aphorism suggests, fine-grained, high-quality clay is the life force of Bizen pottery. Long adored for tea wares, the unglazed stoneware exploits the "flavor of the clay" and the expressions of the flames that fire it. Expanding the horizons of Bizen ware are distinguished families like the Mori, Isezaki, and Kaneshige clans, who have evolved local traditions over generations, and newcomers whose admiration for Bizen has infused its designs, tea wares, and vessels with distinctive individuality. We began our exploration with a group of pottery lovers visiting the kiln of Togaku Mori.
from left to right: Mariko Ikehara, journalist; Jeffrey Cunard, lawyer; Togaku Mori, ceramic artist; Alice North, collector; Halsey North, collector; Louise Cort, curator for ceramics Smithsonian, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Maya Nishi, exhibition organizer/curator
Noborigama (climbing kiln) This kind of kiln is a series of narrow, linked chambers built along a mountain incline. Above is the entry to the world's largest noborigama. Typically fired with red pine, they are preferred for glazed wares. The way flames hit and ash builds up on pots renders no two exactly the same.
Anagama (tunnel kiln) This type was first introduced to Japan from Korea in the fifth century. It is basically a single-chamber trench dug into the side of a mountain and covered with a domed ceiling. Wood-firing produces highly varied, natural-ash glazing and flash or scorch marks on otherwise unglazed pottery.
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Inside Mori's studio, visitors see works in progress, including a 180 by 130 cm jar. Mori's pioneering Bizen pottery expresses contemporary forms with innovative curves and lines. |
The joy of touring kiln sites
Beneath brilliant blue skies on a fine autumn day, six curators and collectors from the United States visited the studio of Togaku Mori, the renowned Bizen ceramic artist famed also for building the world's largest pottery kiln. The tour was organized by Halsey and Alice North, who have been collecting Japanese ceramics for more than 17 years. It was their fifth such tour visiting the studios of ceramic artists. The entire itinerary was set before they arrived in Japan: in the course of two weeks they would visit 38 artists and procure more than 50 pieces.
"We love visiting Japanese ceramists," Halsey North said, "because we can go into their studios and ask questions about the inspirations for their work. They're so much fun to be with. They see the world with joyfulness and seriousness, which they try to express in their pieces." Standing beside him, Alice could hardly contain her delight over making this trip a reality. With every artist the couple has visited, they have taken commemorative photos that they keep in albums with the documentation of that artist's works.
Mori showed his guests the 90-meter kiln he began building laboriously by hand 10 years ago. It is otherworldly in atmosphere with light filtering through the 90 wood-feeding holes that run the length of the otherwise pitch-dark, tunnel-like interior. The first firing of the kiln, scheduled for 2009, will draw on the efforts of 1,000 people to maintain a temperature of 1,200 degrees over the course of three months, fueled entirely with red pine felled between October and December when the wood is richest in nutrients. Mori will find and gather all the wood himself. The guests listened intently, jotting notes, as Mori spoke in the bowels of the kiln he has created.
Walking along the giant climbing kiln, which traces the mountain slope, the group headed up to Mori's studio to see his Bizen ware jars and other works in progress. At the top of the kiln they were treated to a panoramic view of the Seto Inland Sea beyond. The deep green mountain against the sparkling blue sea and sky was stunning. Back in the Edo period (1603-1867) the inlet reached right up to the base of the mountain where Bizen wares were loaded onto ships for transport.
Visiting pottery towns in Japan
text by Louise Cort / photograph by Norio Asai
My first visit to a pottery-making center occurred in 1967 when I took the train from Tokyo to Mashiko and spent a day wandering through workshop yards. I still have the bottle I chose. Since then I've made dozens of visits, sometimes to a kiln-site excavation or an exhibition, sometimes to meet a potter. My visits always bring fresh contact with local products and offer a rare view into the way many of Japan's crafts were once produced.
People speak of "visiting pottery villages," but few are villages today—most are towns, if not cities. Pottery-making communities in Japan were industrial complexes that grew up around veins of clay. Those that survive are inhabited by hundreds of people involved in ceramic production, including specialists processing clays and glazes, kiln builders, and shippers. They manufacture ceramic products for modern life—typically tableware, toilets, and drain pipes. Yet these venerable centers reveal their layered histories to visitors who walk lanes leading past abandoned wood-burning kilns to modern factories or museums. These complexes provide all the necessities for studio potters to operate. Some continue family workshops; others move to the area as art-school graduates.
Beginning in the 1960s, as more Japanese acquired cars, leisure time, and extra cash, pottery centers became tourist destinations as well. Wholesalers opened retail shops with parking lots. Potters found new markets, selling items as souvenirs. Coffee shops proliferated. Tourist offices now provide walking maps. Galleries exhibit local potters. Workshops invite you to "spend a day making your own pottery."
Museums are an excellent place to start. In the Mino area, the former villages of Tajimi, Toki, and Mizunami have ceramic history museums. The site museum of the Motoyashiki kiln preserves excavated remains of Mino's first climbing kiln (c. 1600). The workshop of the late Arakawa Toyozo, a Living National Treasure, is now a museum. The dramatic new Gifu Prefectural Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, designed by Tadao Ando, presents national and international exhibitions. Even the plaza in front of the Tajimi station displays works by local potters. In Seto and Tokoname, old factories have become museums.
Visiting the private workshop of a potter requires more planning and usually implies desire to purchase. Galleries or department stores that handle the potter's work can help make an appointment. Take along a fluent Japanese speaker—friend or hired translator—to facilitate conversation. Presenting a small gift follows Japanese custom and shows appreciation.
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from left to right: Mariko Ikehara, journalist; Jeffrey Cunard, lawyer; Togaku Mori, ceramic artist; Alice North, collector; Halsey North, collector; Louise Cort, curator for ceramics Smithsonian, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Maya Nishi, exhibition organizer/curator