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Shigaraki Ware 1,300 years of art made by fire on clay | ||||
Most people probably think of statues of tanuki (raccoon dogs) when they hear the word Shigaraki ware, because these humorous figures have indeed become the trademark of the ware in recent years. But Shigaraki is in fact an extremely old kiln site, which has been going since the Nara period in the 7th century and the original Shigaraki ware boasts a rustic yet elegant simplicity admired by tea ceremony aficionados throughout history. For his thoughts on Shigaraki ware I interviewed Soju Ueda of Soto-en pottery, who fires in nothing but the traditional climbing kiln. | ||||
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A climbing kiln and wood firing Shigaraki started to develop as a pottery town when the Emperor Shomu built his palace there 1,200 years ago and kilns were needed to make roof tiles. Now there are kilns and pottery shops everywhere you go in Shigaraki. The Soto-en pottery of which Mr Ueda is the president, boasts the largest type of climbing kiln in Japan, one with 11 chambers, and it is the only major ceramic producer in Shigaraki that insists on wood firing in a climbing kiln. Mr Ueda recalls that when he first started this kiln, Shigaraki ware was mainly known for mass-produced daily items such as portable braziers (hibachi). But he himself had a passion for making handmade vases and tea bowls. He says firing such an enormous climbing kiln involves stoking the fire continuously until the flames reach from the first to the second to the third chambers and so on and it takes 10 full days to complete a firing. The kiln master must build the heat to above 1,300°C while watching the color of the flames and the pots inside. It is a job that requires great skill and experience and there is no room for shortcuts. Of course it is possible to fire a kiln completely automatically these days, but Mr Ueda feels that a traditional craft is no longer a traditional craft when it relies on machines. |
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I am informed that there are three points to look for when judging the color of a wood-fired, ash-glaze Shigaraki pot -- the overall color, the glass beads and dribbles formed when the heat in the kiln melts particles of feldspar in the clay, and the scorches that come when the pot is blackened by ash. "I have been involved in ceramics for more than 60 years," says Mr Ueda, "so I know exactly the effect I want to create and I am able to calculate how to achieve it with the type of clay I use and by using a certain proportion of different timber combined with red pine in the firing." With the knowledge and experience he has he can manipulate the results. |
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Mr Ueda recalls an enlightening experience he had in India once when he saw a fellow on the street making pottery using mud dug from rice paddies. "It was at that moment that I suddenly realized that pottery has little to do with the quality of the clay and everything to do with skill," he says. Of course it helps to have good clay but you can still make good pots without it, he believes. "You have to have skill, and I think that we have a responsibility to pass on the skills and techniques developed by our forebears to future generations." Mr Ueda is never complacent with his own skills and always gives himself new challenges. This attitude is no doubt what gives his work its backbone and vitality. |
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Raising successors Pottery workshops are now popular all over the country, but Mr Ueda believes he was one of the first to run a pottery class in Japan. "I once witnessed an elderly master giving a talk to elementary school students on pottery history and the features of clay," he says, "and I thought at the time how important this sort of education is for creating successors to the craft." Since then he has been having students come to his workshop to show them what goes on and he has also started holding pottery classes. "By doing this it makes me happy to think that more people are coming to learn the joy of manipulating clay and experience the beauty of pottery." He is thinking not only of Shigaraki but the future of the whole ceramic culture of his region. |
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