Getting to Know Bizen Contemporary Expressions of Japanese Ancient Pottery

Now through February 16, 2025, G251-3

The clay is speaking! Look carefully to see the shapes but also the subtle distinctive surface effects on the clay.

“… In Japanese ceramics the materials and techniques are seen as expressive in themselves. In Chinese ceramics lore, pots are praised for their resemblance to jade, silver, or ice. In Western ceramics, such as Italian majolica ware, every effort is made to recreate painting. But in Japan, the properties of the materials such as the color, texture, and hardness of the clay, impurity of the pigments, and viscosity and melt of the glaze are generally encouraged to speak for themselves. Potters are fond of saying that each material has an innate potential and that the job of the potter is to persuade that character to emerge.” Inside Japanese Ceramics: A Primer of Materials, Techniques and Traditions by Richard L Wilson 1995, p18

First a bit of History: Bizen (Bee’- zen) ware began in the 14th century but was popular for the tea ceremony in the 16th century because it was rustic. It is one of the six Japanese traditional pottery traditions. Bizen tradition was brought back in the 1930s, and many of the artists included in this exhibit were made by modern Japanese National Treasures. In the case of Bizen, much of the reason the clay speaks is that the kiln is responsible for most of the surface changes during firing. This exhibit includes clay objects from the 16th to 21st century.

The clay body, the method of making the object, and the firing all play a role. Bizen traditions uses stoneware clay (needs high firing) which has more iron than most stoneware. It is still found locally 3 meters under rice paddies and so has more organic matter before it is stored for a while. Then mallets take out impurities before it is covered with water and sent through a sieve.  It then is cured outside before it is kneaded with feet before it is used, but it remains very plastic, which means that there is high shrinkage, making it hard to use glaze or make large works. The clay has low fire resistance, making simple firing impossible.

Potters made most of the objects in the exhibit on a wheel. A few of the more modern objects were hand built by rolling out slabs and then shaping them. A few of the smaller ones are pinched. Many of the shapes are vases, some are jars, some are tea cups. All are functional. The only surface decoration at this stage are incised lines but they are not common. In the exhibit, Kaneshige Toyo has two works with incised lines. The labels describe the individual potters.

Firing Because of the problems with the clay itself, firing was adapted to help. As a result, the Bizen pottery is mostly known for the surface decoration created during firing—kiln effects! The firing is done in large multi-chamber climbing kilns using pine wood. Often there are 1,000 ceramic pieces, which takes two weeks to load. Firing is over 10 days, adding wood every 20 minutes so the heat is gradually increased; then cooled for one week. Ash is sometimes added beyond what the wood itself produces. The flames and ash fly around the kiln. The way the chambers are designed, and sometimes the way the whole kiln is designed on the side of the hill before it exits a chimney at the top, influence the way the ash circulates.  The most common kilns are the anagama or the noborigama kiln.

Left: Anagama kiln, • Credit; Wikipedia

Right: Noborigama kiln • Credit: Tajimi Tourism

What intrigues me is how subtle the surfaces are because the kiln is active!!! And the potters have learned how the ash flies around their particular kiln. So where and how each pot was stacked and how flame, ash, and carbon play on the surface define the surfaces. 

Some redline marks are made by straw tied on, which combines with the iron. The alkali in the straw plus the iron in the clay makes reddish-brown streaks called “fire cording.”

Left: Turnip-shaped Vase, 2015 • Isezaki Jun • Stoneware with ash glaze Gift of Carol and Jeffery Horvitz • 2019.92.4

Middle: Bizen Vase with Reddish Fire Marks, c. 2011 • Wakimoto Hiroyuki • Bizen ware: stoneware with hidasuki marks Gift of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz • 2015.112.9

Right: Flask (tokkuri), early 21st century • Wakimoto Hiroyuki Bizen ware; stoneware Gift of the Clark Center for Japanese Art & Culture; formerly given to the Center by Margarent and Harold Sims

Sometimes the natural greenish glaze from the wood ash turns yellow and makes small yellowish beads called “sesame seed.”

Left: Caddy, late 16th centruy • Unknown Japanese • Bizen ware; glazed stoneware with ivory lide and brocade bag The Putnam Dana McMillan Fund • 2000.29.1 a,b

Right: Jar with Loops, 16th century • Unknown Japanese • Bizen ware; stoneware with natural ash glaze ary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation • 2015.79.283

Sometimes when the spots run together, the surface looks like jeweled droplets. Sometimes when it is dry and the ash is only partly melted, the surface looks like melon skin as in Fujiwara Kei, Large Jar. 

Jar, 20th centruy • Fujiwara Kei • Stoneware

Gift of The Clark Cemter for Japanese Art & Culture • 2013.29.1133

If an object is fired upside down on another object or is covered in some way, there is a resist pattern that shows the untouched clay. Above, the ones with the red lines show they were covered where the red lines were.

Yes, some surface marks are accidental because the firing isn’t possible to totally control where the flame, ash, and carbon goes, but the potter’s experience in placing pots in certain chambers and how the pots are stacked or covered plays a big role too.

Also in the exhibit on the walls are many landscapes of the area of Bizen: Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) woodblock prints and paintings; Urakami Shunkin (1779-1846) paintings.