[VILLAGE Report vol.11] No glaze applied | Okayama Prefecture

East from Hiroshima. This time, the story is about pottery that chose to “add nothing.”

One of the Six Ancient Kilns

Bizen ware is counted, together with Seto, Tokoname, Tamba, Shigaraki, and Echizen, among Japan’s representative Six Ancient Kilns.

In April 2017, as “The Six Ancient Kilns: Ceramic Centers Born and Raised in Japan, You Will Surely Fall in Love With Them,” it was designated as a Japan Heritage site so designated.

The Choice Not to Apply Anything

The greatest feature of Bizen ware is its firing method.

The shaped clay body is loaded into the kiln without glaze and fired for a long time using split pine wood.

Glaze is used to add color, create luster, and make pottery impermeable to water. Usually, it is used. Not using it means leaving the finished result entirely to clay, fire, and time.

The position inside the kiln, the way ash settles, the way flames strike it. All of it becomes expression. That is why no two pieces are ever the same.

From Everyday Utensils to Tea Utensils

Its beginning, as expected, was in everyday life.

Potters who had been making Sue ware since the Kofun period, from the Heian period through the early Kamakura period, more practical and durable everyday utensils began producing them. This is regarded as the birth of Bizen ware.

That subdued, unglazed finish eventually came to be recognized by tea masters in Sakai and Kyoto. During the Momoyama period, many masterpieces of tea utensils were fired.

The Moment Plainness Becomes Value

This is the interesting part.

At first, not applying glaze was probably a matter of practicality: “it is a tool, so there is no need to go that far.”

Yet as time passed, that lack of adornment “This is good” came to be received that way.

The object had not changed, but the viewer had.

The Difficulty of Taking Away

The same thing is happening in cosmetics.

In one sense, adding more ingredients is easy. There is more to write on the package, and it looks richer.

What is difficult is taking things away. To decide that something still stands after subtraction, you need confidence in what remains.

For hundreds of years, Bizen potters have held on to that confidence: clay and fire are enough.

Next issue, we head to Shimane, a prefecture where something found nowhere else in Japan still remains.

References: Okayama Prefectural Government, “Bizen Ware (Nationally Designated Traditional Craft Product),” “The Beginnings of Bizen Ware,” and “Japan Heritage Designation”; Bizen City, “The History of Bizen Ware and Its Diverse Kiln Effects” and “Japan Heritage (Six Ancient Kilns)”

—The Value Village Editorial Team