White porcelain plate with waterfowls, Mino ware

Mino would go on to facilitate the creating of pottery and ceramic wares made using different techniques. In the Shōwa period Mino helped to cultivate outstanding potters who created Chinese, Korea, and even Persian pottery and ceramic wares. Tsukamoto Kaiji (1912-1990), a potter from Toki city, idealized Song Chinese white porcelain and celadon and through his work on the techniques of reproducing these ceramic wares he was designated a Living National Treasure in 1983. The intricate motifs, such as of wading birds created using the katakiribori (half-cut carving) technique to scrape off designs using a hera (spatula) before the clay is completely dry, are the best exemplar of this type of ceramic ware.