Shigaraki Ware

The area around Shigaraki stands above the stratum produced by the upheaval of the Old Lake Biwa that was the forerunner of the present Lake Biwa. The Ōyamada Lake of prehistoric times was born some four million years ago in the area of Iga in present-day Mie Prefecture. Over a long period of time it moved to where Lake Biwa is today and in the process sand as well as animal and vegetable remains filled the bottom of the lake with sediment, creating clay suitable for making ceramics.

    The villagers of Shigaraki live surrounded by mountains. The sides of the mountains are perfect for building kilns and also produce the wood needed to fire those kilns. Shigaraki is a place that invites the production of pottery.

They were hand formed (tebineri) whereby the ball of wedged clay was placed in the center of a potter’s wheel, and while rotating it, the bottom of the vessel formed, after which a long coil of wedged clay was laid onto the base working upward to form the upper part. 

Without applying any glaze, the vessel was fired at high temperature to vitrify or harden it into stoneware (yakeshime dōki), the wood fuel having calcified.

 

In the 17th century (early Edo period) with the building of many-chambered climbing kilns, production increased. At this time glazed ceramics were spreading throughout the country. The earliest example of glazed Shigaraki ware is a tea jar with white waist made in the early 17th century to special order as a gift for the shogun’s family to store tea from Uji. In the mid 18th century, the center of production shifted from making unglazed stoneware vessels to glazed ceramics. 

In the other villages they made smaller objects like clay tiles, sake bottles (kan tokkuri), tea bowls (chawan), religious vessels (shinbutsugu), and candleholders. 

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Shigaraki produced useful tools like hibachi braziers and caldrons for silk reeling. The hibachis were a great hit all the way through the Taisho (1912-26) and early Showa periods (1926-1989). Valued highly for their strong good quality and ability to heat and cool more quickly than ones made in other areas, they sold increasingly well. Just after the Second World War (1945-54), to fill the growing demand, the town of Shigaraki appeared to be bubbling with hibachi.

Many Japanese immediately associate Shigaraki with tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog). These Shigaraki tanuki fashioned in the style of small monks selling sake are famous around the nation. In the 1920s the First Rian (Tetsuzo Fujiwara, 1876-1963) and others started to specialize in making tanuki. 

In 1930, a shard from a Momoyama period Shino tea bowl was discovered at the old kiln site of Mutagahora in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, opening up a new understanding of ceramic history and raising interest in old wares. Craftsmen from every area were charmed by the Momoyama pottery and began to recreate old pieces.

Two artisans in Shigaraki also sought to reproduce old Shigaraki ware. They were the third generation Rakusai Takahashi (1898-1976) and the fourth generation Naokata Ueda (1909-1975).  The high-fired ceramic ware in Momoyama style that they made was called hechimon, and it went essentially unnoticed by the local people.

The iron in Shigaraki clay sometimes lends it to turn a flame-like glowing reddish brown during firing. The color of the fired clay depends on the placement in the kiln, the circulation of the flames, the temperature, the amount of oxygen and the composition of clay,

Shigaraki clay contains a lot of feldspar. This melts between 1250°C and 1280°C creating visible white glass grains on the surface of the clay. They are sometimes called “crab eyes” due to a imagined resemblance, or “hailstones.”