By Porter Lang
No glaze. That is the first fact about Bizen ware, and Wikipedia states it as the main point: it is unglazed stoneware, hard from high-temperature firing, with an earthen reddish-brown colour. Every surface effect on a piece comes from the kiln, not from a coating.
The clay
Wikipedia says the clay of Imbe, the village around which Bizen ware was mainly made, is fine and sticky, with a high iron content and traditionally much organic matter. It shrinks heavily and has relatively low fire resistance. It is also strong and plastic, so pieces keep their shape without glaze. That, the article says, is why most pieces are unglazed. We give the explanation as the article gives it.
The fire
Firing happens only once or twice a year and lasts ten to fourteen days, according to the article. The fuel is red pine, because its resin helps reach high heat, and thousands of logs may be used in one firing. Firewood is added to the firebox about every twenty minutes, day and night. The temperature starts near 600 degrees Celsius and rises gradually to about 1,200 to 1,300. Pieces stay in the kiln about ten days, and the flames are put out about six days after the firing starts. The two main kiln types are the noborigama, a climbing kiln, and the anagama, a tunnel kiln.
The marks
Because there is no glaze, the names are for what the fire does.
- Hidasuki: scarlet lines, from rice straw wrapped around pieces in a saggar. Alkalines in the straw react with iron in the clay.
- Goma: yellow, sesame-like spots, formed when melted charcoal ash sticks to the surface.
- Sangiri: blackish areas where pieces were partly buried in sand.
- Botamochi: round marks left where rice-cake-like shapes were pressed.
- Aobizen: blue-grey patches from salt applied near the ware.
- Kurobizen: dark colouring.
- Fuseyaki: different colours at top and bottom from stacking pieces.
History, with a flag
Wikipedia links Bizen ware to Sue pottery. It gives both the Heian period and the sixth century for this, and those two statements conflict, since the Heian period began in 794. We report the conflict and decline to pick. The article places Bizen ware’s appearance in the Kamakura period and the fourteenth century, and its peak in the Momoyama period, in the sixteenth century. The Ikeda lords of the Okayama domain supported the kilns in the Edo period. The scholar Koyama Fujio counted Bizen among the Six Ancient Kilns. Modernisation in the Meiji era nearly ended the craft. Kaneshige Tōyō revived the Momoyama style in the 1930s, and the Japanese government designated Bizen ware a traditional craft in 1982. Around the year 2000, according to the article, about 300 kilns were operating.
Three Living National Treasures are named, and the page’s dates show all three are dead: Kaneshige Tōyō, Fujiwara Kei and Yamamoto Tōshū. We give no more than the names.
Dates in order
- Sixth century or the Heian period: the link to Sue pottery, a conflict in the article.
- Fourteenth century: Bizen ware appears, in the Kamakura period, according to Wikipedia.
- Sixteenth century: the Momoyama peak, according to Wikipedia.
- Edo period: the Ikeda lords support the kilns, according to Wikipedia.
- Nineteenth century: Meiji modernisation nearly ends the craft, according to Wikipedia.
- 1930s: Kaneshige Tōyō revives the Momoyama style, according to Wikipedia.
- 1982: designated a traditional craft, according to Wikipedia.
- About 2000: about 300 kilns operating, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
The article is the only source we read, so there is no second account to set beside it. Its own dates disagree on the early history. Its account of firing is the most detailed part, and we give it close to as written.
What kind of sources these are
A Wikipedia article, which anyone can edit. We read no kiln, museum or government page. A potter’s own description of a firing would be the better source for everything in the firing section.
Questions a buyer would ask
Which mark is on the piece, and does the seller name it with one of the terms above? Is it a wood-fired piece? The article describes wood firing and long firings. How was it made, and where? We name no maker. Is it unglazed throughout, as the article says is usual? We make no care claim, as the page gives none.
How to read the list of marks
Seven terms is a lot for an unglazed ware, and the list is worth a second look. Four of them, hidasuki, sangiri, botamochi and aobizen, name something done to the piece before or during the firing: straw wrapped around it, partial burial in sand, a shaped lump pressed on it, salt put near it. Two, goma and fuseyaki, name what happens by position and ash. Kurobizen names a colour. Our reading: the terms divide into marks the potter plans and marks the kiln adds, and a piece often shows both. The article does not make this division, and it is our inference.
Why firings are rare
The article says firing happens only once or twice a year, lasts ten to fourteen days and uses thousands of logs, with wood added every twenty minutes. Our reading: a process that long and that labour-intensive cannot be repeated casually, which is why a firing is described as an event. The article does not say this. We note it so that a buyer understands why a seller might talk about “this firing” and not “this batch”.
What we left out
We left out any statement about the Muromachi period, which the article does not mention. We left out prices and the names of living potters. We left out the details of kiln design beyond the two types.
Roam first. Shop later.