Tag: 織部

The Ancient Pottery Town of Tajimi Comes Alive with its Annual Spring Ceramics Festival

Ceramics Mino / Tajimi Travels

Japan has a historically rich and vibrant ceramics scene, but much of it is local and barely known beyond its shores. Stepping foot into this other world requires going to the pottery towns and other out-of-the-way places deep in Japan’s interior, which is what we at Studio Kotokoto find especially intriguing and rewarding.

This past spring, I visited the annual ceramics festival in Tajimi in Gifu Prefecture. It was my first visit to a ceramics festival being held in the hometown of Mino pottery, which is renowned for the green copper glazed Oribe and soft white glazed Shino style wares.

Narumi-Oribe
Narumi Oribe plate by a student from Tajimi Technical High School. It tastefully represents the traditional Narumi style, which is made using two clay bodies: white clay with green glaze, and red clay with white slip and vivid geometric designs.

Mino pottery dates back to the 7th and 8th centuries with the production of Sue ware (or Sueki). The remains of ancient kilns that produced these ceramics can still be found in the neighboring town of Kakamigahara. This region became well known in the 16th century for its Oribe ware, named after tea master and warrior Furuta Oribe who was a Mino native.

Capitalizing on its fame as a center of aesthetic pottery, Tajimi and the surrounding area of Touno have risen to become the largest ceramics-producing region in the country. Around half of Japan’s ceramics and tiles currently come from this area.

tile-art
The banks of Toki river that runs through the town of Tajimi are adorned with tile mosaics.
Tajimi is the biggest producer of ceramic tiles in Japan.

As Tajimi is only a short 30-minute ride by fast train to the north of Nagoya, the largest city in Chubu region, it has also become a sprawling commuter town. Overseas, Tajimi is perhaps best known for its International Ceramics Festival, which is a triennial event that features a world-class ceramics competition funded by numerous local government organizations and ceramics associations.

The show that I went to see, though, was a local event that Tajimi hosts annually. When I got off the train at JR Tajimi station on a bright spring morning, there were people handing out detailed maps and information about the ceramics festival and local attractions. The atmosphere was festive with all sorts of events taking place. There were wheel-throwing pottery demonstrations, performances by local school orchestras, and plenty of entertainment for families with small children.

Tajimi-creator's-market
The entrance to the arcade hosting Tajimi Creator’s Market.

My main purpose for visiting Tajimi was to see the Tajimi Creator’s Market, a small arcade of stalls organized by graduates of two local pottery schools in Tajimi called Ishoken and Tajimi Technical High School. This market was started 5 years ago as a venue to connect fledging potters working in the Touno area with end users.

I arrived in the early morning hoping to beat the crowd in order to see the best selection of work on offer and to meet many of the talented young potters on display.  There were around 50 potters showing their work in the Tajimi Creator’s Market, but even though I got there early, the arcade was already quickly filling up with people. According to one potter, the number of visitors that their event attracts has been growing every year. Nonetheless, I had a very rewarding time in finding an exciting young potter that we look forward to introducing on Studio Kotokoto in the near future.

A stall selling Oribe style pottery on Oribe street, the main thoroughfare of the festival.
A stall selling Oribe style pottery on Oribe street, the main thoroughfare of the festival.

After visiting the Creator’s Market, I made my way to Oribe Street, which is the main artery for the ceramics festival. The most significant difference between the Tajimi ceramics festival and the various craft fairs that I have visited elsewhere in Japan is that this festival hosts stalls operated by local stores selling Minoyaki at discounted prices. So if you know what you are looking for, this is a great opportunity to acquire beautiful Mino pottery at affordable prices.

Oribe-street
Tajimi Oribe street lined with vendors selling pottery.

On my way back to the train station, I came across a pottery stall run by several current students of Tajimi Technical High School who were helping to raise funds for their school. The pieces were so well made and beautiful that I picked up a piece of Oribe ware to take home.

manhole-cover-tajimi
Even the manhole covers of Tajimi feature ceramics. It is clear that Tajimi considers its ceramics heritage as an important part of its identity.

As I continued my walk back to the station, I thought about how difficult it must be for the budding potters that I came across at the beginning of their careers to be able to make a living in our fast-paced world. But these young artists residing in and around Tajimi have an important advantage. The Tajimi show was put together by the local community –from the local government to schools and businesses- to promote and support the local craft industry. There are few other places that I know of that goes to such great lengths to aid its ceramic artists.

After 13 centuries, the old pottery town of Tajimi continues to be a nurturing and inspirational starting place for future aspiring potters.

 

 

A Study in Contrasts: The Unconventional Style of Mashiko Potter Kuriya Masakatsu

Ceramics Kuriya Masakatsu

Ceramics by Kuriya Masakatsu in our shop ->

Kuriya Masakatsu thrives on the notion that opposites attract. From traditional to modern and mainstream to fringe, he relishes going against conventional wisdom. Who else in Japan would have the audacity to turn traditional green glazed Oribe ceramics into stylish speakers or coffee pour-overs?

Ceramic-Speakers
A set of ceramic speakers created by Kuriya Masakatsu

This duality and taking the road less traveled is the hallmark of Kuriya-san and his journey as a potter. He started out by learning Japanese painting at Akita University and ended up working at a cutting edge media broadcasting company in Akita. While Kuriya-san enjoyed his job as a TV production staffer, he yearned to be able to create something by himself from beginning to end.

So on the sidelines of his day job, Kuriya-san started learning ceramics under the instruction of potter Kurata Tetsuya in Akita. “I loved the fact that a potter has the ability to make decisions not just in the creative process but also how their items are presented, marketed, sold and used.”  Throwing convention aside, he decided to leave his stable company job to become a potter and moved to the famous pottery town of Mashiko to apprentice under Okuma Toshiaki.

Kuriya-Masakatsu
Potter Kuriya Masakatsu working at his studio in Mashiko, Tochigi
Photo courtesy of Kuriya Masakatsu

When I first met Kuriya-san at one of his solo exhibitions, he greeted me by pouring a cup of coffee from one of his handmade drippers. “I like to make coffee for guests and play music in the background on my speakers. My show is interactive where guests can see my work in action”, he explained.

Coffee pour-over set and cup and saucer by Kuriya Masakatsu.
Coffee pour-over set by Kuriya Masakatsu

Kuriya-san’s creations are designed and tested to fully serve their intended purpose. They are also direct manifestations of his passion: music, coffee, food and drink. “My principle is to make things that I enjoy making. It is hard to imagine that any work will resonate with users if I did not enjoy creating them in the first place”, he says.

What is most exciting about Kuriya-san’s work is that he is not limited by the preconceived idea of utilitarian handmade ceramics that is especially hard for young Japanese potters to break free from. His trademark green glaze, Oribe, is one of the oldest colored glazes, and when he uses it on some of his carved contemporary forms, the combination brings out a truly unique effect.

Oribe vase by Kuriya Masakatsu
Oribe vase by Kuriya Masakatsu

Another aspect of Kuriya-san’s contrasting approach is his efforts to build a sense of community within the scattered pottery circles in Mashiko. One would think that someone who became a potter to be able to strike out on his own is something of a lone wolf. But I discovered Kuriya-san through his role as an organizer for the creation of an online database of Mashiko potters and as director of the Mashiko Ceramics and Art Association. Both are efforts to build resources for the town’s potters, and for supporting collaborations between these potters and overseas.

Kuriya-san explains why he is willing to invest so much time and effort into a non-paying position. “There are some 450 potters living in Mashiko, and the reality is that not everyone can succeed without a little help from the others. The need for collaboration and cooperation really became apparent when the earthquake happened in 2011, which destroyed many potters’ studios and kilns.”

A large pile of shard at potter Matsuzaki Ken's studio after the 2011 earthquake in Mashiko. Photo courtesy of Ayumi Horie
A large pile of shard at potter Matsuzaki Ken’s studio after the 2011 earthquake in Mashiko
Photo courtesy of Ayumi Horie

It is refreshing to see that while many artists are absorbed in their own work, Kuriya-san volunteers his time and web-designing skills for the community of artists in Mashiko and beyond.

When I asked him why he devotes so much time in the community, he said, “I am a maverick inside, but I know that I can’t survive alone.”  He joked that being a potter makes him a little philosophical and explained his faith in the power of cooperation in relation to pottery making. “Clay is natural, so it might be interpreted as man facing nature. But we are also part of that nature, which is much larger and grander.” To this contemplative potter, ceramic making is much more than simply about himself.