Arita Archives - Entoten

My decade long search for a Japanese Sometsuke (blue-and-white porcelain) artist came to a successful conclusion when I discovered Iwanaga Hiroshi’s work at a gallery in Tokyo in 2023. I was enamored by Iwanaga-san’s Sometsuke with the brilliant blue brushwork and fresh porcelain bodies of widely variable shapes. They reminded me of the vibrant Koimari -old Imari, named after the nearby Imari port- ceramics that were produced in the pottery town of Arita, Saga, in Northwestern Kyushu during the Edo period (1603-1868).

Blue-and-white Sometsuke pottery by Japanese potter Iwanaga Hiroshi, Arita, Saga

Porcelain making began in Arita in the first decade of the 17th century, after the first kaolin deposit was discovered in Izumiyama by skilled Korean potters who were brought to Japan through two invasions in the 1590s. Inspired by the popular blue-and-white ware imported from China since the Middle Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and invigorated by the kaolin discovery, the Arita potters began creating ceramics known as Imari with designs and motifs catering to Japanese tastes. These designs often followed the examples of Chinese motifs but with direct and playful expressions of fauna and flora that I think is uniquely Japanese -a quality also present in Iwanaga-san’s work.

Izumiyama quarry in Arita, Saga was discovered in 1616. Within 30 years following the discovery of exceptionally pure porcelain stone here, Japan shifted from a country that imported porcelain to an exporter.

Last spring, I visited Iwanaga-san’s studio in Arita, which today has a population of approximately 19,000 people. When I arrived at the studio, Iwanaga-san, a broad-shouldered man with long red hair donning a Van Halen T-shirt (he loves rock music), cheerfully greeted me into his garage. We squeezed past his car, a well-maintained vintage Nissan 370Z, through to the studio where hundreds of pieces of greenware were drying on boards with side shelves stacked with numerous molds.

Pottery studio of Iwanaga Hiroshi in Arita, Saga

*Sometsuke* potter Iwanaga Hiroshi demonstrating how to hold a “dami” brush for filling motif outline with cobalt

Wheel-thrown, drape-molded, wheel-trimmed, bisque ware waiting to be painted at Iwanaga Hiroshi’s studio

For four decades, Iwanaga-san has been throwing and molding the porcelain, drawing and painting the designs, preparing and applying the natural pine ash glaze and firing the pots all with his own hands. I was surprised at the level of output that was evident from the sheer volume of unfinished pieces stored in his studio.

Traditionally, painted porcelain dishes in Arita have been made through a division of labor. “My father was a “soji” maker who shaped clay and prepared greenware for painters,” Iwanaga-san said. “Many of the mold making tools belonged to my father.” These days Arita’s local ceramics industry is dominated by wholesalers who make it difficult to sustain a good wage for the workers at the foothills of porcelain production, like mold and greenware makers. It is also little known outside but, in Arita, most porcelain bases are slip-cast using machines. “I don’t have anything against slip-casting,” Iwanaga-san said. “But I think inconsistencies in hand-thrown pots and varying tones of cobalt are desired ‘flavors’ of sometsuke work.”

“From the beginning, I wanted to become a studio potter, so I studied both throwing and drawing,” Iwanaga-san said. He studied sumi ink drawing under Kanetake Jinen, a traditional ink drawing craftsman. “Sensei purchased the famous “Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden” for his students, and I copied the drawings from the book for many years,” Iwanaga-san fondly recalled. He also studies Koimari designs and gets inspirations from motifs on chards found at old local kilns dotted around his neighborhood.

After the wheel room, Iwanaga-san took me to the painting room where he stores various outlines of his designs on paper. These outlines are transferred onto bisqueware using gourd ink that burns away in the kiln. “Several years ago, the local producer of gourd ink went out of business and I almost went out of business,” Iwanaga-san said jokingly as he showed us pieces of burned gourd. “So, I started making them myself.” These types of challenges seem to invigorate Iwanaga-san.

Gourd ink on xuan paper is used to transfer the base of a motif onto bisqueware.

Porcelain bisque at various stages of base decoration called “honegaki (bone drawing)” at Iwanaga Hiroshi’s studio

Iwanaga Hiroshi demonstrating line and wash technique with a dami brush. He used a damaged piece -a crack was found and marked on the rim-

Goldfish design before glazing. The light blue wash that burns away in the firing is applied first on the rim and center to test for cracks. It is important to discover cracks before drawing which can save a lot of time because some designs take hours to draw. <Photo Courtesy of Iwanaga Hiroshi>

Iwanaga-san established his own Sometsuke studio in 1985 and for several years he knuckled down to pay off his family’s debt. 10 years later in 1995 he held his first successful solo exhibition in Tokyo. Since then, public recognition of his extraordinary work has grown steadily and he has regularly exhibited at well-known galleries throughout Japan. In 2008 he was selected by Yoshioka Sachio, a renowned dye artist, to create 25 Sometsuke chargers for the “Work by Hand: A Japanese Tradition” for an exhibit at the Terminal 2 arrivals concourse at Narita Airport. And recently Iwanaga-san took on non-ceramic work that involved the painting of the designs of yukata (cotton summer kimono) fabric for professional sumo wrestler Takayasu Akira.

Fuyode, or Kraak style, Sobachoko by Iwanaga Hiroshi. The designs of Iwanaga-san’s work is a visual reminder of Arita’s historical success through trade with the Dutch East India Company (1602-1799)

Yukata fabric designed by Sometsuke potter Iwanaga Hiroshi for sumo wrestler Takayasu Akira

Iwanaga-san is 65 years old this year and has decided to retire from doing annual solo exhibitions in Tokyo. His elbows and neck have developed chronic pain, so he needs to work less after decades of spending too many hours on the wheel and holding a brush. As we left the studio, Iwanaga-san explained his plans to clean up his studio so that his daughter’s family could move into his house. He said he will continue to work at a slower pace and divide his time between Arita and Tokyo, where his girlfriend lives and runs a small gallery while taking care of her elderly mother.

Luckily, a slower pace for Iwanaga-san will allow a small gallery like mine to be able to continue to bring his work to the U.S. “I want to keep making good work that will be cherished by people even after I’m gone,” Iwanaga-san says.

Since the appeal of blue-and-white pottery never seems to cease, history is on his side. I hope that you find Iwanaga-san’s work as uplifting as I do just like Arita’s Imari ware traveled the world and inspired people in faraway regions a few centuries ago ✦

All photos at Iwanaga Hiroshi’s studio by Tomoko Matsubayashi

Pottery wheel and drape mold on the seat

Tonbo -tools used to measure the width and depth while throwing on the wheel

Tatakibo -paddles used to shape the thrown clay on drape molds.

Yumi tools used to cut the rim of vessels on the drape mold

Ceramics offer a fascinating window into Japan’s turbulent past and Nabeshima pottery is a captivating example of how history and pottery comes together. The fortunes of this elegant and noble style of ceramics mirror the ups and downs of Japanese history over the past four centuries.

Nabeshima ceramics originated from Arita in Saga Prefecture on Kyushu around the time when porcelain ware was first produced in Japan by Korean potters. The potters were brought to the country after the invasion of Korea by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi around 400 years ago. It is also believed that Chinese ceramics traders from Imari, not too far from Arita, introduced the overglaze enamel technique to this region during this period.

Hana-Ikada — Iro-Nabeshima plate from the 18th century. Its bold design possesses a unique sense of clarity and pride unlike any other Japanese ceramics. This one from the Tokyo National Museum depicts the “flower raft”, a Japanese term that describes the fallen petals of cherry blossoms floating on the river surface like rafts. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

The Nabeshima kiln was established in the middle of the 17^th Century as the feudal kiln of the local Nabeshima clan, who brought together the best craftsmen in the region to produce high quality porcelain tableware.

Decorated in blue-on-white underglaze, or multi-colored overglaze enamel (known as Iro-Nabeshima) or celadon, Nabeshima ceramics were only produced as gifts for the ruling shogun family and feudal lords during the Edo period (1603-1867). As a consequence of this tightly held circulation within the privileged elite, Nabeshima pottery was largely unknown to the general population until Shogunate rule ended with the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Karahana — The brilliance of the enamel colors can be seen in this close-up of Iro-Nabeshima from the 17th-18th centuries. This plate from the Tokyo National Museum depicts Chinese flowers. In traditional Iro-Nabeshima, only three enamel colors of red, green and yellow are used besides cobalt underglaze. (A few rare pieces used black and gold) In this bold design, the center part is left white in the shape of a cherry blossom. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

My preference for ceramics styles that possess the essence of uncalculated spontaneity rather than precision and perfection meant that I initially found the meticulous beauty of Nabeshima rigid and difficult to appreciate. But my perspective changed during a visit to the Tokyo National Museum when I saw an Iro-Nabeshima plate with Flower and Raft design.

Although the plate was made in the 18^th century, the enamel colors of red, green and yellow were so bright and vivid against the beautiful cobalt underglaze. It almost seemed like the air surrounding the plate was a little clearer than the rest of the museum –and I swear I was not inhaling any questionable substances at the time! The plate’s bold design possessed a unique sense of clarity and pride unlike any other ceramics work that I have seen.

So I was excited when the opportunity arose in the spring of 2013 to visit the Imaizumi Imaemon Kiln in Arita, which is carrying on the tradition of the making of Nabeshima ceramics.

Red roof tiles — Imaizumi Imaemon kiln in Arita is the oldest building in the area dating back to 1830. The roof tiles along the second floor are stained red from the enamel used by artisans that worked on the second floor. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

The Imaizumi Imaemon family has a long and illustrious history that dates back to the Edo period when it was first commissioned as the Nabeshima’s official overglaze enamel artisan (or Akae-shi). For over 200 years, the family enjoyed the financial support of successive feudal lords. However, when the feudal fief system was replaced with the prefectural administrative system in the Meiji era, the Nabeshima kiln collapsed with the ending of shogunate largesse.

Molds — Slump molds used by the Imaizumi Imaemon Kiln. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

The 10^th generation master painter Imaemon, who was the family patriarch during this crisis, decided to do whatever was necessary to preserve the technique for the production of Iro-Nabeshima. From scratch, the family had to painstakingly learn forming and firing techniques, which took many years and only began to bear fruit in the early 20^th Century under the 12^th generation Imaemon. For this enormous accomplishment, the Imaemon kiln was recognized as an important intangible cultural asset by the Japanese government in 1971.

The porcelain bowls are formed by trimming them into shape. Each piece is weighed to the exacting thickness. — A craftsman forming a porcelain bowl by trimming it into shape. Each piece is weighed to an exacting thickness. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

During my visit to the kiln, which is located in the Akae-machi (overglaze town) district of Arita, I saw a craftsman trimming a porcelain bowl and carefully measuring it to its required exact weight on a scale. The kiln was loaded with numerous saggars that encased the pieces to protect them from ashes of pine wood used for firing.

Each piece is fired inside a saggar in traditional wood-firing kiln using pine wood. — Each piece is fired inside a saggar in a traditional kiln fired using pine wood. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

One noticeable sight was the piles of rejected bisque wares, many of which were discarded for the slightest hints of flaws. It was clear that precision and design perfection is of utmost importance, which is a rare quality in Japanese pottery kilns that tend to focus on extemporaneity and simplicity.

Imaemon’s formulas for glazes and their application techniques are still closely-held secrets that are handed down to only a single son of each generation who takes over the name of “Imaizumi Imaemon”.

Rejects — Large piles of rejected porcelain plates with minor imperfections. (Photo by Studio Kotokoto)

The kiln today produces two distinct lines of Iro-Nabeshima, the first of which are created in line with the traditional style of Iro-Nabeshima by over 30 craftsmen. The second line is of a modern Iro-Nabeshima created by the current 14^th generation Imaizumi Imaemon.

If the opportunity arises, I would highly recommend a visit to the Imaemon museum or shop in Arita. They also have a satellite shop in Tokyo. Imaemon’s work is unequivocally stunning, with striking designs, pristine lines, and clever use of the white spaces of natural porcelain. Even if the pricing may seem out of reach for many, including myself, it is still a sheer delight to be able to see this fine work and to pick out a favorite piece you would have liked to take home.

* “Nabeshima” by Motosuke Imaizumi (Tokyo; Kodansha International, 1981) was used as a reference for this blog post.

Tag: Arita

Blue-and-White Sometsuke Porcelain by IWANAGA Hiroshi in Arita, Saga

Impeccable Workmanship: The Refined Nabeshima Pottery of Imaizumi Imaemon