Tag: sometsuke

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

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August 14, 2025IWANAGA Hiroshi Arita Ceramics

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

Playful and Soulful: New Kutaniyaki by Horihata Ran

By:

Ai Kanazawa

September 28, 2020Ceramics HORIHATA Ran

Kutaniyaki by Horihata Ran in our Shop ->

People often ask how I select makers for Entoten, and the short answer is that those chosen make work that I react to emotionally. To put it another way, ‘what they make me feel’ is more important than ‘how they look.’

For Kutani potter Horihata Ran, I fell in love with her whimsical work after coming across it at a department store in Tokyo in 2019. Her work was shown in a section featuring young and upcoming makers, and I was extremely moved by her soulful brush strokes.

Homemade Japanese sweets on iroe square plates by Horihata Ran. Tea practitioners often make their own sweets to serve to guests at a tea gathering. It is another way to infuse the host’s hospitality into the occasion and the offerings are enhanced by handmade plates like Ran’s Kutaniyaki.

Kutani Iroe square plates with diamond decoration by Horihata Ran. Uneven pattern edges resemble a torn brocade.

After Ran’s work was introduced for the first time by Entoten in the U.S. last December, many people inquired about her one of a kind pieces. So this time, I requested mostly one-off pieces because I was also intrigued by what she would come up with.

“When I saw that my larger pieces were quickly chosen by people in America, I thought, wow American people are so dynamic,” Ran said excitedly, “so for this batch, I wanted to create pieces that I’ve always dreamed of making.” And with that enthusiasm, Ran worked on her pieces and sent a trove of lovely work this summer.

Ran wanted to make a jar inspired by the celebrated Korean jars from the Joseon era, but realized she needed much more skill and research to even remotely resemble them. So she took her brush and put everything she had into painting lively flowers. “I think in that sense, I’ve created something that I can only create once in my lifetime,” Ran said.

Lidded Kutani akae jar. Ran excels and loves to make lidded jars even though it entails many steps in the making. “The lid and body are thrown separately and trimmed to fit together. When the lid fits perfectly after firing, I feel great satisfaction,” Ran said.

Figs on a Sometsuke pedestal plate by Horihata Ran. She wanted to create pedestal plates that she visualized on American dining tables alongside candles and flowers.

Unpacking Ran’s work was especially poignant for me because it has been many months since I received a ceramics shipment from Japan because the pandemic had curtailed freight services. I hope that Ran’s cheerful work will remind you to play often and to keep your downtrodden souls in check, just like they did for me.

Horihata Ran: Kutaniyaki to the Dining Tables Around the World

By:

Ai Kanazawa

December 12, 2019Ceramics HORIHATA Ran

Kutaniyaki by Horihata Ran in our shop ->

Horihata Ran is an up and coming Japanese Kutaniyaki (Kutani ware) potter who is worldly-wise and talented beyond her years.

Born in Kanazawa surrounded by the rich ceramics culture of Kutaniyaki, Ran’s beginning as a potter was earlier than most of her contemporaries. She attended a vocational high school where she started learning pottery and went on to study at the Ishikawa Prefectural Institute for Kutani Pottery for three years. At 25, she already boasts 8 years of experience in working with clay. For the last three years, Ran has been working as a production potter at Kutani Seiyo Kiln, a studio comprised of multiple potters in Nomi City in Ishikawa where she is based.

Large peony Kutani sometsuke bowl by Horihata Ran

Ran initially wanted to make sculptures and art objects out of clay. “I thought it would be great to express myself in sculptures in the beginning,” she said. “Then after about four years, I started thinking that I wanted to create something that wasn’t just about me. I became interested in tableware because I was interested in a lot more than just myself. I’m curious about the people who cook food and use my ware, and also about the people who eat from them. Tableware is about relationships and I’m very interested in that.”

Kutaniyaki iroe tableware by Horihata Ran

Kutaniyaki is colorful painted porcelain ware of underglaze cobalt and overglaze enamel that is made in Ishikawa prefecture. Kutaniyaki’s roots go back 350 years to the very prestigious Ko-Kutani (old Kutani), which are of strong colors and luxurious designs, often seen in museums around the world. There is evidence suggesting that Ko-Kutani may have been made in Arita, in Saga, but Kutaniyaki refers to the painted porcelain ware of Ishikawa where a large kaolin deposit was discovered in the Nomi region around 200 years ago.

Since I visited Ishikawa to follow in the footsteps of the famous Rosanjin in 2014, I have been wanting to bring Kutaniyaki to the US. I think this overlooked region deserves much more attention in the ceramic world because there are some exciting potters coming out of here, due in part to the Ishikawa Prefectural Institute for Kutani Pottery that was established in 1984 to promote Kutaniyaki. Ran is a prime example of the new talent coming out of this investment.

Horihata Ran at Kutani Seiyo Kiln in Nomi City, Ishikawa
Photo courtesy of Horihata Ran

I came across Ran’s beautiful work at a major department store in Tokyo this past spring. Her work immediately caught my attention because it was fresh and bold, unlike many painted Kutaniyaki porcelain that I had seen. Most Kutani is too busy or too traditional looking for my taste but Ran’s brushwork carried a sense of deliverance from convention, and I was curious to find out why.

Kutaniyaki potter Horihata Ran applying overglaze enamel on porcelain.
Photo courtesy of Horihata Ran

“I restrain myself from drawing too much because I love drawing and I get carried away easily,” Ran chuckled as she explained her style. “I think that drawing with restraint balances well with food.” She also added that some heavily drawn-in pots work well with food, but they are much more difficult to design and perfect.

Wild chrysanthemum rice bowl by Horihata Ran. Ran restrains herself from drawing too much on the pottery so that the food is enhanced in the vessel.

I was very impressed to find out that she had spent 4 months in Denmark’s Krogerup Folk High School’s ceramics program after graduating from the Ishikawa Prefectural Institute for Kutani Pottery. Young Japanese of Ran’s generation are very inward looking and happy just to stay at home, and few willingly leave Japan to travel the world. Ran said she worried that she did not speak enough English, but because the students at the Danish school were from all over the world she felt comfortable going there.

“When I went to Denmark, I was surprised that young people were not shy to express their opinions in front of older people,” she said. “And I learned that the Danes put serious effort into creating comfortable space and time for hygge. I thought that was wonderful. I fondly remember building a little movie theatre in the basement with other students so that we could watch DVDs in comfort.”

Danish Bornholm themed Kutani sometsuke shallow bowl by Horihata Ran. Ran thought it was wonderful that the Danes put a lot of effort into creating hygge, a mood of coziness and comfort.

At first, Ran felt that there were too many breaks during class in Denmark because she tends to get completely absorbed into her work and does not like interruptions. But she later learned the importance of taking breaks and to connect with other students. The softness and freedom in Ran’s work most likely stems from the experience of living with students from different backgrounds and seeing the outside world.

Ran is beginning to establish her own studio in Nomi, and Entoten is delighted to have received the first batch of work that Ran has made in her new workspace. By spring 2020, she is hoping to work independently full-time. “It’s like a dream that someone living in America will be holding my work in their hands and using them. I wish that someday Kutaniyaki will be known around the world as tableware that people use in their daily life, not as pots in museums” she said.

Balancing Design with Usability: Blue-and-White Pottery by Watanabe Ai

By:

Ai Kanazawa

January 26, 2016Ceramics WATANABE Ai

People often ask us how Studio KotoKoto decide on which potters to work with, and the first thing that springs to mind is that we work with makers who create vessels that inspire use. It also doesn’t hurt if they share the same attractive names as us.

So when I saw Watanabe Ai’s blue-and-white pottery, I immediately imagined all kinds of appetizers and snacks served on her lovely plates on top of my dining table. Simple everyday objects like onions, gourds, and flowers inspire Watanabe-san, who was educated as a designer at University of Tsukuba’s School of Art and Design.

Blue-and-White cups by Japanese potter Watanabe Ai. She gets inspiration from everyday objects — Blue-and-White cups by Japanese potter Watanabe Ai. She gets inspiration from simple everyday objects.

She is quick to emphasize, though, that the most important element in making is to balance design with usability. “Pursuing the look makes pots too expensive or uncomfortable for use”, she believes, and “an effusive work is remarkably difficult to be accommodated into people’s lives.” Her creations are true to this philosophy, and bold as the patterns may seem, they enhance and do not get in the way of the food they carry.

Balancing design with usability is of utmost importance to Watanabe Ai. The bold design does not get in the way of food but becomes an enhancing background.

“The brilliance of colors that I saw when I traveled in Asia, Turkey and England as a student really stuck with me, and I feel that it is coming out in my work,” Watanabe-san says. Certainly, the use of a single vivid shade of blue gives her work a distinct modern look, since the vast majority of Japanese blue-and-white pottery makers employ different shades of blue that gives them a more traditional look.

Modern look — Watanabe Ai painting onions on a cup. The use of a single vivid shade of blue gives her work a distinct modern look.

After graduating from university, Watanabe-san initially worked for a toy trading company where she honed her skills in design through creating catalogs and 2D advertising. “I worked to sell things but I aspired to create things with my own hands,” she reflected.

While visiting craft shows, she was motivated to become a potter because pottery-making seemed to allow for so much freedom in colors and shapes. So she left her stable job and went to study pottery at Seto Pottery Senior High School in Aichi prefecture.

Watanabe Ai of kikakikaku showing work at a craft show in Japan. She was inspired to become a potter while visiting a craft show. — Watanabe Ai of *Kikakikaku* showing her work at a 2015 craft show in Japan. She was inspired to become a potter while visiting craft shows.

When I met Watanabe-san in the spring of 2015, it had only been a year since she established a pottery business called Kikakikaku with her husband Murayama Takumi, who provides sales and production support. I remember being amazed that she was showing her work at a juried craft show alongside experienced and well-known makers.

Just last month, Kikakikaku moved into an old house that used to be a hair salon and is currently in the process of being converted into a studio. Their plan is to have a mini-gallery adjacent to the studio, just like many potters do in Japan. “That’s our dream, and for us to make a living by making pottery”, Watanabe-san says.

New studio — The new pottery studio and kiln of *Kikakikaku* in Odawara city in Kanagawa prefecture. In the photo, Murayama-san is converting what used to be an old hair salon into the pottery studio.

She is eager to gain more experience and develop more techniques to create wares as close to what she has visualized while she is making them. “Pots warp and shrink, and the colors of the stain and texture of the glaze turn out differently depending on the temperature and density of the kiln”, Watanabe-san explains.

the color depends — Photos of pots before and after firing in a kiln. Watanabe-san is eager to build up her experiences and techniques so that her completed pots have the desired colors and consistency of glaze.

Watanabe-san’s enthusiasm and sensibility for design are purely reflected in the work that she makes. She chuckles that recently she has been drawing lots and lots of onions, but “I have so many motifs swirling in my head that I want to put onto my vessels.”

We are excited to introduce these creative works of Watanabe Ai to the U.S. and cannot wait to see innovative new works coming out of this young and talented potter’s kiln in the future.

Introducing Kikuchi Yuka: Porcelain Potter Who Stands Out From the Crowd

By:

Ai Kanazawa

September 3, 2013Ceramics KIKUCHI Yuka

Ceramics by Kikuchi Yuka in our shop ->

In my travels around Japan, I sometimes come across richly talented artists who are little known but whose work stand out from the crowd. One such gifted potter is Kikuchi Yuka, who makes beautiful and functional works with black inlay (zougan) and blue-and-white (sometsuke) porcelain.

zougan — Amakusa porcelain dessert plate with black inlay by Kikuchi Yuka

Yuka shines because of her exceptional ability to produce forms that marry contemporary elegance with simplicity and tradition, and in portraying nature through stylized patterns in her blue-and-white porcelain.

What adds to Yuka’s talent was the experience that she gained from learning from one of Japan’s great Kyoto sometsuke masters, Kondo Hiroshi. Kondo was an internationally famous potter and an avid teacher who took her along on his workshops overseas. Yuka spent seven years studying under Kondo and she was his last apprentice before his death in 2012. While Yuka learnt a great deal, it was also a humbling experience and she initially found it difficult to escape her master’s shadow. “For a long time I was bound by my self-inflicted pressure not to disappoint my teacher”, she said.

But with Kondo’s passing, Yuka has finally begun to find her own way, which is allowing her to produce work with style and vigor. “I now think that I should simply make the best pots that I can make”, she said.

Throwing — Potter Kikuchi Yuka throwing on the wheel at her studio in Minamiaso

Yuka’s zougan works are simple but uniquely elegant vessels. “I design my work to compliment the food, so its presence is felt but does not overwhelm“, she explains. Her sometsuke work, which she only started making recently, is a display of exceptional skill in brush techniques and stylized expressions through shades of blue. It is a fitting homage to her late teacher.

Tsubaki — Blue-and-white porcelain mamezara depicting Higo camellia by Kikuchi Yuka

Yuka makes her wares by throwing clay on the wheel, which is trimmed down to the shape she requires. She alters the clay’s hardness depending on the size of the piece that she throws. The size and shape of each pot is determined carefully for its usability. But she says it is difficult to control the shape because when the piece dries, the clay often warps to the way that it was thrown, almost like it has a memory.

Higo Tsubaki — Higo camellia is the pride and symbol of Kumamoto, a prefecture often overlooked in Japan.

One reason why Yuka is little known is that her studio and house, Ennyo-gama, is located in the distant village of Minamiaso about 25 miles east of Kumamoto in Kyushu Island. It is on the volcanic caldera of Mt. Aso and is famous for its healing hotsprings. I had the opportunity to meet Yuka at her studio this past spring when I traveled to Kumamoto with a pottery tour group organized by Bill Geisinger and Ben Horiuchi.

All of Yuka’s work is made using porcelain that comes from the Amakusa Islands, which are just off the coast from Kumamoto. Amakusa porcelain is famous for its pure white color, durability, plasticity and minimal shrinkage and slumping when fired. While Amakusa supplies as much as 80 percent of the Kaolin used for porcelain clay production in Japan, porcelain pottery made in Kumamoto is not well known.

Showroom — Kikuchi Yuka’s showroom in Minamiaso, Kumamoto. All of her work is made using local porcelain from Amakusa.

Yuka said that when she announced in 2008 that she was ending her apprenticeship in Kyoto and moving home to open a studio in Kumamoto, “almost everyone around me asked if there was any pottery there”. Yuka pointed out that while “Kumamoto is best known as the raw material provider and agricultural center of Japan, there is a lot more happening here.” She hopes that her work will help people recognize Kumamoto for its culture, history and tradition, an accolade that it very much deserves. We at Studio Kotokoto will certainly be paying attention to Yuka and Kumamoto as we enjoy the creative elegance and flair that she brings to porcelain pottery.