I spent New Year in Japan with my family and have just came back to London. It was wonderful to have the special New Year meal and some sake in the morning to celebrate our health and happiness!
New Year is always extra special for Japanese people. It is the time when we pray for everyone’s good health and happiness. We give Obukucha - good fortune tea, a Kyoto tradition - to family and friends, and pray for their happiness for the whole of the new year. Here in the shop, we still have a small amount of Obukucha Matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen in stock. It is getting limited, so I recommend coming to get it soon!
On my trips to Japan I go regularly to the famous ceramics region of Mashiko, and last week I went and met many of the potters there again. This time I also witnessed a special event, as the very large noborigama (‘climbing kiln’) at the Hamada Shoji Memorial Museum in Mashiko was being fired, which hadn’t happened for 8 years. It is so large that it can accommodate the work of 100 potters at a single firing.
The Hamada kiln was developed in 1930 by Japan’s national treasure Shoji Hamada (1894-1978). He was born in Kanagawa Prefecture and raised in Tokyo. In 1920 Shoji went to England with the British potter Bernard Leach, where Leach established a kiln at St Ives in Cornwall, which became the Leach Pottery. Shoji developed his skill there and returned to Japan in 1923, eventually developing his own kiln in Mashiko in 1930.
His style, which prioritized the use of regional materials, may appear local at first glance, but in fact incorporates techniques and motifs from a whole range of places, including Okinawa, Karatsu, and Korea, as well as England and mainland Europe.
In this way, Shoji took as motifs Oriental miscellaneous utensils (folk art), primarily from Japan, and incorporated them into his own mode. He was to become recognised as one of the great pioneers of this style of pottery making.
Shoji’s grandson Tomoo Hamada is currently the head of the kiln. Tomoo is not only following in his grandfather and father’s footsteps, but distinctively pushing the boundaries to create his own parameters and aesthetics.
According to Tomoo, the techniques established at the Hamada kiln during the time of Shoji are still carried on to this day, while adapting to the times. For example, when it comes to shaping works, artists use a kick-wheel, a type of potter's wheel that is rarely used these days. While that means productivity is lower than with an electric wheel, once you get used to it, it has many advantages in terms of skill and control, such as being able to freely adjust the rotation speed.
The glazes at the kiln are based, as they have always been, on natural glazes made from wood ash and other ingredients, and wood-fired climbing kilns are used for firing. In Shoji's era, multiple climbing kilns were used, both large and small, although nowadays the company mainly uses just one climbing kiln, as well as a gas kiln and a salt kiln for salt glazes.
The climbing kiln – noborigama - is built on a slope with multiple firing chambers lined up next to each other, so that heat from the fire can flow upwards, creating a temperature difference from bottom to top, the wind fanning the heat. This allows potters to enjoy a wide variety of finished products within a single kiln.
One feature of this kind of kiln is that it produces natural glazes and deep textures that can’t be achieved in electric kilns. So the lower levels can produce pieces with deep colours and a heavy feel, while the upper levels produce pieces with bright, translucent finishes.
It is always a pleasure to see Tomoo in Mashiko, and last week we had another interesting discussion about his work and the kiln. He is a wonderful potter!
We currently have a number of significant pieces by him in the store in Notting Hill. Do please take the chance to come and see them for yourself. A master potter from a master potting dynasty!