When entering into the group of remains of kilns of Mutabora located in Ogaya in Kani City of Mino Province – in present-day Gifu Prefecture – we can almost feel the breathing of potters. I can’t remember how many times I have visited here. The silence in the area is surrounded by woods. These remains of kilns are the sacred place for the historic Mino pottery, which produced Shino, the first white pottery made in Japan in the Momoyama period (late 16th Century). If I close my eyes here, I can even feel the presence of people of that time.

One of the leading potters in Showa period, Toyozo Arakawa, is an indispensable figure of Shino ware. He was working in the Hoshigaoka Pottery Studio run by Kitaoji Rosanjin. In April 1930, in Nagoya, both were shown a Shino tea bowl with a bamboo shoot pattern by an antique dealer. Based on his experience of knowing the feeling of soil, this made Arakawa doubt the common belief that old Shino wares were made in Seto in Aichi Prefecture. Seto and Mino are connected via mountains, and the origin of Shino ware origin might not have been in Seto. He surveyed the remains of kilns around Ogaya, and found a fragment of pottery with the same bamboo shoot pattern.

Even within the whole history of Japanese pottery, this group of remains of kilns of Mutabora is commemorable. It was Mino – the original place for the iconic pottery of the Momoyama period which decorated tea bowls. The glaze made out of locally sourced feldspar creates white skin blank Shino, and white surface with iron brushwork makes E (picture) Shino which has a free and lively characteristic. Nezumi (grey) Shino, applied by feldspar glaze over iron oxide, is also elegant. The pottery is the best part of the Momoyama period.

In recent years, a survey has been undertaken to find out the original point of establishment of Momoyama pottery. This is through excavation work at Osaka Castle, as the date when the castle was destroyed by fire is clearly recorded in history By seeing potteries unearthed from the stratum of the time between 1583, when the castle was built, and 1615, the Siege of Osaka in Winter, we can find out the trade period of these potteries and may be able to guess the timing of their creation.

Shino ware hugely attracts antique pottery collectors. Along with ‘Fujisan’, a white Raku tea bowl by Hon’ami Koetsu, ’Unohanagaki’, a tea bowl made in Japan, was designated as a national treasure, and is believed to have been made in Mutabora. It is probably not possible for us to acquire one of those, but ordinal Shino is wonderful enough.

Different time produces different art, based on the atmosphere of the time. In the glory of the Momoyama period, there was a relaxed beauty of pottery coming from the combination of both the aesthetic of the capital and potters’ skills. Its beauty might not be as luxurious as colour paintings, but there is a sense which evokes our happiness filled with the feeling of the present moment.

Toyozo, who was attracted by just one fragment of Shino, became the holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property in both Shino and Seto Guro (black Seto) pottery making. The original place of Shino is a location that has developed the aesthetic and spiritual culture of Japanese people in present time. However the area of the group of remains of kilns of Mutabora, which was the key for the renaissance of Momoyama pottery, is located right on a planned construction site for The Chuo Shinkansen, and is currently swaying between the concerns of the conservation of cultural property and landscape issues.

Masato Kurotani, Director, genra art