Soil will be fired and become various pieces of pottery. I think that the pottery from “Six Old Kilns of Japan’’ are probably the ones best loved by collectors of Japanese ceramics. They emerged after the end of Sue ware or Haji pottery (ancient earthenwares) at ancient pottery-making districts active since before the Kamakura period (1185–1333). The ancient kilns, holding over a thousand years of continuous active production history, are: Seto, Tokoname, Echizen, Shigaraki, Tamba and Bizen. This classification was proposed by Fujio Koyama, a scholar of Japanese pottery and porcelain and Chinese ceramics.

Every kiln was producing pottery mainly for daily use such as pots, urns and mortars, apart from Seto, where more refined glazed ceramics were produced. Each kiln has different characteristics. Koseto appears in jar or water-dropper shapes which are engraved elegantly with line letters. Tokoname, established in the Heian period (794-1185) based on the Sanage kilns of Sue ware, holds a generous style which was developed by going through people’s critical eyes. Shigaraki holds a wonderfully simple and refined texture with a rich narrativity. The glazing of Tamba is beautiful like a stream of spring water. The texture of the fired skin of Bizen has a tasteful simplicity. Echizen’s sticky texture and simple form are just lovely.

Among the various kinds of pottery objects, I like pots. Just like the frequently used expression, I am ‘getting stuck into a pot’. Amongst the “Six Old Kilns of Japan’’, Shigaraki probably has more collectors than the others. They particularly like the eloquence of the fired surface of Shigaraki. The photographer Ken Domon fell into Shigaraki in an antique shop in Kyoto. This was at the time when good Shigaraki pots were starting to attract serious collectors. He published a photography book titled ‘Shigaraki’. Mie Hama, an actress who became the first Japanese Bond Girl, worked with Domon and requested an advance on her annual salary to acquire a pot of Shigaraki Uzukumaru vase at the young age of sixteen. Masako Shirasu, an essayist and eagle eyed collector, always displayed a Shigaraki pot with a quiet texture at the entrance of her house named Buaiso.

I wonder why these pieces of pottery sometimes have a power strong enough to drive people mad. It is probably because, within their fired skin and proud standing form, the eyes of viewers would find a stratum of epoch or eternal refined beauty or deep thoughts like an experienced Zen priest. Pottery made by human hands would attain an incredible sense of presence and universe as if made by nature. Although originally made for daily use purposes, they lived through to the present time, crossing a series of eras effortlessly.

‘There is another world in a pot’ – as this Chinese saying suggests, I have a feeling that, rather than a physical space, there is another space in a pot to refine our imagination.

Masathito Kurotani, Director, genra