There are many pottery producing areas in Japan, but only a limited number of them have remained in operation since the Middle Ages.
Fujio Koyama, a pottery and ceramic scholar, conducted his own research and selected six such loca-tions. Koyama named Seto, Tokoname, Shigaraki, Tanba, Echizen and Bizen as the “Six Ancient Kilns of Japan”.

What these six kilns have in common is that they all used to produce unglazed pottery called “Ya-kishime”, which evolved from the Sue ware that had been produced since ancient times. Only Seto shifted to producing glazed pottery with surface decoration early in the Middle Ages, and the tradi-tion of Yakishime remained for a long time in the other regions.

Echizen (Echizen-cho, Nyu-gun, Fukui Prefecture), the northernmost of the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan, used to be a major producer of daily utensils such as Yakishime jars and pots for consumption along the Sea of Japan coast.
Echizen-cho belongs to the county named Nyu. Nyu in Japanese writing indicates “a red colour is born”. Indeed, the soil from this area contains red iron and is very sticky, making it ideal for pottery making.

What is even more remarkable is the presence of a glassy component in the clay.
If you use normal clay, there are small gaps between the clay particles, so you need to coat the surface with a glaze to prevent water leakage. However, when Echizen clay is fired at high temperatures, the glassy component melts out from the inside and binds the clay particles together, making the clay firm and tight. This process makes Yakishime a durable vessel, even when unglazed.

The Kyusu tea-pot shown in the image is the work of a contemporary potter from Echizen, Michihiro Domoto.
He fires his pottery in a traditional Anagama kiln (cellar kiln). This type of kiln is characterised by leaving the finishing touches to the flames of the wood, beyond the reach of human knowledge.
Nowadays, with the advent of gas and electric kilns, firing techniques have become more advanced and it is easier for the artist’s intentions to be reflected in the work. However, in pre-modern times, when pottery was fired in a wood fire, there must have been a constant sense of accidentality or being unable to do as one wished.
Domoto’s work, which adopts the ancient firing methods, seems to have the power to sublimate such inconveniences into the aesthetic of a new age, by reversing them as “craft nostalgia”.

Originally, Yakishime began in order to make daily utensils, but the vessels made today are the latest evolution of a thousand years of history that began in the Middle Ages, and are still developing for the next thousand years.
Its primitive and rough charm may add a touch of ancient life to the dryness of the modern mind.