Hagi ware has been produced all over Yamaguchi Prefecture, and is one of Japan’s most famous pottery styles. Hagi ware is characterised by its clay, glaze, and colour depending on the heat. It is also defined by its plump and soft texture, and the changing colour of the crack-like glaze as it absorbs the tea stain. Hagi ware has been loved by many tea masters since ancient times for its rich and diverse expressions of clay, which is left to nature without too much human intervention, and is often referred to as “First Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu (*)”. The history of Hagi ware can be traced back to the time when MORI Terumoto, Lord of the Hagi clan, invited 2 potters from Joseon Dynasty Korea, LEE Jak Kwang and LEE Kyung, to Japan during TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi’s Japanese Invasion of Korea (1592-98). It began when MORI built kilns for his clan in Matsumoto, the town of Hagi Castle (present day Chinto in Hagi City), and in Fukawa-sonose (present day Sonose, Fukawa-yumoto in Nagato City) about 50 years later, where the technique of Korean Koryo-dynasty tea bowls was introduced. Hagi ware has then continued to develop in its own unique way over a long period of time to the present day.

Fukawa-sonose is where 5 kilns remain in the mountains of Nagato-yumoto, a hot spring village said to have been discovered 600 years ago. If you walk up the slope looking at the clear air, the flowing river, the mossy rocks, the summer tangerine trees and the scattered pottery studios, you will find the Sakakura Shinbei-gama Kiln at the far end. Masahiro Sakakura, who showed us around the studio, studied sculpture at a university in Tokyo, and later studied pottery in Kyoto before returning to his hometown to work under his father, Shinbe Sakakura, the 15th generation master. “As I live here, dig the soil and make the pottery, no matter how I do it, what I make will always become Hagi ware. Taking things broadly like that, I am making what I want to make,” says Masahiro. Although he feels strongly that he benefits greatly from the land and its history, he doesn’t feel burdened by tradition. As he says, “When I am here, I can see how people have long regarded the mountains and the sun as divinity.” His work reflects the sensations he receives from the materials: the graceful flow and swell of the wind and river, the wildness and warmth of the sun and soil. While holding the spirit of Hagi ware within the rich texture of the soil given by the glaze and the fire, there is a breath of what exists here and now.

In 2017, Masahiro opened Cafe & Pottery Oto. Together with 5 co-owners, including potters and designers, he has been creating a new place where they promote the charms of Hagi ware, and the town and nature of Nagato Yumoto Onsen, while fostering exchange between travellers, migrants, locals, makers and users. He makes a wide range of pottery, from daily utensils to objets d’art, but the thing he wants to make the most is tea bowls. Masahiro says, “There is a freedom in tea bowls, but it does not mean that you can do anything with them. There are 3 constraints: “the style” of the tea ceremony, “the use” of drinking tea, and “the shape” that fits in the hands. And this is where the aesthetic sense of the maker and the user comes into play. I think it is precisely because of these constraints that we are able to pursue them so deeply over the years.”

台ノ土茶盌 大道粉引　Hagi Dai-no-tsuchi Tea Bowl, Daido-Kohiki Style
　

急須　Teapot
　

拝日の徒　Worshipper of the Sun
　

vanishment
　

pieces‐pottery
　

萩茶盌 大道粉引　Hagi Tea Bowl, Daido-Kohiki Style

Photography by Tomoko Hayashi
Text by Tomomi Takezoe
Translation :Naoko Mabon (WAGON)