About Okayama Pottery Studio
Founded in 1915, our pottery belongs to the Kyoto ware/Kiyomizu ware.
Our entire pottery production, starting from molding, glazing, firing, and ending up with painting is carried exclusively around the Sennyu-Ji Temple area in Kyoto, an area famous for its tradition in ceramics.
All our pottery is made with the desire of improving and making our customer's life a little richer every day.
Nothing would make us happier than having our pottery used by people in their daily life.
Concept
Pondering about daily life pottery as a craftsman
What kind of pottery is necessary for daily life?
I kept on thinking about this question while touching the clay. A large vessel, a light one, a white one, and an easy-to-store one.
Making suggestions for lifestyle may not be the role of a craftsman.
However, I have relentlessly and repeatedly tried to find shapes that fit in with the user's lifestyle, trying this and that, and then trying it again.
I was born into a family that runs a pottery business in Kyoto's Sennyu-Ji Temple area, which is home to many potteries. As a potter myself, I am truly proud and amazed by my parent's high skill with which they have honored all their orders over time. All craftsmen in Kyoto have created their own unique style by combining or scraping off various techniques that they have passionately acquired over time.
Right after I finished learning the basics, besides valuing my time in anonymity as a craftsman, I also wanted to aim for a pottery style that could only be expressed by myself.
While in my 20s, even though I lacked a certain degree of confidence in both my techniques and sensibility, I dedicated myself to the Inka stamp technique. The technique of Inka itself is not particularly rare. The rustic pattern design applied by ceramic stamps has long been favored mainly in the world of tea ceremonies, with many masterpieces being handed down to this day. I paid special attention to the combination of colors in Inka and after years of crafting I came up with my own distinct style, "Kuroinka". Pottery patterns stamped in black on silky, smooth white ceramics.
From the moment one touches the clay, to the fingertips carving of the pottery stamp, the color adjustment, up to the glazing. All these creative steps were difficult back then and so they are today, but I am trying my very best each and every time.
Wondering what shape will emerge out of the potter's wheel each and every time is part of our craft. Nothing would make us happier than having our pottery used by people in their daily life.
About "Kuroinka", the black Inka seal
Inka is a traditional technique in which a porcelain stamp is stamped on the base material, and the design is revealed by filling the recesses with clay. Widely used in the ceramics of the Joseon dynasty, this technique was brought over to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. Among the Japanese terms for this inlay technique were, "Mishima" and "Mishimade". There are various theories as to the origin of the name. Still, the term is believed to refer to the pottery brought to Japan via Tsushima, Hakata, and Iki, which were once hubs for the Japan-Korea trade.
The flowers, bats, dragonflies, and skeletons that I use as motifs for Kuroinka are all traditional patterns. The base design is acquired from the work of our predecessors, finally, we add a little bit of our own creativity and hand carve it one by one.
After firing in the kiln, only those that are easy to push and hold are sorted out and stored in the toolbox. The making of a pottery seal that fits well in the hand and can stamp beautiful patterns may be more difficult than making ceramics itself.
The process of stamping the pottery seal is an instant one.
Before the potter's wheel gives any clues, the size and spacing of the patterns are evened out and pressed from the edge of the vessel toward the center. By filling the recessed part of this pottery stamp with clay, a black flower pattern will eventually appear.
