SHIGARAKI-CERAMICS

Where Clay becomes Art

KINTEI Sense Tao Akira Shigaraki ceramics, Japan, wood-fired sculpture, object, vase, geometric forms, abstract art, “Stretching”, yōhen surface detail

Mention Shigaraki, and different images come to mind. For some, it is the town of cheerful tanuki figures that line the streets. Others think of rustic tea ceramics admired by generations of tea masters, while architects know it for roof tiles and ceramic building materials. Contemporary ceramic artists associate Shigaraki with one of Japan's leading centres for ceramic research and international exchange. At first glance, these worlds seem unrelated.

Yet they all share the same foundation: an exceptional clay.

Located in the southern part of Shiga Prefecture, about an hour southeast of Kyoto and just south of Lake Biwa, Japan's largest freshwater lake, Shigaraki occupies a secluded valley surrounded by forests and gentle mountains. Although close to the former imperial capital, it has remained geographically distinct, allowing a unique ceramic culture to flourish for more than eight centuries. The region is today recognised as one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns (Rokkoyō), a designation for the country's oldest continuously operating ceramic centres. Its enduring reputation, however, owes less to a particular style than to the extraordinary qualities of its clay.

Table of content

A Landscape Written in Clay
Shigaraki's Signature: Yakishime Ceramics
Shigaraki and the tea ceremony
A Tradition of Reinvention
Shigaraki Now
International ceramic and art centre

A Landscape Written in Clay

Geological origins

The story of Shigaraki begins millions of years before the first potter shaped a vessel. The region once formed part of an ancient lake that gradually shifted northwards to create present-day Lake Biwa. Over geological time, granite bedrock weathered into mineral-rich sediments that settled across the valley, producing one of Japan's finest ceramic resources.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Clay Mine

The Clays of Shigaraki

Shigaraki potters work with several local clay bodies, each contributing different characteristics. The light, sandy Gairome clay is coarse and rich in feldspar and quartz, producing lively textures and visible mineral inclusions after firing. The dark Kibushi clay is finer, highly plastic and surprisingly light after firing despite its organic content. Together with other local clays, they provide an exceptional range of possibilities for both wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics.

The clay is remarkably strong, heat resistant and capable of withstanding long wood firings. Its qualities are so highly regarded that Shigaraki clay is used by ceramic artists throughout Japan.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Gairome Clay

Tsuchi-aji – the "taste of clay"

Japanese potters often speak of tsuchi-aji, literally "the taste of the clay," to describe the warmth, depth and character a clay body reveals after firing. In Shigaraki, that quality is especially clear in yakishime—high-fired, largely unglazed stoneware—where the clay itself remains the principal means of expression.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics 16th Century Tsubo Bizen Museum

Shigaraki Tsubo - 16th Century, Bizen City Museum of Art

Shigaraki's Signature: Yakishime Ceramics

The Beginnings of Pottery Production

Ceramic production in Shigaraki began during the late Kamakura period, probably in the early thirteenth century. Like many medieval Japanese pottery centres, production was closely tied to farming communities, with pottery made during the agricultural off-season. During the succeeding Muromachi period, Shigaraki established itself as one of Japan's foremost producers of large utilitarian stoneware.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Tougei no mori bisque-fired ceramics tsubo

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Sawa Tsubo Jars

The Tradition of large Storage Jars (Tsubo)

The earliest wares were unglazed monumental storage jars (tsubo), large containers (kame) and mortars (suribachi). Their impressive scale was made possible by the strength and plasticity of the local clay. These vessels transported grain, tea, sake and other valuable goods throughout medieval Japan and became some of the finest examples of utilitarian ceramics produced anywhere in the country.

The Art of Wood Firing

Given the unique character and taste of its clay, Shigaraki became thus renowned for yakishime, high-fired, largely unglazed stoneware. These vessels achieved their beauty through the interaction of clay, ash and fire. Long firings in wood-burning kilns transformed their surfaces naturally, making the material itself a canvas for the expression fire and the resulting kiln changes.

During firing, ash settled onto the surface and melted into translucent green bidoro glass. Iron within the clay developed warm orange and reddish hi-iro ("fire colour"), while direct contact with flame created dark scorch marks known as koge. Large feldspar inclusions emerged as white bursts ( ishihaze) or softened into rounded beads (arare). Together these kiln transformations (yōhen) produced surfaces that could never be repeated, recording the movement of fire across the vessel like a landscape.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Anagama kiln firing

Anagama - Sawa Katsunori

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Oogama Cafe and Noborigama kiln

Noborigama - Oogama Café

Shigaraki and the tea ceremony

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Sawa Katsunori Matcha Chawan Yakishime wood-firing Anagama

Chawa - Sawa Katsunori

The Influence of Wabicha

By the Momoyama period (1573–1615), Shigaraki entered a new chapter. The tea masters who developed wabicha, a style of tea practice that valued restraint, simplicity and the melancholy of transience, sought objects that embodied these ideals. Rather than turning to luxurious and expensive Chinese wares, they recognised these qualities in the humble vessels already being made in Shigaraki and other Japanese kiln centres.

From Storage Jars to Tea Ceramics

Large medieval tsubo and kame were admired for their sculptural presence and powerful form. Many were repurposed as mizusashi (fresh-water containers) for the tea ceremony, giving these utilitarian vessels an entirely new cultural significance.

Before long, Shigaraki potters began producing ceramics specifically for tea practice. These included mizusashi, hanaire (flower vases), chaire (tea caddies), and eventually tea bowls. Despite their new function, they retained the qualities that had defined Shigaraki for centuries: coarse clay, restrained forms, and natural wood-firing effects.

MET Museum Shigaraki Tea Caddy - 16th Century

MET Museum - Shigaraki Tea Caddy (Chaire) in Taikai shape, 16th Century
Credit Line: Gift of Peggy and Richard M. Danziger, 2024
Object Number: 2024.553.16a, b

KINTEI Sense SAWA Katsunori Shigaraki Tsubo Anagama wood-firing ashglaze Tea ceremony Momoyama vessel rod handle detail 2

Shigaraki Pail - Sawa Katsunori

The Aesthetics of the Material

The tea ceremony did not create Shigaraki's aesthetic—it revealed it. Tea masters recognised the unique appeal of tsuchi-aji, the "taste of the clay," and elevated it to an artistic ideal. The unadorned materiality of the clay became a fundamental expression of wabicha, whose beauty lies in honesty, simplicity, and a profound connection to nature.

A Tradition of Reinvention

Although yakishime tea ceramics remain central to Shigaraki's reputation, they represent only one chapter in a remarkably diverse history.
During the Edo period, Shigaraki became renowned for official tea jars commissioned by the Tokugawa shogunate. During the Meiji period and early Shōwa period, the region developed into one of Japan's leading producers of hibachi braziers, roof tiles, architectural ceramics and household wares.

The famous tanuki figures that today line the streets of Shigaraki also belong to this history. Produced primarily during the twentieth century, these cheerful raccoon dogs became an enduring symbol of the town and a testament to the remarkable versatility of its ceramic production.

What united these diverse objects was never a particular form or decoration, but the remarkable adaptability of the clay itself.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Tanuki

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Giant Tanuki TRainstation

Shigaraki Now

The Revival of Yakishime

During the 1960s and 1970s, artists rediscovered the expressive possibilities of medieval yakishime. Earlier, in the 1930s, the charismatic ceramic and culinary creator Rosanjin Kitaōji (1883–1959) had already helped raise awareness of Shigaraki ware and its distinctive qualities.

In the postwar decades, artists from local potter families such as the Takahashi Rakusai or the Ueda Naokata family renewed interest in the dramatic firing landscapes of the Momoyama period. Later, Kohyama Yasuhisa (b. 1936) brought fresh innovation to the tradition, showing how Shigaraki clay could support new artistic directions moving away from functional tea ware to artistic expressions.

New Artistic Expressions

The creative potential of Shigaraki clay also attracted artists beyond the field of ceramics. Okamoto Tarō developed a particularly close relationship with Shigaraki, collaborating with local potters over many years. In addition to the ceramic elements created for his iconic Tower of the Sun (Taiyō no Tō) for Expo '70 in Osaka, he produced reliefs, murals and sculptural works in Shigaraki, demonstrating how its ceramics could become a powerful medium for modern art far beyond the tradition of functional vessels.

Kohyama Yasuhisa (b. 1936) further advanced this development within contemporary ceramics. His sculptural works expanded the expressive possibilities of Shigaraki clay well beyond its traditional functional role.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Okamoto Taro Skultpur

Okamoto Taro - Dog Shaped Flower Pot 1956, The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art

KINTEI Sense Tao Akira Shigaraki ceramics, Japan, wood-fired sculpture, object, vase, geometric forms, abstract art, “Stretching”, right side view

Tao Akira - Stretching

The Future of Shigaraki

A younger generation continues to reinterpret this tradition. Sawa Katsunori (b. 1978) remains deeply rooted in wood firing and the distinctive surfaces of historical yakishime, while combining influences from different ceramic traditions to expand the classical vocabulary of Shigaraki.

Tao Akira (b. 1994), by contrast, uses the same clay to create sculptural works with a distinctly contemporary visual language. Although their approaches differ greatly, both artists demonstrate the remarkable versatility and enduring vitality of Shigaraki's clay.

International ceramic and art centre

Tougei no Mori: The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park

Today, Shigaraki is recognised as one of Japan's foremost ceramic centres. With the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, its ceramic museum, international artist-in-residence programmes, and renowned research and educational facilities, the region continues to attract ceramic artists from around the world. Among them was the American ceramic pioneer Peter Voulkos, who worked in Shigaraki and drew inspiration from the unique expressive potential of its clay.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Tougei no mori

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park at sunset with ceramic stools

MIHO MUSEUM

Just a few kilometres from Shigaraki lies the MIHO MUSEUM, one of Japan's most celebrated art museums. Designed by I. M. Pei, the museum is harmoniously integrated into the surrounding forested landscape and houses an outstanding collection of Asian and ancient art. A visit to the museum can easily be combined with an exploration of Shigaraki's ceramic heritage.

KINTEI Sense Ceramics Gallery Shigaraki Ceramics Flower Tsubo Vase Miho Museum

The Timeless Appeal of Clay

In an increasingly digital world, we are drawn to objects that embody authenticity, materiality, and a tangible connection to nature. Shigaraki fulfils this desire in a remarkable way.

Its appeal lies not in flawless perfection, but in the distinctive character of its clay—its tsuchi-aji. Every work reveals both the origin of its material and the transformative journey through the fire.

More than eight hundred years after farmers first began shaping clay into vessels during the quiet winter months, the same earth continues to inspire ceramic artists from Japan and around the world. Forms and artistic expressions may evolve, yet the foundation remains unchanged.

Shigaraki demonstrates that a living tradition is not preserved by simply repeating the past, but by continually reinterpreting it. Its greatest masterpiece has always been—and continues to be—the clay itself.

Bibliography and links:

Cort, Louise Allison. Shigaraki: Potter's Valley. Tokyo & New York: Kodansha International, 1979.

https://folklife-media.si.edu/docs/festival/program-book-articles/FESTBK1986_07.pdf

https://www.e-shigaraki.org/discovershigaraki/.assets/Shigaraki-Proffesional-Destination-Guide.pdf

https://en.sixancientkilns.jp/shigaraki/

The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park: https://www.sccp.jp/e/

Miho Museum: https://www.miho.jp/en/