This is entitled Kagoshima: Stories in Craft from South Japan.
The collection page can be seen here, as we upload to it.
Kagoshima was created from the old Satsuma and Ōsumi domains in the late 19th century, and possesses a very distinct history.
It is centred on a city in a bay facing a volcano, and has been a place of periodic eruptions, historical adventures and distinctive identities in foods and crafts.
At one time Satsuma connected Japan to a wider world, at another it was central to the transformation of the modern state. Its many episodes, travails, ideas and initiatives are stories that can be told through objects and practices that continue today.
Here we will introduce some of the items within the collection, and some of the stories to be told about Kagoshima.
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Kagoshima Story 1: Lows and Highs in Anglo-Satsuma relations
On 14 September 1862, British merchant Charles Lennox Richardson was travelling the Tokaido road that connected Tokyo to its west. By some accounts a known hot head, Richardson was about to encounter one of the proudest samurai retinues in Japan. What occurred that afternoon, ended in the death of the Englishman, and was a turning point in the history of Satsuma’s relationships inside and outside of Japan. British demands for compensation for the actions of the guards of Hisamitsu Shimazu, escalated to a coastal bombardment known in Japan as the Anglo-Satsuma war. The subsequent settlement however, established a new friendship and connection between Britain and Satsuma, that accelerated into the creation of modern Japan.
The history of Kagoshima is full of such stories that burn with their passionate protagonists, and their significance in Japan’s wider narrative. With its volcano in the bay, island chains, green tea plantations and mountainsides - it has a richly evocative landscape and geography formed with its human inhabitants.
The so-called Namamugi Incident of 1862 marked a temporary low point in Anglo-Satsuma relations. What occurred near the village of Namamugi on the Tokkaido road from Tokyo (Edo at the time), was essentially an extreme version of the cultural faux-pas that many subsequent visitors to Japan have experienced. The great error of Mr Richardson was to fail to dismount from his horse when he encountered the party of the Shimazu lord of Satsuma. That Shimazu was on the road however, also tells a story.
For 250 years, since the establishment of the Tokugawa dynasty to the Japanese Shogunate, the lords of Japan’s domains had been required to make periodic visits to the capital. The expense and difficulty of these processions hampered the independent development of the regions, and to an extent: kept the peace. However, the Satsuma lords had a somewhat unique status, furthest from the centre. While they had not supported the Tokugawa in the earliest days, the Shimazu family retained much of their status and through the subjugation of the Ryukyu kingdom (present day Okinawa) to the south, had a route to the outside world.
A curiosity to the world beyond was shown again following their conflict with the British in the 1860s. The period of negotiations following Richardson’s death, eventually built ties with London, that were developed by the sending of a party of young samurai to Britain (the so-called Satsuma Students). This mirrored the British journey of the Choshu Five, a group of famous samurai from the region allied to Satsuma in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, that in tumultuous events established the modern Japanese state. These were events in which Satsuma played a central role.
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Folk toys and folk crafts
Certain things have been made in Kagoshima as long as anyone can remember. Objects which are signifiers of identity, and histories in belief and practice in the region. One of them is diminutive monk like figures most frequently kept in the kitchen. These Oh no Konbo are part of Japan’s rich heritage in folk toys. Items of belief more than they are of play, the forms created from washi paper have long kept friendly vigil to their owners as they cook. The precise history is somewhat obscure, but one concept is that they stem from the tradition of honouring the Daikokuten deity, with the miniature monks placed in close attendance. The small figures are bottom heavy, and right themselves when pushed (The Oh no Konbo name is a Kagoshima dialect rendering of ‘okiagari kobushi’ meaning small monks that stand up). We asked Tamaru Kamizuru of the Kagoshima Chamber of Commerce Federation to explain how the figures are used: “By stationing the Oh no Konbo to a number one higher than the members of a family each new year, it was hoped that all would be healthy and safe, and that happiness to the degree of the one extra figure would be visited on the household” he said. “Today the wishes have been updated somewhat, and tend to express, success in exams, safety in travel, good luck in love and other hopes.”
While the history of Oh no Konbo has evolved, their continued presence owes much to the Sameshima Craft micro-company. Kanehira Sameshima knew the figures from his youth and rebuilt the tradition in making them at his husband and wife micro-business in Kagoshima City. The gentle expressions, and apparent discourse between the little figures as they rise and fall, are all the product of Sameshima’s brushwork.
History within objects is also a feature of the Kagoshima Shrine, which has a central location in the prefecture. Adjacent to the shrine is a small workshop: Kobo Miyaji, at which a number of folk items are made.
There are three main items: wheeled wooden fish, which in legend once ate the magic hook of Yamasachi-hiko (the mythical grandfather of the Emperor Jinmu). These are known as Tai-guruma.
Kōbako boxes as were once the property of Jinmu’s grandmother Toyotama-hime, who herself was the daughter of Watatsumi, the deity of the sea. Made with wood cut using nata style knives, the bright yellow and red pattern work evokes southern Japan.
Finally, made for the horse festival early each year, there are small portable drums known colloquially as ponpachi. While the correct name is hatsutsuzumi, the sound of beans tied by thread on the drum surface gives them their common moniker.
In Japanese religion, gods can be everywhere, and both a benevolent and malevolent presence. And so it is as well to play with them. This is one origin for the enduring tradition of handmade folk toys. Their bright designs and forms, say something too about the communities in which they were made.
Beyond the human structures, in Kagoshima’s warm climate, the bamboo forests grow fast and straight. Green, musty, moody spaces they have been a source of mystery and folk stories such as Princess Kaguya, a deity from the moon discovered in a bamboo shoot. They have also been a backdrop and a resource for life since the earliest human settlement. While much has been outsourced and lost, Kagoshima retains a connection to its history in bamboo craft through small firms such as Yagitake Industry. In operation since 1925, they collect material from among the plentiful large stems, and split and shape their material into whisks, trays and other practical objects for life.
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Kagoshima Story 2: The Return to Kuro-mon
The history of Kagoshima ceramics shares the tumult of their region. They are supported by their land, which holds rich clay deposits. But principally it has been through the innovation of people in craft, both from Kagoshima and brought to it.
A vital era in the story was the Azuchi-Momoyama period of the late 16th century. In aesthetic terms, this was a time when many foundations were laid. Tea masters active in the period often found beauty in wares that had travelled to Japan from other parts of Asia, including Buncheong stoneware from Korea. The many feudal lords of Japan created a solid demand for tea ceremony and other ceramics - and one outcome of the failed invasions of Korea in the 1590s, was the importation of ceramic technicians.
This was the story too in the domains of the Shimazu corresponding to modern Kagoshima, with several ceramic regions established under Korean guidance. This was most striking in the Naeshirogawa village (in present day Hioki), where the community was compelled to eschew the integration seen in other cases, and in effect to live in an ancestral Korean style. They made an essential contribution to the advancement of Satsuma-ware ceramics, but this legacy became increasingly confused.
Ceramics had developed into two strains, ‘white’ satsuma-ware, which was pale and characterised by exquisite decoration. These wares were often transferred to the domain authorities. There was also ‘black’ satsuma-ware, a functional stoneware for use in kitchens and homes. ‘Kuro-mon’ in Japanese, it expressed the identity of the people who used it.
The transformations of the 19th century affected these ceramic legacies, with the export opportunities for white ceramics causing its creation to escalate into low quality mass production. While ‘white Satsuma’ remained exquisite in some cases (especially among the descendants of the Naeshirogawa potters), Satsuma-ware itself became synonymous with low-quality ubiquity.
Following this blow-out, craft potters were left to pick up the pieces. In particular, the human, breathing beauty of Kuro-mon. When Soetsu (Muneyoshi) Yanagi, the intellectual leader of Japan’s arts and crafts movement encountered the remaining makers of these ceramics in the 1930s, he was deeply struck. In contrast to the white ware fired by ‘knowledge’ in the black pots he found pieces of ‘instinct’. Left in the rain, used in the home, these works narrated the lives of the communities that made them, and a cultural essence that might be lost to industrial modernity.
The patronage of Yanagi and others helped retain a place for Kuro-mon, but it has not always been easy. The potters of the Ryumonji-ware tradition, near the settlement of Aira, reformed as a cooperative in the post-war era to save their practice. Founded by a Korean ceramist in the 18th century, Ryumonji today stands for patterns such as ‘sansai-nagashi’, with green and caramel lines across an egg yolk coloured background.
The Ryumonji cooperative retain a deep commitment to sourcing ceramic ingredients from environs, and fire in wood powered hillside kilns. They are leading makers of items such as ‘choka’, squat pouring vessels for the enjoyment of the local shochu spirit.
A modern explorer in Kuro-mon is Kaori Sasaki at her Nohara-ya kiln. Raised in Kagoshima, Sasaki trained in Okinawa, and brings parts of the vibrant contemporary Okinawan folk craft scene to her work, together with a material and aesthetic appreciation of satsuma-ware. She can both replicate the Kuro-mon forms, and expand upon them. And in so doing create a work with a deep humanity.
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Ceramic lineages
For the Ryumonji potters, most ceramics begin in the nearby mountains. It is here that they know where to find the clay that they fire, and the ingredients for the glazes that are unique to their part of Kagoshima. The history of Ryumonji ceramics has contained obstacles, but these mountainsides have remained dependable throughout, so much so that each year they visit them for prayer.
In common with the other ceramic lineages in Kagoshima, Ryumonji’s history is founded on an original sin. This was the forced importation of Korean ceramicists in the 1590s, after Japan’s invasions of this period. Descending from the old Chosa-ware that was one of the ceramic areas made to serve the Satsuma domain rulers, in 1688 a Korean ceramicist established the current Ryumonji-ware location near Aira. It was from this time that the forms passed through generations began to be made.
Industrialisation was almost fatal however, and in the early postwar era the amalgamation to a Ryumonji pottery collective was necessary to rescue the ceramics from extinction. This was built around the Kawahara family who are today the leading exponents of Ryumonji-ware.
Potters such as Ryuhei Kawahara, and his renowned father Shiro, shape the Ryumonji forms with quick precision on the wheel. These include karakara pourers and squat kurochoka used to serve the local shochu spirit. Also shallow sobagaki bowls, and the ‘coro’ cups and bowls that are a more modern addition to the canon, based on Shiro Kawahara’s time spent learning ceramics in the Kansai region. The recurring patterns are ‘sansai-nagashi’ (‘three colour trailing’) and ‘kuroao-nagashi’ (blue on black trailing), and these are achieved with quick instinctive movements. The firings are limited to a few occasions annually, and last several days in wood-fired climbing kills.
Twenty miles or so to the north west, Kaori Sasaki’s ceramics are a more personal affair. They reflect her training on the southern island of Okinawa and the ceramic traditions and materials of her home region.
Brought up in Kagoshima, Sasaki arrived in Okinawa at an important moment. The Kita-gama kiln in Yomitan, now legendary for its training of craft potters, was in an early stage of its growth. For Sasaki, who visited seeking a little work experience, it was to become a central influence on her life. She ultimately stayed 10 years, and left able to form pots in moments to the precise and soulful specifications of her mentor Yoneshi Matsuda. She also took two aspects with her: the quest for Okinawan identity that the Kita-gama potters place in their ceramics, and a dedication to local materials, ‘the treasure beneath your feet’.
Returned to Kagoshima, Sasaki built her Nohara-ya kiln and applied both the skills and lessons of her training. She did so to acquire a modern Kagoshima identity in ceramics, based on its materials, and informed by the experience of life. To the south-west of Nohara-ya is the old centre of Kuro-mon, so-called ‘black’ ceramics, at Naeshirogawa. To the south-east are the Ryumonji potters. In the hillsides and rivers are ceramic clay deposits of the type that Satsuma ceramicists sought for centuries. Sasaki accesses this geological catalogue of possibilities, and travels to the Sakura-jima volcano to collect ash for glazes. She also refers to the forms of Kuro-mon, which developed as expressions of life in Kagoshima’s homes and settlements.
But her’s is a modern Satsuma-ware, informed equally by the ethos of Okinawa’s folk craft revival. Pleasant, and unassuming, Sasaki is serious about her ceramics. With each firing she approaches her ideal. And in her work is a hinterland of skill, craft and experience. By fusing beauty to utility, Sasaki’s pots have received recognition from the judges at the annual exhibition of the folk craft museum in Tokyo (the Mingeikan), the quintessential arbiters of taste in the field. They have also received recognition from those who drink and eat from them in their homes, as giving, heart-full items, that reflect the personality of a place.
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Tea leaves and coffee beans
The drink that defines Kagoshima is its distilled spirit: shochu. This belies perhaps its association with tea. Kagoshima's warm climate supports not just the first crop of the year, but one of the largest. The acreage covered by tea fields allows for a variety of producers and approaches, and we have selected one each from the growing regions of Chiran, Satsuma and Kirishima.
Chiran is on the southern tip of the Osumi peninsula, and attracts winds from the sea. The Hamada tea firm takes an approach of selecting the best leaves from the wide growing area. Led by Shuhei Hamada, a trained tea master to the sixth grade, they apply their palettes and their noses to the task of creating the best possible blends of Chiran leaves.
To the north of Chiran in Kagoshima’s interior is the town of Satsuma. Merged from many smaller settlements, Satsuma is a rich land of agriculture. The warm currents support tea growing, and the leaves grow thick and green. Here Yamaguchi-en have farmed since 1978 as a family firm. The birth of a new generation into the family led to a new approach, and a switch to organic farming in the early 1990s that entailed many challenges. But they persisted, and the result is a range of sustainable, full-flavour teas. They were included in our selection based on a recommendation from the ceramicist Kaori Sasaki, who brews Yamaguchi-en tea while working in her nearby ceramic studio.
Kirishima to the south of Satsuma, sits at the foot of the Takachiho no Mine volcano range. Here the altitude leads to a colder climate, and another Kagoshiman terroir for tea. When brewed, Kirishima teas often offer a quite thin green colour, that deceives to the level of taste. The brews are in fact fresh, sophisticated and satisfying. The Sueshige family business has been farming teas in the region since 1932 and understands all of its characteristics. The recipient of awards in the world of tea, they daily explore the potential of Kirishima tea making.
Japan as a whole has a rich cafe culture. There are numerous sub-genres including jazz, comic books and cats. One within them is mingei (folk craft) cafes, which can sometimes be found with dark wood hand made furniture, and the walls dotted with plates and textiles. Kagoshima’s Coffee-Kan has been a feature in its cafe scene for more than 35 years. It is a space maintained and created by Koichiro Nagata, otherwise known as the Kan-cho (Cafe Chief). Nagata takes a craft inspired approach to the beans that he sorts and roasts personally using vintage equipment in a corner of the establishment. He drips water onto the ground beans held in flannel filters, and presents each cup in specially fired works by leading contemporaries in the craft scene. The logo of Coffee-Kan is also bespoke, made by legendary stencil dye artist Samiro Yunoki.
Moments spent in the Coffee-Kan offer a sense of peace in the passage of time. Something too that is roasted and imbued into beans selected and bagged by the Kan-cho himself.
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Ono began Yotsume in 2015, after leaving his family business in Hiroshima. This business has history dating from the the turn of the 20th century, and built itself on the demand for dye works from temples, shrines, schools, fire stations, businesses, and many institutions in Japanese life. Anyone who has lived in a society faces the need to obey its norms, and sometimes a sense of constraint in expressing themselves. The dilemma can be especially acute for those who grew up in traditional craft, and Ono’s is a story of expressing his roots, and finding himself. The result can be seem in the work of Yotsume, which carries the weight of a history in dye, but contains too Ono’s individual approach from influences such as stencil based graffiti.
Katazome is said to have its origins as an alternative to imported dye styles within the early flowering of Japanese aesthetics. A single mold, made from Japanese paper, is cut into by the craftsperson to set the pattern. When placed on the fabric, a glue made from cooked sticky rice, sugar, salt, lime and water is applied which will resist the dye. Within a process of drying, immersing and brushing on pigment, detailed and bright pieces of fabric design show themselves. The skill is both in realising the design, and in the craftsperson’s creation of the initial katagami (stencil).
Making stencil dye in this way imposes constraints on the craftsperson. They need for example a continuous pattern that can be transferred to stencil. This resembles kiri-e, the Japanese style of paper cutouts. The art associated with katazome was reinvigorated by Keisuke Serizawa and the mid-century mingei (arts and crafts) movement, which included his disciple Samiro Yunoki, who will celebrate his 100th birthday in 2022. They established the precedent of katazome style designs as an overall ethos to be applied to other fields.
From his base in Kunisaki, in the rural north-east corner of the Kyushu island, Toyokazu Ono practices both katazome and graphic design. In effect offering a new toolkit of services that express the legacy of the dye technique in which he grew up. Together with his partner, the ceramicist Miki Oka, their work brings the power of colour and individual approaches to forms that are classically Japanese. It is these roots in craft that once constrained Ono, but ultimately became guides to his creativity.
His location too is an influence, and a symbol of his work. Kunisaki in Oita prefecture, is steeped in a natural and devotional past that counterpoints to modern Japan. Rural in history, and rural now, it has been a spiritual escape for buddhism, shintoism (often simultaneously), and imported christian religion. The forests of Kunisaki retain their ancient colours and seem to be expanding. They contain numerous rock carvings and religious sites. The festivals of Kunisaki too differ from other parts of Japan and feature masks and practices that show little relation to those found elsewhere. In Kunisaki oni (demons) are friendly, and vengeful deities have a gentle smile.
The rich nature and spiritual world of Kunisaki offer a unique vantage point on modern Japan, and symbolise Toyokazu Ono’s own quest to find a personal perspective in a life based in tradition. True to roots in craft, and imagination in design. To the new and to the old, and to the creation of work that expresses a vision of what craft can be in Japan today.
Questions and Answers with Toyokazu Ono
What led you to become a craftsperson in dye?
The biggest reason was my family home in Hiroshima prefecture. They have a business making dye works for temples and shrines, that has been in operation for around 120 years. I was meant to take over the company, and spent four years studying dye process at a works in Gifu (central Japan) in my early 20s. When I returned, I worked for a further eight years at my family’s dye woks, and spent my days making nobori (Japanese style banners), and traditional items. But we could see the area depopulating, and the level of demand falling. So we needed to find new ways to work, and I began to spend more time on design. For example making logos and branding for shops, or pamphlets.
I always liked illustration from when I was a child. I went to design college for two years, and enjoyed it. I would have thought about it professionally, but instead I agreed to take on the family business. I did it, but felt a tension because I wanted to make own work, and be creative. The things I wanted to do built up inside of me. So when I was about 31 I asked my younger brother to take on the family business. By that time, I was already married [to the potter Miki Oka], and I could see my partner making a living from ceramics. She certainly influenced me, and we made the decision to create my own dye studio.
Was is tough to set up on your own?
I would actually say that it was enjoyable to do. There were hard moments of course, but those were also enjoyable in their own way too. For the first six months I could not contribute anything to the house, and that was painful, as we had children.
I had some work that I had already made while at my family’s studio. I could have continued there, but they did not really see what I was trying to do. So I said why don’t I do it myself. As I had this body of work, it was relatively quick to begin to receive orders, but the start up costs meant it took a while to stabilise.
What does dye mean to you as someone who grew up surrounded by it?
For me katazome (Japanese stencil dye) is my roots. It is the way that I find expression. It is a little difficult to explain, but in Japan we have many different ‘dō’ (*the character for road, that appears as a suffix for crafts and practices including sadō (tea ceremony) and shodō (calligraphy)). All of the dō have their own rules or techniques, their own manners and way of thinking. Certain things are set. Katazome has this too. So I was always drawing freely from my imagination, but to be honest it rarely resulted in good work. But katazome had its rules, and its way to think, and once I immersed myself I was able to become in fact more free in my expression.
So for me katazome is something that allowed me to find myself creatively.
What influences and inspires your dye work?
My biggest influence is the roots I have in my family’s business. Another is the mingei movement (*the Japanese mid century arts and crafts pioneers). Within them was Keisuke Serizawa who is known for his work in katazome. Personally too, I have always been interested in modern art, and graffiti. For example Barry McGee, on the American west coast.
Keisuke Serizawa really popularised the katazome style, and until him I am not sure there was a concept of individually dyeing and selling pieces as artworks. The idea that this fabric from within daily life could be decorated as art, is something that he began. He also brought the craft into other fields such as book cover designs, and illustrations. He took craft to design.
How do craft and design come together for you?
When I work as a designer, I try to select carefully the tasks that I take on. I prefer work when I can express my style, as rooted in katazome dye. For a while I tried to do everything I could. But there are some jobs that others would be better at. I can deliver my best work when I work with the visual ethos that I am rooted in, that is katazome.
When you look at this style in dye, you can see that the designs are always continuous. In this way it is a little like kiri-e (Japanese paper cutouts), and comes from the use of a single stencil. You can say it is a similar approach to Banksy in his work. When you use a stencil in the context of Japanese dye, then you can tap into the heritage of katazome. So my illustrations work within these rules, and have the feel of a continuous stencil.
Working in this way not everything is free, but the limits in fact offer a way to express myself. Banksy I suppose works within the rules of graffiti, but with each work develops and pushes the boundaries. And that how it feels for me too, to be liberated within these limits.
Perhaps you are influenced by your surroundings too. What kind of place is Kunisaki, in Oita?
Well it is countryside. Deep countryside! You have to say that the nature is very rich here in Kunisaki. It is also known for its spiritual history, with 1300 years since the founding of some important sites. In fact there are religious sites in the forests if you go to look for them You can see many gorinto (buddhist stone monuments) around and I think we have the most stone monuments in Japan If Kunisaki had urbanised, then those places might have been lost, and as it is they are being absorbed into the forests. The peninsula sticks out, and is not really on the way to anywhere, so that’s maybe why it didn’t develop economically. I haven’t been alive for 1300 years, so I could not say it was totally unchanged…
The forests here have many different colours. Japan is full of pine and hinoki wood for forestry. But in Kunisaki we have ancient forests. In this era everything changes because of the economy. But here the economy never changes. And the forests seem to be winning.
There are also a lot of unusual festivals and masks. It is in many cases not known how they originate. One of the tenugui I make commemorates the Kebesu festival. No one is clear about the origins or meaning of that festival. Mystery calls upon mystery you could say. It’s part of the attraction.
There are things you can see about modern Japan from Kunisaki, that you would not see otherwise.
What would you say is the condition of craft now in Japan?
Well, Japan itself is losing its power, so craft is falling back too. But I think that it is important to continue with it. We have the internet now, and so all the skills to do things can be found on YouTube. But separate to the simple skills to practice a craft, are its roots and its way of thinking. That is something that it is hard to simply install. I have recently displayed my work in New York, and now in the UK. And if I think about what are my strengths, it is my roots, and my location. In this era, practicing craft with roots in tradition and location remains important.
Katazome is something born within Japanese culture, and when we think of the styles and shapes they come from this, and have that intrinsic attraction. An item’s first impression is important, and the appeal deepens when you understand the cultural background.
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The initial niche the towns found was in making nails. Or rather ‘wakugi’, a specific Japanese form of nail used in joinery and construction, and much in demand in the growing cities. From this humble starting point, metal craft expanded in Tsubame and Sanjo. Nearby copper potential was another factor in the growth, and the fine tea ware hammered and shaped from single pieces of copper, remain a point of fame. Many within the guild of makers turned their operations to stainless steel in the twentieth century. High grade variants of this material, polished and imbued with utilitarian beauty, are in many ways emblematic of the area today.
The mid-century design metal kettle that you might spot in a scene in a film by Yasujiro Ozu, or Mikio Naruse, was probably made in Tsubame-Sanjo. Given the direction some firms took, and the growth they achieved in mass produced tableware - it is probably not an exaggeration to say that almost all Japanese kitchens have at least one item from Tsubame-Sanjo in them. The makers of the region claim there is nothing in metal that they can not make.
Our focus in this collection is on the small and medium sized makers in the region that produce humble, functional, hand crafted and well designed items for the home. We have items for example from the Gyokkodō company. Founded in 1919 by Toraji Kawasawa, the business initially reflected his training at the great maker of hand hammered copper: Gyokusendo. Karasawa’s firm however, shifted its operations to stainless steel in the early post-war era, and delivered classics to market such as its stove top kettle design under the Marutama brand name. Still in the family today, the firm neither compromises on the quality of its craft processes or in its search for new ideas.
Sampo Sangyo is another maker that explores niches in metal work for the catering trade and the home kitchen. The firm was founded in 1950, and began with items such as coffee pots, cocktail shakers and ice cream dishes. Including a well timed move before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to supply the growing domestic hotel trade with a range of banquet ware, not to mention wagons for roast beef - the firm continues today to serve both business and individual customers with its Yukiwa brand. The polished and exactingly made items for kitchen and home are a world of fun to explore.
The material palate of those working in Tsubame-Sanjo is not in fact solely limited to metal. The company Kawasaki Jushi (Kawasaki Plastics) for example, as their name suggests, did not begin in metal. But what they in fact make today, is wonderfully functional portable coffee grinders with ceramic blades, and hammered metal or wooden finishes.
In fact, many things began in the region. The Japanese outdoor and camping brand Snow Peak, for example, has proud roots in the Tsubame-Sanjo guild of makers. The area is also known for the ramen made for hungry metal workers, and the ethos of quality improvement is applied to other things in life. The tasty matcha donuts made by the Yukimuro-ya company for example, who also have a refined line in roasted coffee beans, and tea, as used in the grinders and brewing equipment made in the town. This is before we mention some of Japan’s finest rice, in the close hinterland.
Farmers with a flooding problem, who then tried to solve it by making nails - the journey of the residents of Tsubame and Sanjo has lead them to a place today where they celebrate a certain quality in life. Tsubame is the Japanese word ‘swallow’, and items made in the town are often stamped with a metallic representation of the kanji character for this bird. Today this has come represent a refinement, and a reassuring strength in build.
Visiting Tsubame and Sanjo for a book published in 1948, the Japanese aesthete and philosopher Soetsu Yanagi, found metal tools for farming, yakan kettles, iron rice pots and more. He also placed a wary eye on the western cutlery beginning to be produced at scale. "If profit becomes the main element, then the attention to quality may start to fade… true development comes from making items that are sound." He need not have worried perhaps as later his son, Sori Yanagi, a renowned industrial designer, went on to produce a line of famous kitchen utensils, all made in Tsubame.
Makers in metal, the firms of Tsubame-Sanjo are at their heart simply makers. Practitioners in what in Japan is called ‘monozukuri’, which translates as the making of things, but includes a philosophy for patience, engineering improvement and quality. The process is part of the identity of the thing. And a dedication to making processes is what defines the towns featured here.
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This tradition continues to this day, and is maintained by the Kagawa Fan Association. To make a Marugame fan typically involves 47 processes, but ends in a variety of shapes and designs.
This handmade tradition is alive today and most importantly for our purposes: results in fantastic fans.
Also, if it is warm, there is a rare pleasure in seeing sunlight refracted through a glass hand blown in Okinawa.
In the deepest south of modern Japan, Okinawa was once the independent Ryukyu Kingdom. Buffeted by history as a tributary state and then once incorporated into Japan, it faced its lowest point following the destruction of the second world war.
From this period emerged the tradition for ‘saisei’ (reborn) glass. The surfeit of drinks bottles from occupying forces of the time, became the raw material for creativity - with the glass melted and blown into new shapes.
On Okinawa this glass is often used to drink the local awamori spirit. While this is of course delicious, there are plenty of other options too for the small selection of glassware we have in stock, blown by Kiyoharu Matsuda and his team at Glass Studio Seiten in Yomitan on Okinawa.
Finally, and with deep relevance to the weather conditions in the UK this year, we have items to keep with you just in case.
Our regular selection of wellington boots by the Wild Bird Society of Japan is expanded to include the limited edition navy colour for summer 2021.
This of course is exclusive in the UK, and only available if you visit us in the Oxo Tower.
Loved by birdwatchers and festival goers in Japan, the key feature of WBSJ wellies, is their ability to be folded and placed in your bag.
This is handy in many ways, and satisfying not least as it can generate a small moment of victory in the contest with the elements in summer this year.
Ehime, the pearl of the Japanese inland sea. A sunny place, it is on the northwest corner of the Shikoku island, facing Hiroshima to the north.
In addition to its happy geography, it is somewhere renowned for fine things. Most immediately, what comes to mind for many Japanese people is citrus fruit. This could be yuzu, or Setouchi lemons, or perhaps most of all: mikan oranges. In Europe of course, satsuma oranges are famous. Imagine this, but more flavourful still.
Ehime also has a great, and slightly surprising history in towels. It just so happened that the race to start domestic factories for the new imported product of towels, was something that Ehime won. More specifically the town of Imabari of the northern shore, retains a strong towel industry today. The production is not off-shored, and remains in the region. The competitive advantage of the Imabari towel makers is in their quality. Decades of engineering ever softer, and more satisfying towels gives the small businesses based their each their own unique selling point.
Ehime’s pre-industrial history was also one of fine crafts, some of them on a community or folk level. Most notable perhaps are white ceramics of the Tobe-ware tradition. Japan has several lineages in porcelain, which of course have inspiration and links to the wider East Asian production of these ceramics. There is the porcelain powerhouse of Arita, or Imari, which often refers to the same white ceramics made in this region of Saga. Nearby in Nagasaki there is Hasami-ware, and far away to the north there is the colourful, finely painted Kutani style porcelain in Ishikawa. Ehime’s Tobe-ware exists in this context, as somewhere that received its start from imported Arita craftspeople in the late 18th century. Its characteristic today is in a respect for the early Arita traditions and in the high number of small, often family led, pottery houses. It has a hand painted charm, and a pureness in pattern.
For ‘Ehi-merry Christmas’ we have Tobe-ware from three kilns: Nakata-gama, Yōki-gama and Tosai-gama. The Nakata-gama kiln, which has been the ceramics business of Masataka Nakata since 1974, shows the quality of a veteran. Nakata has his interest in the classic techniques and patterns of Arita and Tobe-ware, developed over hundreds of years. His work reflects the motifs that would have been found by visitors to Matsuyama, the Ehime capital, in the early flowering of its decorative arts.
Yōki-gama is the ceramic work shop of Kimiko Tanaka, a talented artist in ceramics who paints each of her works by hand. The intricacy of the blue painted on the white, is clear to see, and satisfying to own.
The kiln operated by the Nagato family in the heart of the Tobe-ware producing region: Tosai-gama, offers a modern face to the classic ‘sometsuke’ technique of blue painted designs. The patterns offer an almost Nordic sense, which the thin lines of the ceramic forms, and the texture effects on the surface giving a window to the possibilities of Tobe-ware as it is practiced today.
While Tobe-ware is among the most famous of Ehime’s crafts there is much else besides. For example: Iyo hōki brushes made traditionally from the leaf sheath fibre of Trachycarpus palm trees. Iyo is the historic name for modern Ehime, and there can be few more traditional makers of shuro (palm sheath) brushes than Nagaike Mingeiten. Based in the old town of Uchiko in the Ehime interior, the method of making brushes here is so rare and traditional that the maker has enclosed a leaflet requesting information if you see another brush like it.
Another ceramic tradition in Ehime is for roofing tiles. These are Ibushi Kawara, which are representative of buildings in Shikoku, and are made Imabari. The Koizumi company is a maker of these tiles, and has brought their rough hewn quality to other locations too, such as coasters.
Ehime is also known for its paper. Japan is a country full of paper traditions, representative the special place in communication, interiors design and architecture that types of washi (Japanese paper) have held. The Iyo washi of Ehime is one such tradition, with its handmade mulberry based paper a prized commodity. It is unusual therefore to see it used in the production of footwear as the Washi no Ishikawa family business have done. A firm in the Ishikawa family since the 1890s, the sandals and slippers (zōri) made under their auspices make a special use of the sturdy material, and are just the thing for luxurious walks from the shower.
Onto their fine paper envelopes, and gifts and other things too, people in Ehime often apply Iyo Mizuhiki, bright red cord ties. The ties themselves are made from a hardened version of the local paper, and have an especial centre of production in the far eastern corner of Ehime. Gifting often is often a moment when they appear, quite often in the new year period. The Yamanishi company is exponent in mizuhiki since the 1920s, and is at present lead by Akemi Morita, who is herself adept in the craft.
Finally, Ehime is also a place to relax. The Kuma highlands are the mountainous interior, far from the sea-facing Matsuyama and Imabari, which were traditionally a home to pirates. Away from such dangers, today too, this natural, scenic region is a place to take in some fine air. The thatched Wagura building was probably made up 300 years ago, and is somewhere where they make great treatments for baths. With hinoki wood and other natural ingredients in their Moricoro bath powder pack offer the particular luxury of the Kuma region, and for a brief period of soaking at least, can ensure a Christmas of Ehi-merry dynamics.
]]>At wagumi, we are still here, and ready to support you for any gift giving needs.
We are open again in the Oxo Tower, and continue to complete all online orders. We are now offering two shipping options: the postal service and UPS. There is also complementary gift wrapping, which you can select at check out - and the option to add messages or special requests via the notes section. Click and collect is of course an option too.
In our shop in the Oxo Tower, we will also have a couple of late breaking Christmas / New Year specials, involving the craft regions of Kasama and Ehime.
For the ceramic lover
This month we will have a special collection arriving from the ceramic town of Kasama, around 60 miles north of Tokyo. This is a place with one Japan’s leading creative communities of individual and small scale ceramics businesses - and is a constant source of variety and interest.
From Kasama, at present we have items of delicate tableware from Marumi Kujirai who carefully marries traditional Japanese forms to those from her imagination. We also have some work in the ‘Laur’ series by Mishio Suzuki which was inspired by a journey in Ireland, and the shade of dew she saw there on foliage and trees. There are some pieces with us by Kasama-based Aya Kondo, who specialises in intricate, by hand pattern work in a style in Japan known as icchin.
We have more work incoming by Suzuki and Kondo, as well as returns for the gentle ‘kohiki’ style ceramics of Takahiro Manome, of bird motif, and the near graffiti type slip stylings of Giran Sagawa.
New within Kasama Freestyle 2020 will be the calligraphy design teaware ceramics of Hiroyuki Ōnuki, and the chattering chisel work of Yukihito Nakata and much more.
Outside of Kasama, in stock we have dramatic ramen bowls and yunomi style cups for tea by Hagi based potter Hironobu Ogawa, at his Muro-o Ann kiln.
In store there are also pieces by two former pupils of the post war master potter Tatsuzo Shimaoka, that is Rui Fukuda and Takahito Okada.
For the birdwatcher and the gardener
Our partnership with the Wild Bird Society of Japan, an exclusive in Europe, continues and their boots and gloves are sure to be welcomed by those with an interest in the outdoors, or just a wish to avoid wet feet and hands. A proportion of the sales of all items goes to support bird conservation in Japan.
Always popular are watering cans by the Negishi family business in Tokyo. The production process is essentially Mr Negishi in his workshop in Tokyo soldering the cans individually, and this creates a bit of a limit on how many can be made. The copper cans in particular are valued by bonsai practitioners and indoor gardeners of all kinds, and we have a limited stock of the pitchers and small watering cans.
For the inner pirate
In December, we also have a planned, a slightly delayed collection of items from the Japanese county of Ehime. On the western corner of the Shikoku island, Ehime faces onto Japan’s inland sea. It was once home to pirates. One of the sunniest places in Japan, Ehime today is full of richness, known for its orange crop, and unusually, for its towels. There is also a rich reserve of craft, with small makers and traditions in brooms, ceramics and more. We are expecting soon be able to present items from Ehime including tobe-ware ceramics, and items made with the region’s fine paper.
It will be under the title Ehi-merry Christmas. Some people would say that is a little too much. But after the year we have had, we think it is reasonable, and the least that we deserve.
For those unclear what they want
The long and medium term have been recently hard to see, but the short term goal of some comfort and respite at home is easy to understand. Light some incense for example, to refresh the air. A candle on a good candle holder, or even a warming meal from a Japanese hot pot.
Even too warm miso soup, from a wooden lacquered bowl cupped in the hands. Or tea from a pot made by an individual ceramicist, and the heavy set clay of a Japanese yunomi cup in the hand.
For those eager to turn the page
2020 was the year of the rat. Isn’t that the truth. But 2021 will be the year of the ox. So heads down, horns out we can approach the new year in a new spirit. We have a couple of items to commemorate this from our friends at Shin Kogei in Gifu.
The new year is also a time to set new goals of course, and supporting you in this are daruma. Paint one eye while thinking of your objective, and your rotund companion will keep an eye on you as you work toward it. Paint the other once you are there.
]]>This month at wagumi we have a new collection work by Marumi Kujirai. A ceramist based in Kasama, not far north of Tokyo, her work has a special individuality.
When the bubble economy collapsed in Japan in the 1990s, it was followed by a period in which craft and other less ostentatious aspects of life, experienced a revival. Part of this was an emerging ‘indie’ scene in ceramics.
Many individual or small producers working in their own style and selling through fairs, and a growing network of independent shops. In contrast to the garish materialism of the 1980s, owning hand made ceramics seemed a more sustainable goal for many, and one that fitted to the great legacy of ceramic creation in Japan. Works in pottery defined by their kiln effects, and their imperfections, held an appeal lodged in the aesthetic sub-conscious.
A key location in this independent scene of ceramics makers is Kasama. The suburban and near rural homes there often have kilns, and residents who work in clay. Together with the nearby town of Mashiko, its ceramics scene has been fuelled by emigres, often from elsewhere in the capital region, keen to begin their own explorations.
Also from elsewhere, Marumi Kujirai is representative of a new generation in Kasama, associated with the town’s ceramic university. Within this, her style is very much her own.
She lives in a single story house, with a kiln at one end, that is filled with artefacts from her mind in ceramics. The pottery she makes is designed to be used. They are items for the table, that aim to improve each moment spent there.
The forms are not necessarily Japanese, although there are strong hints to this tradition. In her kyusu (Japanese teapots) shapes for example, with their side handle attached to a plump central form. But there is an originality too, in the upward slopes of Kujirai’s milk jugs, or the loops of the handles she makes. Hours with books in the library, and clay in her hands, has influenced each shape.
The mountains of test pieces in her studio also attest to the effort put into Kujirai’s glazes. In greens, blues and beiges, while at first look the colours are matt in their finish, they hold drips and swirls and layers of natural pattern within.
While shaped in a distinctive way according to her imagination, this points to the humanity and nature within Kujirai’s work, which is always a pleasure to use.
One of our periodic restocks of her output, highlights this time at wagumi include for the first time coffee drippers, of steep angles and balanced cloud like drip point.
We also have work in her new layered white glaze colour, as well as Kujirai's popular milk jugs.
The items from Marumi Kujirai are available at wagumi Oxo Tower, and here on our website.
]]>You can see the full collection here.
In Yomitan, a settlement famous for craft on the southern Okinawan islands, is the glass studio of Kiyoharu Matsuda.
Matsuda is leading practitioner in ‘saisei’ glass. Literally meaning ‘reborn’, saisei in a glass context refers to a process to melt and recreate empty drinks bottles into beautiful forms. Heavy ramune bottles are sometimes a material, as are others used to drink soft drinks in the island’s hot climate. Reduced to fragments, the glass is blended for texture and colour, and then heated and blown in a technique completed entirely by hand.
The glass is in many ways a symbol of Okinawa’s own post-war recovery. The site of land conflict during the war, the surfeit of bottles left by occupying forces in the subsequent era created a raw material for glass craftspeople to work with.
The tradition that emerged, is deep and full of beauty, and expresses a resourcefulness in its creation.. Kiyoharu Matsuda himself has worked in glass since the day that he left school. A journeyman to an extent, with many roles and experiences in the world of Okinawa glass, his base is now the Seiten studio in Yomitan.
He blows and shapes the individual items of glass in quick motion, before severing them from the pole with which he works. A mentor, he has small team of craftspeople, and a regular stream of interested visitors.
His studio’s name: Seiten, is a play on words on his name. The first character of Kiyoharu refers to a purity. An alternative reading is Sei, and when combined with Ten (‘weather’), it conveys the fresh and pure light of the sun in the Okinawa sky.
This light is refracted in the glass of Kiyoharu Matsuda, and the sunshine seems somehow to be encapsulated within it.
The individual pieces can be a vessel for the Okinawan spirit: awamori, or more or less anything on a summer’s day. It remains pleasurable to use Seiten glass in any climate however, and even under the UK’s slate grey skies, as it can enhance the sense of sunshine inside. Different lights, introduce new contexts and patterns as they meet the glassware.
The saisei glass tradition practiced at Seiten sits within the wider Ryukyu glass culture. The Ryukyu Kingdom was the forerunner of modern day Okinawa, and sitting at a confluence in Asia, its aesthetic legacy is full of colour. This finds one expression in the azures, reds and other bold colours shaped into glassware.
The Okinawan culture today has influences from the Japanese mainland, and the large American military bases the islands are home to. Throughout it retains a creativity in craft founded in its landscape, and distinct history. The practice of saisei glass in the post-war era, encapsulates these elements, and has a symbolism. Items with a history, they bring fun and refinement to the present.
(Ramune bottles are among the raw materials of saisei glass)
(This material is heated and recreated)
(And made into beautiful forms)
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Based in the traditional Mino-ware pottery region of Toki in Gifu, the work of Motoharu Ozawa is characterised by its glazes that invite pairings with food.
Another characteristic is its popularity. In contrast to his unassuming personality, and isolated base in the Gifu countryside, are Ozawa’s social media channels and the scrum that forms whenever he exhibits his pottery in Japan and nearby Asia.
This is the first time that Ozawa has shown his work in Europe, and we have a small selection of items available in wagumi Oxo Tower to coincide with our reopening from 16 June 2020.
The selection includes three of the main colour glaze styles that Motoharu Ozawa is known for. An iridescent ‘kingfisher’ like jade-blue, a textured cream in the kohiki style, and a soft yellow shade referred to in Japanese as tanko.
These shades have their roots in Ozawa’s explorations in food matching, paired with his technical proficiency in ceramics. This skill was learnt in an area of Japan that is the country’s largest for making pottery. Gifu is known for its Mino-ware tradition, and the deep resources it holds in its soil, history and knowledge.
Born in Tokyo in 1974, Ozawa located himself in Gifu, as many others have, to seek a perfect environment for making ceramics. Training at a local technical college and then through work at a ceramic house, he built the abilities to both shape pots on the wheel, and to decorate them with carefully created glazes. Gifu gave him the capacity to both hold and achieve his vision.
From his workshop, Ozawa has developed his imagination in form, and in shade. His ‘rinka’ series of small plates for example, is long-running and popular. Its circular flower like motifs take on new character when presented in bold and subtle colours. The aim he says, is to make shades that are ‘not too beautiful’, but are rather a supportive presence to the food or other items that his ceramics can be used to present.
While pursuing the solitary life of a potter, Ozawa is open about his working process. He shares videos of each kiln opening via social media, and has built a following that ensures crowd control is needed at the ceramic shops that stock his work.
The bustling activity, contrasts the simple usability of the pieces he makes. The addictive quality of Ozawa’s pottery stems from its ease of application.
We do not have many pieces by Motoharu Ozawa in the display this time, but what we have will provide an introduction to his work. Within our socially distanced space at wagumi Oxo Tower, there will be a chance to connect with his work, for as long as stocks last.
Motoharu Ozawa
]]>We want to send our best wishes to all of customers and those who have supported us down the years, and the hope that you are all staying safe.
Like all small businesses we are facing our own Annus Horribilis, but we are determined to keep operating within the boundaries of what is safe and responsible.
We are completing every online order we receive, and will consider reopening the shop once it is safe and legal to do so. At no point within whatever we do, will we consider endangering our customers or staff.
Gloves, masks, disinfectant, and consideration. We have even repurposed some kintsugi supplies as hand sanitiser.
In the meantime, as we need to spend more time at home, we happen to think it is better to do with good things around. The smell of incense for example, from Kyoto. Regular cups of tea served in hand made Japanese ceramics. We can help with this, with such items available on the site, and if you contact us.
We have restocks recently of chopsticks from Matsukan in Fukui, and ceramics to come from Kumamoto, Mashiko and Shimane in addition to our line up from Kasama and elsewhere.
For gifts, at this time when it is hard to meet people in person, we will take special care for any online order where you specify it is a present. You can do this by selecting free gift wrapping at check out, or by writing a notes to us using the box provided. We would be happy to include a hand written note to the person you are sending to, and will be discreet in handling receipts. Gift giving is part of daily life in Japan, and we want to provide bespoke service for online orders.
Once again, we send you our good wishes.
wagumi.
]]>Where to go to find the true Japan? For some intellectuals in the early 20th century, the answer was to its extremities. Here, in places, such as Okinawa the spirt of craft and creation had survived the effects of industrialisation found elsewhere.
Today too, the islands offer a different vision to other places in Japan, of a way of life, and what it is to make.
Okinawa’s history is as an intersection in east Asia. In its period as the independent Ryukyu kingdom it was a tribute state, and influenced by larger neighbours. The islands were finally incorporated into Japan, but again fell under external influence with the occupation by American forces in the early post-war era, and the continued large presence today. The result is a complex history, with an engaging and varied culture.
Continuous throughout is natural beauty, and the spirit of people on the islands.
A home for crafts, Okinawa is perhaps particularly known recently for its ceramics. In some periods thought by Okinawans to be inferior to imported wares, visitors have historically begged to disagree.
Okinawa is a place where Chinese and south-east Asian ceramic styles, met the techniques brought by the Japanese and Korean masters who travelled from Kyushu to the north.
The modern ceramic history of the islands is divided into two streams, the unglazed ‘arayachi’ which was used to contain awamori spirit and fulfil practical applications, and the painted ‘joyachi’, which makes for attractive tableware.
Today most of Okinawa’s pottery output is joyachi, with the influence of 20th century master potters Jiro Kinjo and Jissei Omine, looming large. Okinawan pottery overall is known as ‘yachimun’ (the local dialect reading of yakimono, a Japanese word for pottery), and has its character in the particular shade of blue in its glazes, and the dedication to materials.
The centre of ceramic creation in Okinawa was in one period the Tsuboya region of the capital Naha. However, the growth of this city made the regular firing of ceramics unpopular, and many of the leading potters (including Kinjo and Omine) moved themselves in Yomitan, a little to the north. Here the climbing kilns built are some of the largest in Japan, and the practices skilled and rooted in tradition.
This summer we are featuring some work both connected to and inspired by this movement. We have some items for example by Minoru Chibana, who himself once a pupil of Jissei Omine, has with his family carved out a piece of jungle close to the main Yomitan pottery area. Here as Yukutaya-gama, they make work that tilts toward the most traditional processes in local pottery. Chibana collects clay by himself, and kneads it with his feet. The glazes are made using husks from the island’s comparatively few rice farmers, and all is fired in a self-built climbing kiln.
The large, adjacent Kita-gama kiln in Yomitan, acts in many ways as a training facility for new and aspiring potters from all around Japan. Some of its alumni have been involved in creating another centre of pottery in the north of the island. This region is known as Yanbaru, and is hilly and comparatively wild.
Maiko and Masatoshi Tamura met while training at Kita-gama, and since 2010 have operated their own kiln in Ōgimi in Yanbaru. Their work shows their patience and love in acquiring the skills of Okinawa’s Yachimun. They produce bright renditions of traditional Okinawan forms such as makai (small bowls with large bases), wanbaru (larger bowls) and chu-ka (teapots).
Also based in the Yanbaru region is Toru Yonashiro, and his Yachimun Yonashiro kiln. While categorised within the new generation of Okinawan potters, Yonashiro has ten years of training behind him, with five years spent working in Tsuboya, and five in Yomitan. From his new base in the north of the island he hand throws his interpretations of Yachimun forms, before firing them in his self-built kiln. Yonashiro’s glazes are controlled blazes of colour and when applied in styles such as ten-uchi (brush painted dots), are perhaps what marks him out most as an accomplished new fixture of the Okinawan pottery scene.
In some ways the most traditional and elemental of all in this scene however, is New Zealander Paul Lorimer. From his base in Motobu, also in the northern part of Okinawa, his work is an exploration in the base material of the island’s ceramics: its clay. A technician in making kilns, and seeking out the best clays - Lorimer has sourced around 15 distinct types on the island. These he throws, and then fires in the anagama style kiln he built. Sometimes glazed, but often not, his work offers a brilliant chance to connect with the soil of the island.
With lone craftspeople and studios dotted around the main island, Okinawa is also known for its tradition in glass making. The bright colours of Ryukyu glass, as the island’s produce is known, reflect natural forms, and encase the light from the sun. This glass is often also ‘saisei glass’, a ‘reborn’ material, taken from reused drinks and other bottles. Crafting new beauty from the detritus left by military bases, has a symbolism within the island’s post-war history. It is also practical, as recycled glass hardens more swiftly once blown, allowing the skilled craftsperson to quickly complete their work (although catching out those unable to work with speed).
Kiyoharu Matsuda is one such experienced glass craftsperson in Okinawa. Working with glass since the day he left school, he has journeyed through studios and makers with different techniques. His Glass Studio Seiten, in Yomitan, north of Naha, is the current base for his operations and the place where Matsuda practices and shares his skill. From the broken parts of cola or ramune bottles, Ryukyu glass craftspeople melt, and then blow to create a ball at the tip of the poles they use. This ball is the essential element in the work. Maintained, and then shaped - a glass worker such as Matsuda can in swift motion make the bright, natural forms that represent his studio.
Ryukyu glass has become an art form, and the drinkers of the island’s awamori spirit, often do so from richly coloured vessels. Heijin Yaga, at his Glass Studio Hiro, is an exponent of colour in Okinawan glassware. Colour, and light. His range of ‘bubble glasses’ for example, make a feature of the pockets of air twisted and retained during the process of hand blowing. These create contrasts in light with the range of blue and purple shades that Yaga has developed with inspiration from local nature.
The recycled materials used for Ryukyu glass, tell a story about the island’s recovery after the second world war. The only land battles on the territory of present day Japan took place on the southern islands, and left immense destruction. From this low point, new spirit in craft emerged, and sometimes fought to survive. The efforts to preserve the island’s tradition in weaving with banana thread are one such example.
Already on the wane amid the new trends and techniques of the early 20th century, the war lead to the clearance of many banana plants for harbouring a malaria risk. The lightweight fabric, dyed and weaved into patterns that hint to motifs from island life, almost became an historical item. Long heralded by the movers within the early-mid twentieth century mingei movement that celebrated folk crafts, some leading figures supported Toshiko Taira and her group in the north Okinawan town of Kijoka in working to keep bashofu (banana thread) fabric alive.
Taira herself is now 98 years old, and a designated living national treasure. She is mainly interested in accolades so long as they support her life mission to continue the practice of Okinawan bashofu weave. With a relatively stable supply of natural resource, which Taira and collaborators of a similar age still cut by hand as the plants tower above then, the challenge is to now maintain the human skills to make, treat and then weave the fabric.
Bashofu, like other crafts on Okinawa today, is alive, and evolving. A region that in spite of everything, maintained its link to the past, is a inspiration to many in suggesting a future that is sustainable and rich.
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Kasama Freestyle at wagumi
At present at wagumi we have a collection of ceramics from Kasama.
Under the title Kasama Freestyle, it is meant as an introduction to the great work in pottery you can find in this town around sixty miles north of Tokyo.
Japan is full of pottery regions. Each have their own characteristics, self-imposed restraints, and an idea of what you might find. What is interesting about Kasama, is that it has none of these things. Or rather that its characteristic is its sense of freedom.
The background to this is in Kasama’s history, and its soil.
The earliest potters in the region were farmers who turned their hand to ceramics in the late 18th century. Kasama did not emerge as pottery centre until around one hundred years later, when alongside nearby Mashiko, the region became a supplier to the growing capital to the south.
The foundation for its business was the red clay found in the soil. Kasama’s clay is a basis for beauty and a thing of frustration for those who work with it. Well suited to shaping on a potter’s wheel, its iron content allows for unique effects when fired. However, in can also be fragile in the process of making.
Kasama-ware hence had an earthy beauty, but was not always suited to mass production.
Meanwhile in the context of Japan’s rapid industrialisation in the early 20th century, new materials and techniques emerged to undercut the work taking place in Kasama and Mashiko.
From here on, the town’s histories are interconnected and slightly different. With the presence of the great master in 'folk crafts', Shoji Hamada, Mashiko developed in a direction influenced by his style and colour palette.
For Kasama however, things reached near crisis point in the early post war era. With a dwindling number of pottery businesses, the town embarked on a conscious effort to attract ceramicists and would-be ceramicists to move to the region. It built a training facility, provided accommodation, and in effect opened itself to creativity.
The scene that has emerged is of several relatively large pottery houses, able to produce to order for restaurants and shops - combined with a large ecosystem of individual potters and smaller works.
Some of the individual potters themselves trained at the pottery houses, and all come together during the popular Himatsuri pottery fair in the spring.
Time spent in Kasama can yield visits to ceramic galleries, showrooms and studios. A large park houses the Craft Hills centre for making, and elsewhere the town’s training facility has been upgraded to a ceramic university.
In common with some other areas of Japan, today craft is playing an important role in reinvigorating Kasama. The vibrant ceramics scene is a reason to visit the town, and to live there too. Handmade ceramics are at the heart of its identity.
An interest in living sustainably, and healthily, and reconnecting with the soil - has motivated many Tokyo-ites to explore beyond big city life. In this sense the creative community of Kasama seems ever more relevant, and ahead of its time.
A reaction to the dehumanising impacts of industrialisation partly inspired the Japanese arts and crafts movement in the early part of the 20th century.
The legacy of this, and the vibrancy of its current form can well be seen in Kasama.
We hope that Kasama Freestyle presents a slice of this vibrancy, and the interest that can be found in Kasama’s creative retreat.
Potters at Kasama Freestyle
Each of the Kasama potters featured has had an individual journey to ceramics in the town, and you can find below profiles based on our visits to meet them earlier this year.
They can be sorted loosely into categories, with representatives of Kasama’s established pottery community such as Hiroshi Otsu, who is also head of the pottery union, as an example of the foundational influence of ‘shokunin’ craftspeople on the town. More than anything he does not want this skill in craft to be lost.
Also there are pioneers from the early generation of individual ceramists who set up in Kasama such as Haruo Takahashi and Nobuhiro Hashiguchi. In some cases they trained locally, in others they brought skills from elsewhere. But at a time when becoming your own pottery business was not the typical career path, they had a sense a vision that connected with Kasama’s openness to welcome them.
Finally there are representatives of the so-called ‘new wave’. From the generation that reached adulthood after Japan’s economic crash in the early 1990s, they were raised in a context where the old model of growth was being questioned. Here a renewed interest in materials, craft and sustainability feels apt for the times, and is supported by a growing interest in ceramic homeware made by individual makers. In this case many followed in the footsteps of the earlier generation of makers. Good examples are Yamato Kobayashi and Mishio Suzuki, who both learned from leading Kasama potter: Akio Nukaga.
Hiroshi Otsu
“They have been telling us we should work with designers”, Hiroshi Otsu’s brow furrows as he contemplates the outlook for Japan’s traditional makers. The head of the pottery union in Kasama, Otsu’s family business is one of the most historic pottery houses in the town. Recognised by the government as a “dento kogeishi” (a traditional craftsperson) of particular quality, his own work stands out within the family showroom. In another corner is a collection of 19th century Kasama-ware including functional suribachi mortars, and bowls for cookery. Dull base colours enlivened by drips of azure glaze. This is the lineage on which the Otsu family business is built, but there have been many challenges down the years. It is fortunate therefore, that the traditional potters in Kasama have a flexible outlook. Open to outsiders, Otsu and his union are keen first to maintain and encourage ceramic culture in Kasama. His own work is founded of the skill of a craftsman. Kyusu teapots made with quick precision, and finished in the bright glaze he spent years perfecting. Surrounded by experimentation, Otsu’s personal focus remains the time made quality of the craftsperson.
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Mineko Nishimura
In the single story atelier that Mineko Nishimura shares with Yamato Kobayashi, little spaces of beauty stand out. Just across from the deep genkan (lobby) for changing shoes, flowers arranged in a ceramic jug welcome the visitor. Making these accompaniments to life, is what initially drew Nishimura to ceramics. Her first interest was to go one step further in food presentation, and to make the plate on which her dishes were served. Recently her focus is tea. “Time for tea is a moment to breathe within a busy day… I like this time and I felt wanted to make something for it”. Nishimura’s aim of achieving the right item for a moment, contrasts with the length of time it takes to complete her work. Originally a student in glaze, to arrive at the feel and shade that she aspires to is no simple matter. “I spent six months working on each, and I am not sure how many test pieces I have… it’s still not quite perfection”. Within the boxes and fragments that pile up in the atelier, and the hours spent to perfect her craft; the plump, elegant forms of Nishimura’s work offer moments to feel a sense of calm.
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Yamato Kobayashi
An organised person, who traded the life of a company worker for one making ceramics, Yamato Kobayashi shares an atelier with Mineko Nishimura which they named “Keizan” or mountain gift. This sense of gratitude to his material, enthuses what he makes. While Kasama is a town full of those who travelled to establish themselves in ceramics, it is the place to which Kobayashi returned. The son of a Kasama potter, he works in the local clay, which he describes as smooth and quick to adapt to shapes. The easy contours of Kobayashi’s work contrast with reminders of the soil that appear on its surface. Less a matter of control, he cooperates with his material to achieve the finish he hoped might occur. Kobayashi came back to his home soil after a brief salaried career, and entered training with the quintessential contemporary studio potter of the town: Akio Nukaga. While hard to define, Kobayashi’s explorations in his material and his kiln, have the character of Kasama ingrained in them. “There are lots of people here with different styles, and who came from different pottery regions originally. There’s an atmosphere that let’s you do what you want”.
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Nobuhiro Hashiguchi
On a hill overlooking green rice fields, veteran Kasama potter Nobuhiro Hashiguchi works in the rich leafy shade of the Oribe glaze. This is a colour associated with classic Japanese teaware, although Hashiguchi has it appear in many contexts. Patterns that are also classic, such as the ichimatsu chequerboard motif or the tilted lines of yoroke-jima appear within Hashiguchi’s work, but like his colour palette, never overwhelm it with a sense of tradition. “I wanted to make something delicate, but this Oribe, this green, somehow reached out. It’s a strong colour… that seemed to act as a guide”. His journey to this style, and from his hometown of Nagasaki to this hill in Kasama - was one of accidental discovery. Indisputable throughout was Hashiguchi’s skill as a potter, and with the individuality of his thin black stripes and thick green patterns he is both emblematic of Kasama, and unlike anyone else working there.
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Marumi Kujirai
Like many others Marumi Kujirai moved to Kasama for pottery. Her atelier doubles as her home. Pottery detritus invades her living space. Surrounded by the physical output of her mind, Kujirai finds it hard to explain how she arrived at each piece. “Looking in the library at pottery styles from around the world, I somehow felt these shapes could be something new with Kasama’s clay”. On the surface of her work are interacting mats of the glazes, and drips to the centre. Milk jugs with upturned lips, squat fat teapots. Each piece expresses its identity on the table, and is marked by Kujirai’s inexplicable explorations in Japanese and western forms. Her work is supported by a base in Kasama, by the pottery fairs and ceramic culture all around, and not least by the understanding landlord who allowed Kujirai to station her kiln. Her first name, made as it is of the characters for ‘circle’ and ‘beauty’, maybe hints at destiny in pottery. But the important context to its realisation is Kasama.
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Haruo Takahashi
With hindsight Haruo Takahashi was something of a visionary. His move to Kasama pre-dated the current trend for studio pottery by some time. “When I came here I think there were only about six of us. You have to respect the openness the existing pottery works had when we set up”. A surfer, the atmosphere of the local pottery scene matched well his free spirit. Originally from the wider region, Takahashi in fact learned his craft in Japan’s far south, in Kagoshima. Returning to seek a base, quite unintentionally Takahashi became an early pioneer of Kasama’s new wave. His work is shaped by his early training, and uses a variant of the ‘namagake’ technique of applying glaze on to slightly wet clay. A complex drying process, an initial low temperature firing and a feldspar, silica and ash glaze mix that emphasises the revealed texture of the clay - are all elements that go to make his ceramics. A forebear to much that came, in typical Kasama fashion Takahashi’s pottery remains distinct.
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Mishio Suzuki
The freedom in Mishio Suzuki’s work comes from several sources. One is the harmony and difference in Japanese tableware itself “a good thing about it, is you don’t have to buy 12 of the same thing. There is not that restriction, and no need to match colours on the table. Everything is separate, but somehow connected. I think it matches a Japanese way of thinking”. Another, and the most important, is the freedom of her imagination. Initially impressed by German product design, time spent living there in fact enhanced her appreciation of Japanese ceramics. Looking for something outside, Suzuki in the end found inspiration by looking outside in. The Kasama of childhood visits recalled in her memory, she entered training with the contemporary master Akio Nukaga. As for many Kasama potters her creativity finds its free reign in the pottery studio at the end of her garden.
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Tsuneko Sasaki
Tsuneko Sasaki’s work in pottery began as an escape. A company employee in the late 1990s, she traded her office for the pottery community in Mashiko. Her early career in ceramics was spent here, in a classic location for folk art pottery. Kasama is a short drive from Mashiko and their pottery scenes converge in many ways. But there are differences too, and while she says it in a quiet voice, Sasaki regards Kasama’s style as slightly less restricted. She moved to Kasama in 2006, and now has a studio overlooking rice fields alongside her husband, the glass artist: Yoji Sugiyama. She marvels slightly at his working process “Making glass, you can not touch it, and have to use gravity and rotation. This is different to ceramics, as is the time it takes. Glass just needs to cool, ceramics need time.” A family occupied in making, Sasaki is an experienced potter with an established style. Her forms are modern and smooth, but retain the subtle aspect of being handmade. The clean lines hold an embedded element of humanity, perhaps similar to that which drew Tsuneko Sasaki to her new life.
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Keicondo
Opening on to a wooded field, the sound of bush warblers enters the studio of Keicondo. Inside it are letter shapes, photographs, pottery offcuts and other fragments of inspiration. The potter himself is affable in every respect as he discusses his journey to this spot. A year spent in Bolivia, a brief period working in a firm marketing concrete… before a realisation that the opportunity presented by Kasama’s pottery scene was too good to turn away from. “There is something here that you can not find in other places” he says. This does not mean that all was easy, and time was not needed to develop his distinctive style of fire singed yellows and blacks. Especially suited as a canvas for food presentation, Keicondo has built a particular niche supplying ingredient focussed bistros. The kind that serve natural wine. His travel in ceramics in some ways mirrors that of his father, an Ethiopian ceramicist who made his home in Kasama. This, he says typifies what the town is about: “for someone to come from outside, and in Kasama to present work as Kasama-ware, seems like it might be an easy thing, but I wonder if 30 years ago there were many places like that. I haven’t heard of it”. Kasama is Keicondo’s home.
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Aya Kondo
The work of Aya Kondo comes from a quiet obsession. A brief career as a public employee, and then time spent travelling in Asia led her eventually to pottery training in Mashiko. In 2001 in nearby Kasama, she established her own kiln, enveloped by nature. As the years pass, so has there been a gradual evolution in her style. A key element remains detailed arabesque patterning which she achieves by hand painting slip using a dripper. More recently Kondo has added deep moss green, Oribe type glazes in a patchwork alongside her trademark sweet yellowish brown. An important figure in the Kasama pottery scene for most of the last twenty years, Aya Kondo’s ceramics are a kind and refined presence in homes all around Japan.
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Takahiro Manome
A winding road on a mountain side that slowly becomes too narrow for a car to pass, Takahiro Manome is in one sense isolated. In another, he is integral to the current generation of Kasama potters. The impetus to connect Kasama’s sometimes disparate ceramicist community came from the earthquake of 2011, when from his mountain side Manome drove an initiative to repair the town’s kilns. Slow and deliberate in his speech, Manome’s context in his distant atelier full of art books and pottery shelves, has perhaps left him a little unaccustomed to interaction. But his work, like his other initiatives to connect, shows a spirit of exploration, and an essential friendliness to its user. It balances an elemental sense of its material, with soft glazes and sensitive forms. Involved in a slow process of innovation, as time passes Manome’s ceramics have grown new forms: a new pink glaze slightly inspired by Lucie Rie, his trademark bird logo on cups, plates, as a magnet, a bud vase… “I am inspired by what I see in Kasama, and from all around. I think I am making something somewhere between Japanese and western styles.” A kind presence in the Kasama pottery scene, the work of Takahiro Manome can take a similar role in the home.
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Earlier this year a Pacific Swift made an unexpected appearance in Aberdeenshire. A classic form in the Japanese summer sky, on spring migration it had somehow set out in the wrong direction and was found circling over Scotland. This was auspicious perhaps to the unusual migration we have also arranged from Japan, for late summer at wagumi.
In their home country the Wild Bird Society of Japan are known both for their work in conservation, and more recently for their engaging range of design products. These present a timely combination of practical style, and concern for the natural environment. Scan Instagram a little on the WBSJ hashtag (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/wbsj/), and rather than pictures of Japan’s fauna, you quickly discover images of Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean young people in wellington boots, often at music festivals - for which the footwear is extremely suited.
A screenshot from the #WBSJ hashtag, and a pic from Fuji Rock
It is fair to say that as a conservation charity, the WBSJ are a little surprised by their status as fashion leaders. But the upside for the environment is large, as proceeds from WBSJ merchandise support their work preserving Japan’s rich biodiversity. In particular, they are known for their efforts to prevent the extinction in Japan of the world’s largest species of owl: the Blakiston’s Fish Owl. A giant presence alongside fast running water within Hokkaido woods, this owl has suffered habitat loss as Japan’s rivers were diverted and covered in concrete. The WBSJ purchases land to protect this habitat and monitors nesting sites to prevent the population falling below the current approximate number of 140 birds.
The Blakiston’s Fish Owl in Hokkaido
This is far away from the scene when we visited the WBSJ’s Tokyo headquarters earlier this year. Walking along the ridged concrete banks of the river that trickles in constricted flow through the Nakameguro area of the west part of the city, it was possible to see pigeons, the stoic Spot-billed Ducks of tambo rice paddies now in an urban setting, and Japanese Tits in the small straight trees, alongside the design boutiques and restaurant extractors that line the route. Japanese wagtails darted from bank to bank.
The WBSJ had a short list of birds of Tokyo, together with their photographs at their front desk. The lineup in the world’s largest city is maybe less extensive than elsewhere, but to see them is to paraphrase George Orwell: a pleasure available to everybody, which costs nothing.
WBSJ HQ, in Tokyo
From their Tokyo office the WBSJ manage their network of reserves across Japan, and plot new ways to prevent further destruction of Japan’s natural environment. In post-war Japan the balance of power has frequently been against conservation groups with economic growth an all-crushing priority. At its worst Japan’s construction state trounced the natural world in a way that surpassed reason, with interest groups benefitting from its process without regard to the outcome. The long battle of attrition to save the mudskipper fish of Isahaya in south Japan in the 1990s was symbolic within this, and maybe signified a change in attitudes. Environmental destruction was also a theme that underscored some of the Studio Ghibli animations of Hayao Miyazaki (the advancing pollution in the forest of Nausicaä for example), and it is perhaps natural that a generation raised with these films as their Disney, is now thinking again.
Previously at wagumi we have featured the moreTrees project of musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, and there are many other examples of similar micro-businesses sprouting up around Japan.
This is a context to the popularity of WBSJ’s wellington boots. Walking in the countryside, watching an act at Fuji Rock, coping with an urban rain storm - but also making a small statement in favour of sustainable development in Japan. At the Tokyo office building that contains the WBSJ’s HQ a steady flow of people ride the lift to their floor, and visit the small retail space next to reception. Here they find a carefully curated line up dedicated to recording and enjoying the variety of bird life in Japan. In the sense that the wildlife and landscape of Japan contributed vitally to its art and design, there is a symmetry to design products contributing now to return the favour.
Some Japanese birdlife in a woodblock print by Hiroshige
We first encountered this line up a few years ago, and it seemed a sharp counterpoint to the ubiquitous Robin drink coasters found in the UK. However the WBSJ are a conservation charity, and not a retail behemoth - and so have not exactly had international expansion on their mind. At present their products can be found in selected locations across Japan, and very few locations worldwide. It took a little effort to persuade them to come to Europe, and we based our appeal on our own London list of birds, a little similar to Tokyo’s. From our window we can see Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Cormorants, Mallards, and more rarely a Peregrine Falcon flying toward tall buildings nearby. We hope that our ‘to B’ campaign of WBSJ products will now contribute to and reflect this environment along the Thames.
wagumi at London Craft Week: A Demonstration of Kintsugi
At this year’s London Craft Week (3-7 May 2017), wagumi is going to participate in two ways. Firstly we are taking part in the 'Our House' campaign at Selfridges and have an area of our product selections there. This includes some wagumi classics such as Koishiwara Pottery, and Kaneko Kohyo ‘varietal’ sake cups, and some new items such as exclusive colours of Housengama’s Toki teapot design. It is exciting to see our selections in this classic home of UK retail, and the event will run to mid-June.
Secondly we will be hosting a series of events both at our shop in the OXO Tower, and at Selfridges. Later this month this will include some chances to sample fine sakes and beer coupled with ceramics that match.
The main event at the wagumi shop however, will be this Saturday (6 May) when we will host a special kintsugi demonstration.
In Japan, ceramics (and sometimes even glass and other materials) can have a beautiful afterlife even once broken. This is through the process of kintsugi, which marks and seals the cracks with lacquer and gold powder. An act of repair, but also an art in itself, kintsugi touches upon some important ideas and aesthetics in Japanese life. This weekend we are excited to be welcoming a leading practitioner from the Bizen-ware ceramics region: Hiroko Ogawa.
This will be Hiroko’s first visit to London, and she has kindly agreed to join us for several demonstrations between 12 and 6pm. Anyone will be welcome, subject to how many we can fit in the shop!
In addition, Hiroko will also be holding demonstrations at Selfridges on the LG floor kitchen area on 5th and 7th May. There are various forms of kintsugi, including some that 'cheat' a little with glue - this however, will be an example of the real thing, from one of Japan's oldest ceramic regions.
Bizen pottery is typically unglazed, with clay from the local region able to withstand a high temperature firing. In this heat, flying ash creates patterns, and techniques are applied including tied bundles of rice straw that leave marks behind on the pieces.
The result is ceramics which have an elemental feel, and are attractive and durable to use. (But not so durable, that they never require some kintsugi repair...)
The power of nature and the transience of things, are both term themes which recur in Japanese art. Kintsugi in a unique expression of this, and a very practical craft. We hope the workshops this weekend will serve as an interesting introduction.
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