Bizen ware

Bizen ware, pottery manufactured at and near Imbe, Okayama ken (prefecture), on the Inland Sea of Japan, from at least the 6th century ad, in what was once Bizen province. Bizen ware has a dark gray stoneware body that generally fires to a brick-red, brown, or deep bronze colour. The surface of Bizen ware ranges from an unglazed matt to a glossy sheen; age has given some pieces a bronzelike patina and others the appearance of polished wood. A partial, splashed greenish gray glaze is found on some examples. Bizen ware is classified into several types: aka-e (red) Bizen is a bronzelike pottery that shades to a deep copper colour; ao (blue) Bizen is steely or slate blue and is rare because of the limited survival from the intense heat necessary to produce it; ki (yellow) Bizen is so named from its yellow glaze; hidasuki (fire stripe) Bizen has mottlings and reddish stringlike marks, produced by wrapping the dried wares in straw rope before firing.

Production of Bizen ware flourished throughout the Imbe region until the industry was confined to Imbe village in the 13th century. It is sometimes impossible to distinguish the wares by location, since the clay at each site was high in iron content, and construction techniques, forms, and kiln designs were identical. In addition, all samples transmit the same sense of strength and long tradition. Generally speaking, clays used at Imbe were very viscous, and another distinguishing feature was the lip section of a vessel, rolled back in a curve from the opening and called the tama-buchi, or round rim. On Kamakura-period (1192–1333) vessels, mouths are usually small in proportion to the size of the vessel. From the late Muromachi period (1338–1573), subterranean field clays were utilized that tended toward more urbane refinement, although the individual characteristics were preserved.

Much of the early ware is dated, and the names and marks of most of the artist-potters are known. Some of them were 17th-century Kyōto artists who were attracted by the unusually supple clay, which invited fantastic and inventive modelling. It is in the precise, detailed, and animated representation of Japanese sages, divinities, and actual or mythical creatures that Bizen acquired its unique reputation. Depictions of the badger, cock, stork, ox, quail, and hare appear in a wide range of useful and decorative pottery forms, including articles for tea ceremonies, censers, water jars, sake bottles, basins, trays, hanging vases, and even utilitarian tiles. Bizen’s best period was the 18th century; subsequently, wares were adapted to the European market, and in the 20th century the predominant trade has been in bricks and drainpipes, for which the local clay is appropriate.