foreign experts have been invited and the latest and most scientific methods of production are in use. But side by side with coal and oil burning and electrically heated kilns for the mass production of ceramic wares can be found the old Japanese individualistic methods of firing. Although at present only one maru gama, consisting of but six or seven chambers, is in operation (at Seto), many artist-potters still prefer and use the old oh gama (large kiln). They maintain the very irregularity and unevenness of the old method of firing an article produces much more interesting variations and effects than the new mechanically perfect firing. For this stand they have the support of centuries of experience by Oriental potters; and modern science with all its marvels cannot scientifically produce the colours so admired the world over. When the many shades of green, and the reds and the blues, which evolve from one glaze formula conditioned by the heat and smoke of a primitive kiln are considered, the almost superstitious awe with which Oriental potters regard their kilns is understandable. Both Chinese and Japanese potters believe that there is some unseen power operative in the kiln which transmutes their human efforts into something divine, a sort of indwelling kiln spirit. There are even stories in Japan of such marvelous effects being produced that a kiln was deemed uncanny and abandoned. Certain it is that the odd, unusual and individual changes in colour and surface texture produced in the simple.old style kilns cannot be duplicated under mechanically perfect conditions and while the Japanese potter will make for export one thousand things of exquisite beauty all exactly the same, for his own use he prefers every article just a bit different, even if (and perhaps because) that difference is a defect in its perfection.
Japanese methods of making
Japanese potters have known the use of the potter's wheel since pre-historic times, yet all down the ages they have made and even today frequently make articles without its aid. In their big modern factories for making ceramic wares all the known methods of manufacture are in operation; wheel-thrown, jigger-shaped, molded, cast, built-up-in-sections wares pass before operators on endless belt conveyors. The wares are dipped in glaze, sprayed with air sprays or individually hand painted, all at lightning speed in the latest scientific mass production processes. Yet something in the Japanese nature impells them to continue to study and experiment with the most primitive methods of making pottery. They seem to find the fullest aesthetic satisfaction in a hand-made article which reveals the manual skill and mental and spiritual strength of its maker. Neither the disturbances of war nor the harsh demands of materialism have destroyed the ability to make or the love of soft hand-made pottery.
Method of making pottery without using a potter's wheel, even today many Kyoto potters form up porcelain wares this way.
Making pottery wares without the use of the potter's wheel is not unique to Japan of course but the prevalence of such methods is noteworthy. Briefly, there are three methods:
1. Tataki zukuri (making by beating)—This method which seems to have originated in Korea is used in making large articles. A wooden hammer or mallet is used to shape a jar or bowl in conjunction with the bare hand, the mallet on the inside of the article. The pattern formed by the regular strokes of the mallet head is thought to resemble the Japanese conventionalized wave pattern and is called uchi nami, or inside wave pattern.
2. Te zukuri (or hand-made)—The clay material is rolled between the palms into long ropes of a suitable size and coiled round to form the walls of the article. The thing is then more or less smoothed up with the aid of a bamboo spatula and the fingers, but always a trace or suggestion of the rope coils are left. If the article being made, such as a tea cup or a flower vase, needs a footrim (kodai) it is formed of a thin coil of the clay and luted on, or cut and gouged out of the thing itself.
3. Also known as te zukuri (hand-made). With this method a lump of clay is pushed and pulled by the fingers. This makes a heavy looking mug-shaped article and if it is desired to lighten it and shape it the crude mug-shape is reversed and a sharp bamboo spatula is used to sculpture the mass into a finer, lighter shape and form a footrim (kodai). Here the problem is to bring out the shape with the fewest cuts of the spatula and no attempt is made to smooth over or disguise the strokes of the bamboo knife.
The reader will note that with all three methods the inside of the article is left rough and uneven. This is deliberately done. Such articles are usually made for use in cha no yu and the uneven surface is considered an aid in making good tea. Frequently no attempt is made to form a footrim, the bottom of the article is left perfectly flat on all three types. Usually on wares made by any of these three processes a thick soft looking glaze is applied inside and out.
Showing two types of footrim, kodai, and an Eiraku seal. The bowl on the right has the unkin design described on a later page.
Raku Yaki
Raku yaki or raku wares, is a term which gives rise to much confusion in the minds of the Western student of Japanese ceramics for the word "raku" occurs in different settings; as a part of the names of two different historical pleasure pavilions, the Ju raku tei of Hideyoshi in Kyoto at the end of the sixteenth century and of Kai raku en of Tokugawa Harutomi, a Daimyo of Kishu, near Wakayama in the first half of the nineteenth century; and again in the name Kiraku, a potter of the nineteenth century in the Province of Kii as well as in the more famous Eiraku line of potters who worked first at Kutani and later at Kyoto.
Raku has come to mean the general type of pottery preferred by cha jin. The raku in Eiraku is the Japanese pronunciation of the name of an emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty, Yung Lo; while the raku elsewhere is the character which means pleasure, or amusing accomplishments. The family name of the potters who use the artist name of "Raku" is Tanaka, and in private life they are known as such. Japanese authorities designate as Raku kei a line of potters beginning in the sixteenth century, most of whom have the syllable "nyu" in their professional names. In this sense Raku kei means "House or Line of Soft-Pottery-Made-for-Amusement Makers." Also this line of raku pottery makers has two branches, one known as the Principal Kiln (hon gama) operated by the legitimate successors to the Raku seal and Branch Kilns (wake gama) operated by others than the major line of potters.
This Raku line of successive master potters is an excellent illustration of the custom, followed in all branches of Japanese art, of the master artist naming as his successor to the responsibility of carrying on his style of craftsmanship that one of his pupils he considers best able to do so. If the master's eldest son is a capable artist he of course becomes his father's successor but in case of there being no son to inherit or of the son lacking in ability the master appoints his best pupil to be his successor and use his name. Thus it comes about that the geneology of an artist family is often most irregular; and this is rendered more difficult of understanding by the equally common custom of an artist assuming various names at different times in his life; sometimes, indeed, an artist will use two or more names simultaneously. The knowledge that it was a common practice of a master artist to grant a favourite pupil one character of his name tends a little to reduce this confusion (though sometimes an admirer of an artist borrows a part of that artist's name out of the desire to pay him a compliment!) Other than using a part of their teacher's name, Japanese artists take names referring to or indicating their age, their physical condition (as "the deaf" or "the left-handed), or a part of the name of the district in which they were born or worked.
Two styles of footrim found in Japanese raku yaki and pottery.
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