Occurance of Hagi ware
The history of Hagi ware goes back to the age of Hideyoshi-era in 1592.
During the era of Azuchi-Momoyama, Nobunaga oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi dominated the world of Japanese tea by having the reknown Japanese tea master, Senno-Rikyu. The demand against the tea ceremony was increasing among the soldiers at that era as a symbol of their wealthness. Thus the demand against team pottery had increased as well. In the context of this trend, the popularity of “Korai” pottery enhanced when the trend was shifting from Shoin-cha to Wabi-cha, the shift change of tea ceremony.
Later, Terumoto Mouri, who was an original originator of Hagi-prefecture, invited pottery masters from Korea when he visited there.After losing the war of Sekigahara in 1600, he moved to Hagi in Choshu from Aki in Hiroshima, then he originated Goyo-kama, which was the origin of Hagi Hagi ware .
Characteristics of Hagi ware
The most prominent character of Hagi ware is the softness feeling after baking, which contributed from the usage of the roughly roasted soil. Due to the rough soil, water permeability, water retentivity and heat retention are high, moisture penetrates from fine crinkle of the surface which can be caused by the difference of shrinkage ratio of soil and glaze, and it reaches from the inside of the vessel to the surface.
As a result, the more you use it, the more the color of the instrument will change, and it will give you a rough feeling. This change is called "Hagi no Nanabake" and it is cited as a major feature of Hagi ware, and even as one of the charm that Hagi ware is very pleased by tea master, this "seven kanji" is cited
The most prominent character of Hagi ware is the softness feeling after baking, which contributed from the usage of the roughly roasted soil. Due to the rough soil, water permeability, water retentivity and heat retention are high, moisture penetrates from fine crinkle of the surface which can be caused by the difference of shrinkage ratio of soil and glaze, and it reaches from the inside of the vessel to the surface.
As a result, the more you use it, the more the color of the instrument will change, and it will give you a rough feeling. This change is called "Hagi no Nanabake" and it is cited as a major feature of Hagi ware, and even as one of the charm that Hagi ware is very pleased by tea master, this "seven kanji" is cited
3 kinds of soil
3 kinds of soil
Hagi ware uses “Daido” soil, “Mishima” soil and “Mitake” soil.
★Daido soil
Main soil for Hagi ware. This can be mined at the area of Houfu city area in Yamaguchi to Yamaguchi city area, this clay has characteristics of many gravel and ivory color
★Mishima soil
This is the soil mined in Mishima in the sea of Japan, with the features of red-black color with iron. By blending into Daido soil, more varieties of color and designs can be seen. Nowadays, it is mined in Mishima but use other substitution.
★Mitate soil
The small sandy white earth picked. The viscosity of the porcelain clay is combined for refractoriness improvement as well as a suppressed thing.
Hagi ware uses “Daido” soil, “Mishima” soil and “Mitake” soil.
★Daido soil
Main soil for Hagi ware. This can be mined at the area of Houfu city area in Yamaguchi to Yamaguchi city area, this clay has characteristics of many gravel and ivory color
★Mishima soil
This is the soil mined in Mishima in the sea of Japan, with the features of red-black color with iron. By blending into Daido soil, more varieties of color and designs can be seen. Nowadays, it is mined in Mishima but use other substitution.
★Mitate soil
The small sandy white earth picked. The viscosity of the porcelain clay is combined for refractoriness improvement as well as a suppressed thing.
“Hill with cuts”…
Sometimes I am being asked by customers, “Is the “hill with cuts” the most prominent character of Hagi ware”? However, I wonder why this perception spread over during the popular era for Hagi ware. It’s because this character is not only seen in Hagi ware, but also in some other pottery and moreover, even in Hagi ware, not all the Hagi ware potter has this character.
On top of that, there is a rumor from the old times saying that “This cut was put in Hagi ware in order to be distinguished from the pottery that the king uses”. But I still have a doubt about this because the history of Hagi ware started from the replication of Korai (Korean) pottery and Korai potter did used to have “hill with cuts”. In addition, the king at that era is considered to use it.
Apart from others, there are some other saying against “hill with cuts”. Some say this is to improve the molding, improve baking efficiency, and for easier transportation. But neither of them applies to other pottery and thus we cannot say this is an only character for Hagi ware.
Various expressions
The typical images against Hagi ware is that there are many rustic things that made use of the texture of soil and glaze, and painting etc. are not performed almost, so it is mainly used for burning in the climbing kiln for soil blending, glazing, spatula and brush eye etc. I added chance by flame and carried out a unique expression. Because of the narrowness of its expression, the color was also occupied with colors limited to loose color, brown, white, etc. Therefore, even if the difference in competence is discerned in the eyeglass eyes.
On the other hand, contemporary Hagi ware has various colors and designs not only limited to such features and is expanding its domain to artistic objects, dishes and others.
Leakage
The feature for soil in Hagi ware is roughness. Because of this rough surface on Hagi ware, there are clacks. And the water comes into it and spread over it, even finally comes out to the surface of potter. This, we call it “leakage”.
Due to this, manufactures usually sell the products after implementing the methods for anti-leakage but after a long time,this could be fading away. You might be surprised if you happen to buy this product, but don’t worry. There are some methods that even amateurs can prevent the leakage.
Even if you keep using the pottery with leakage multiple times, the gap of leakage starts to be filling up with the tea making and leakage can be avoided. Simultaneously, we call the phenomenon of color of tea making comes into pottery and the change of color for entire potter as “Hagino-Nanabake”. In the world of tea ceremony, we express this phenomenon as “raise” and this change of color is well loved by tea masters.
Here shows how to avoid the leakage. Not only for Hagi ware, but also for other pottery, these methods can be used.
★Put thin rice gruel into Hagi ware and leave it for a day. After that, wash it with water and put it wherever is dry (not to be put in dark place like cupboard) If you still see the leakage, please try it multiple times. I assume eventually the leakage will stop. Also, the good thing of this method is that this would not spoil the appearance of Hagi ware so that you can be secured to try this method.
○ Thin rice gruel Boil the rice with water which is more than 10 times more quantity and make it paste
○ Funori (Glue plant) Boil Funori and make it thicker
○ Katakuri Put the hot water into starch and make it thick
※Warning
Sometimes, there are gaps which cannot be seen from the surface, so that the leakage keeps coming. In this case,there is a probability of defect product, you had better ask the shop or the manufacturer.