Shino and Oribe Ceramics

(Pictured Above: Shino Tea Bowl)

Mino Province, the now defunct name for an area just Northeast of modern-day Nagoya constituted the lower part of Gifu Prefecture. Mino pottery was made in the modern cities of Toki and Tajimi which are on the border between Gifu and Aichi Prefectures. Mino was the home for sweeping changes in the world of tea culture. ‘Mino Pottery’ as it was known in a broad sense would be eventually seen more specifically as one of its 4 sub-types instead.

1) Shino
2) Oribe
3) Yellow Seto
4) Black Seto

In Japan, the earliest tea wares were made in the kilns of Bizen and Shigaraki. Both kilns produced wares that were simple and unglazed. The area known as Seto, which at one point was the only area in Japan where ash glazing techniques had been developed, quickly became a hot-spot to imitate the perfection and techniques of China’s famous kilns.

As tea culture developed during the Momoyama period, the tea masters of the time started to favor distinctly Japanese wares. This trend began with Shino ware, and was followed directly after by Oribe. It was due to these tea master’s preferences and direct personal involvement in the acquisition and use of these wares that the overall tea culture in Japan went through rapid changes. 

“The moon is never so lovely as when partially hidden by clouds” – Murata Jukou

One of the biggest changes in the philosophy of beauty came from placing Japan’s imperfect wares alongside the masterpieces of China. When viewing the ceramics side by side, an appreciation of imperfection was formed. It gave the viewer something to consider rather than accept as a matter of fact.

“Japanese pottery waits for you to come home and welcomes you, Chinese pottery waits for no one” – Paraphrased, author unknown. It’s a quote I came in contact with sometime this year (2020) and felt it hits a very strong point. Chinese pottery hit a skill ceiling in which there was nothing left to comment on other than its immaculate nature, its perfection. Japan (in its inability to create perfection) abandoned that mentality and embraced imperfection instead.

In the history of Mino pottery, I must briefly write about the Owari province (bordering Mino to the South) and its kilns of Seto which produced the ‘Seto ware’ both yellow and black. Politically Mino was much more stable than Owari, and Northern Owari (where Seto is) was often a battleground of civil wars. The Kato family, a powerful pottery family who created Seto wares in Owari moved their operations and families to lands of Mino to set up new kilns in a more peaceful, stable environment.

This peace attracted other potters from Seto to flee to Mino as well. The old kilns of Seto were slowly lost to time but ‘Seto ware’ was still being made. Perhaps unknown to the purveyors of Seto ware at the time, what they were buying was being made in Mino (by Seto potters) but being called Seto. The raw materials were different and thus the pottery turned out different as well, eventually embracing the new names of Shino and Oribe; though those didn’t come into mainstream existence until the Edo period and were only names given in hindsight. At the time these pieces were created, they were simply given names such as ‘recently fired plates’ and ‘fired plates’ — quite ambiguous and uncelebratory.

The origin of the name ‘Shino’ which describes the white glazed bowls of Mino is related to Shino Soushin, the founder of the Shino School of Incense Connoisseurship. He may have had some small part in Shino production, but its not very clear. Perhaps Mr. Shino’s influence on the kilns and advocacy of their pottery was enough for historians to later dub these wares ‘Shino’

The primary characteristic of Shino ware is its color. White glaze on a white clay body, born out of practicality because the Mino area has an abundance of high-quality white clay (known as ‘mogusa’). The knowledge of glazing that traveled with the Seto potters to Mino inspired a locally sourced twist on the classic Seto Glaze to create the milky glazed ‘white on white’ wares of Mino – Shino. This glaze gave Shino an effect in pottery previously unseen in Japan. It was this combined with the preference for crude, imperfect shapes that propelled Shino ware to become the trendiest teaware of its day. 

Another characteristic and perhaps most distinct of Shino ware is the undercoat decoration using a brush. Ironwash was painted on the leather hard pieces and glazed over with the white Shino glaze. The uneven thickness of glazing allowed the iron wash to show through differently in different spots. A particular ‘fire color’ tended to be created when the white glaze was applied very thinly, and this ‘fire color’ is a special (and very sought after) feature of Shino ware. In spots where the white glaze was too thick for the pigments in the iron wash to escape and transform in the kiln, the color would instead come out as gray. The glaze also distorted the paintings underneath, so finely detailed images were not practical, simple symbols with broad brush strokes and iconography dominated.

This iron wash was also quite practical for potters of the area to use due to its abundance in the local hills. The iron was trapped in a brown clay called oni-ita. This dried clay was pulverized, mixed with water to create the ‘paint’. Depending on the amount of iron in the clay used for the paint, the thickness of the white outer glaze, and the length of time the piece remained in the kiln, different colors emerged in the resulting picture. From their darkest, these pictures might be described as black, purple-brown, purple-red, fresh red, or even pink.

It’s also notable that Shino and Oribe plate ware was the first native Japanese pottery to be introduced during the tea ceremony meal. Before these, plate ware was wood, perhaps lacquered wood, or if the host was especially wealthy, they might feature Chinese ceramics. Ceramics first entered the mainstream of dining via Oribe ware, as Oribe kilns were larger and more productive than Shino, and it became fashionable to use ceramics as opposed to wood.

There are, of course, subcategories of the classic white Shino ware, perhaps they could first be arranged by their main subtypes; un-decorated ‘Mujishino’, and decorated ‘Eshino’. Completely white wares with no decoration are of course known as the un-decorated Shino. The lack of decoration emphasizes the shape and the richness of the glaze. As for decorated Shino, we’ve covered ‘the how’ above, we can cover ‘the what’ next. Motifs were taken from nature. The land where all these bowls were made is rather rural, the potter’s inspiration would come from the local flora and fauna, pine trees, birds, grasses, flowers, etc. Mountains are a popular motif, as are bridges, fishing boats, fishing nets, and reeds represented by cross-hatching.   

Then there is grey ‘Nezumi Shino’ and red ‘Aka’ Shino, where the same clay used in the iron wash is used in the outer glaze as well. Again, depending on the amount of iron in the clay, the result would range from grey to red.

There is ‘marbled Shino’ or ‘neriage’ in which clays of different colors are combined to create the body of the piece. If the clays are wedged together carefully a pattern will emerge on the finished piece after it has been thrown. Neriage pottery is beautiful, and not at all unique to this area. I’d recommend anyone reading this to give it a quick google image search.

(Pictured Above: Oribe Tea Bowl)

Oribe ware became popular at a time shortly after the forced suicide of the prominent tea master of the time, Sen no Rikyu. Sen no Rikyu’s choice of teaware and tea room décor favored simplicity, imperfection, ‘wabi’, and minimalism. In his day (because the standard was the ornate, exquisite wares of China, this mentality was quite alien, but he held a lot of power, and the idea of his philosophy took off. Sen no Rikyu was the son of a merchant and rose to power with his knowledge and manner regarding tea. Rikyu’s predecessor, a man named Furuta Oribe was quite the opposite, he was Rikyu’s former apprentice and believed in many of his teachings but his background as a military general with aristocratic experience was an advantage over his teacher. He played his cards well and was able to influence many facets of tea drinking to this day.

It was around the same time that Oribe came to power that the Kato family (who moved from Seto to Mino) had established themselves and were making pottery with the techniques they knew. A fellow potter from the Karatsu kilns of Northern Kyushu came to visit and mentioned that there was a better way and that it would be in the Kato family’s best interest to come to Karatsu to observe the superiority of their kilns first hand. The trip was taken, and the knowledge returned to Mino. The effects of this knowledge were dramatic, and the whole area was soon converted to the Karatsu style climbing kiln. As a quick summary, the kilns were much bigger and more efficient to fire. The speed at which pottery could now be created caused a boom in production and interest, and it was then that Furuta Oribe showed a preference for these wares.

Like with Shino wares, the clay body of Oribe wares is still of mogusa white clay. The fundamental differences lie in shape, pattern, and glaze. Oribe wares seem a lot livelier and eccentric. The shapes are deformed, almost nothing is straight or ‘regular’ by any sense of the word. The glaze is usually dark green, sometimes black. The patterns are vivid. I hesitate to say the patterns are detailed, but they pop a lot more than Shino. At a point in my life, I had looked at Oribe ware with confusion and had used the word grotesque to describe the pieces I had seen. In 2020 I saw a documentary, nothing was really … new to me, it was a reiteration of information I knew, but perhaps it was this documentary which changed my mind about all of this, because with this video (as opposed to seeing Oribe ware in a gallery, or book) I had a chance to see Oribe ware in action. Oh it looks great in action. The following video is that documentary, I hope you’ll like it.

Thanks to everyone who read this! On my next trip to Japan I’m going to find an Oribe producer whom I can afford and stock some wares for this site. Wish me luck!