[Shigaraki ware]
One style of Japanese pottery made around Shigaraki area in Shiga prefecture. It is one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns.
By around the end of the medieval period, potters in Shigaraki were making daily utensils such as jars, vats, and mortars using anagram kilns.
Because the beauty of its worm reddish hiiro(scarlet) flashing, deep green natural ash biidoro glaze and black scorching attracted Sen No Rikyu and other tea masters, Shigaraki got to be known as Tea pottery.
Shigaraki ware was designated by Japanese government as a traditional craft in 1976 and there are over 300 kilns today.
Shigaraki ware is famous for statures of tanuki (a small raccoon dog) that are often settled in front of shops and restaurants as a lucky charm (the word “tanuki” can mean “excel past the competition” in Japanese). The history of Tanuki statures began in Meiji period when the potter Tetsuzo Fujiwara in Shiga made tanuki for the first time.
[Eizan OKUDA]
A Shigraki ware potter. The master/owner of the Shigaraki Eizan kiln in Shigaraki, Shiga prefecture.
The Shigaraki ware Traditional craftsman. A trainer of the Urasenke school of tea ceremonies.
1944 Born in Shigaraki
1963 After graduating High School, he started to create pottery under his father while he study Japanese tea ceremony at the Urasenke school.
1974 Received a tea name (name bestowed upon a tea ceremony practitioner) “Souei”.
1976 Held his first personal exhibition at the Gallery Toen in Shigaraki.
1987 Refined his skills under Kosho SHIMIZU, an elder of Todaiji temple in Nara prefecture who was also known as a calligrapher/potter.
1992 Designated as the traditional craftsman of Shigaraki ware.
1998 Became an adviser of the Urasenke Association, Tanko-kai, Shiga Branch.
As a successor of the historical Shigaraki ware kiln, He has created only tea utensils with traditional methods and techniques and held his personal exhibitions in various cities in Japan since 1976.