Japanese & Oriental Ceramic. Hazel H. Gorham
method of packing and firing pottery kilns. At the top; the nobori gania, below; an oh gama.
The ana gama or cave type kilns were wasteful of fuel and in this connection there is a story which is doubly interesting, first for its bearing on the historical development of ceramic kilns and secondly for the light it sheds upon the importance of the ceramic industry in Japan. During the time of Ogimachi Tenno, who reigned from 1557 to 1586, a certain Kato Kagenobu was a master potter at Kujiri of the Seto group of kilns. He was so jealous of his own secrets of pottery making that he built a fence about his kiln to keep visitors out. Yet when he learned that the type of kiln in use at Seto, the old cave type kiln (ana gama), had been superceeded by an improved form elsewhere, he left Seto and journeyed to Kyushu to learn how to build such kilns. On this visit he evidently learned more than just how to build an improved type of kiln for on his return to Seto he began to make glazed wares. He made articles glazed with a thick soft white glaze which he presented to Emperor Ogimachi. These things so pleased the Emperor that he granted Kagenobu the title of Governor of Chikugo and raised him to Fifth Court Rank. It is well to keep in mind that this was the time of greatest popularity for the cult of cha no yu (ceremonial serving of tea) which so occupied the time and attention of the intelligentia of that day and for the proper performance of which pottery articles were so necessary.
The new type of kiln of which Kagenobu learned was the nobori gama (or climbing kilns). It consisted of series of four or five ana gama set one above the other up the slope of a hill and connected. Fire was built in a fire box attached to the lowest kiln and the smoke and some heat found its way up through the kilns and eventually out at a hole in the upper end of the topmost kiln. To fire a batch of pottery all the chambers were filled with articles of various sizes. Fire was applied to the lowest only and after the things in that chamber had been fired sufficiently that chamber was closed off. Meanwhile, the second chamber had become heated to a certain extent; this was then fired just as if it were an independent kiln and when the articles in it were baked this chamber was closed off and the third chamber was in its turn fired. This continued on to the end of the series. It is said that at times as many as fifty chambers were connected and fired in this manner. Undoubtedly this method constituted a great saving of fuel. These kilns in series are thought to have been influenced by the Korean type of kilns which were built in a series on flat ground. According to some scholars they are simply a development of the primitive ana gama, and it is certain that the two types existed simultaneously during the Momoyama Period (1574-1602). The kilns at first known as cave kilns (ana gama) came to be called old kilns (ko gama) or round kilns (maru gama) when built in series up the slope of a hill, large kilns (oh gama) when built singly.
The Korean kilns-in-series were called split-bamboo type kilns (wari take gama) and were introduced first at Karatsu. Thus we have ko gama, maru gama, and wari take gama all meaning kilns built in series and to these must be added the name nobori gama, when built on a hill, and finally because of a fancied resemblance to baby crabs on a skewer, "baby crab kilns" (kani ko gama).
Since the re-opening of Japan to international intercourse the development of Japanese ceramics has kept pace with developments elsewhere in the world. Beginning with Dr. A. Wagner, a German chemical expert who came here in the early part of the Meiji Period, 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