refers to

Japanese pottery , is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptionally ...

that was produced in

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

around the towns of Toki and Minokamo in

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

, central

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

History

The history of

in the Toki area appears to have started more than 1,300 years ago. Some

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

traces and

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

pieces, which are in the 7th-century style, have been recovered within the territory of the city. Craftsmen around the Seto area fled during wars before the

Azuchi–Momoyama period The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600. After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobuna ...

(1568–1614) and settled in the region. They were under the protection of the lords of Toki. The pottery was founded by Katō Yosabei, whose sons also started other potteries in the area. The technical merit and artistic impression reached new heights when crockery for

tea ceremony An East Asian tea ceremony, or ''Chádào'' (), or ''Dado'' ( ko, 다도 (茶道)), is a ceremonially ritualized form of making tea (茶 ''cha'') practiced in East Asia by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The tea ceremony (), literally transla ...

had been produced there. Under the guidance of lord

Furuta Oribe , whose birth name was , was a daimyō and celebrated master of the Japanese tea ceremony. He was originally a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Biography His teacher in the tea ceremony was Sen no Rikyū. He became the foremost ...

, the

Oribe ware Oribe ware (also known as 織部焼 Oribe-yaki) is a style of Japanese pottery that first appeared in the sixteenth century. It is a type of Japanese stoneware recognized by its freely-applied glaze as well as its dramatic visual departure from t ...

developed as a variation of it. ''

Daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' feudal lords highly admired such tea vessels, bowls, pots and utensils with unique styles of ''oribe''. More emphasis has been put on daily necessities since the early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

(1603–1867). Certain Mino kilns also produced

Ofukei ware , also spelled ''Ofuke'', refers to a type of Japanese pottery that was originally produced in Nagoya, central Japan. History During the Kan'ei era (1624–44), the first lord of Owari Tokugawa Yoshinao (1601–1650) had a kiln constructed ...

. With the introduction of

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

introduced in the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

(1868–1912), Mino ware became widely available. Ceramics from the Mino region amount to around 50% of Japanese pottery produced.

Styles

Throughout the centuries, four styles of Mino were developed that differ from each other in appearance. These have strong connections to tea ceremony: * Ki-Seto ware: style is yellow. * Setoguro ware: style is black. *

Shino ware is Japanese pottery, usually stoneware, originally from Mino Province, in present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It emerged in the 16th century, but the use of shino glaze is now widespread, both in Japan and abroad. It is identified by thick whi ...

: style is often grey with autumn grasses in white as a prominent theme. This result is achieved by incising through a slip of iron oxide and covering with feldspar glaze. In the oven, the fire would bring out variations in colour through the uneven glaze. Sub-styles are ''Muji-Shino'', ''E-Shino'', ''Beni-Shino'', ''Aka-Shino'', and ''Nezumi-Shino''. *

: style is green and black. Sub-styles are ''Ao-Oribe'', ''So-Oribe'', ''Aka-Oribe'', ''Narumi-Oribe'', ''Shino-Oribe'', and ''Kuro-Oribe''.https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/df/80/0c/df800c5f070c9b88f73b80d383c9c11f.jpg

References

External links

MUSUBI KILN
* http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/mino-momoyama-jt.html * http://www.japanpotterynet.com/en/user_data/ceramics128.php Japanese pottery Culture in Gifu Prefecture {{japan-art-stub