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Outing: Hosokawa Bizen-yaki Pottery studio

Bizen yaki kiln

Along our adventures, we went to the notable pottery town of Bizen to visit master potter Hosokawa-san (you may recall he was commissioned to create 142 custom sake cups for our wedding party). He was having a studio day as part of some village campaign. They are great folks and have a son around Ichiro’s age that he’s yet to meet.

Note that Bizen is one of six historic ceramic centres in Japan noted for its no glaze, multi-day, wood-fired style. The pots are often nested within each other and stuffed with straw which, along with the intense heat, creates the unique colouring and patterns on the rather rustic and rugged looking ceramic. The clay fires so hard that even a relatively thin bowl is quite strong.

Various ceramics for sale were set up in the front of the studio and we bought a couple of gifts… Of course we always want to keep for ourselves but you know how goes.

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