Tradition
Bizen
Japan · 12th century – present
No glaze. Just earth and fire, arguing for weeks.
Bizen potters fire their kilns for two weeks straight—then wait to see what the fire decided.
Bizen is the purest expression of wood-firing: no glaze, no decoration, just clay and fire. One of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, Bizen has produced unglazed stoneware since the Kamakura period. Bizen's magic is in the kiln effects: hidasuki (red lightning-bolt patterns from straw), goma (sesame-seed spots where ash landed), sangiri (gray effects from pieces buried in embers). Each firing takes two weeks of continuous stoking, burning 10-15 tons of pine.
How long would you fire a kiln if you trusted the process?
Techniques
- Wood firing
- Unglazed stoneware
- Kiln effects
- Extended firing