Inbe, the Bizen pottery village 伊部（備前焼の里）
No glaze: the red of Bizen comes from the fire, and no two pieces are ever alike.
Bizen-yaki is one of Japan's ‘six ancient kilns’ (六古窯), with roots going back to the sueki production of the Kofun period; its mature form, that of sturdy everyday objects, developed between the Heian and early Kamakura periods. It uses no glaze: the reddish surface and the unpredictable colour variations (called yōhen, literally ‘kiln transformation’) come solely from oxidation firing and from the position of the piece inside the wood-fired kiln. Prized by the tea masters of Sakai and Kyoto as early as the Momoyama period, it was designated a traditional craft by the Ministry of Industry in 1982.
Okayama
Imbe
