Mashiko_Pottery_Japan

益子燒 Mashiko Pottery

- Beauty in Functionality -

History of the Mashiko Pottery is said to have started in the late Edo period(1603-1868).

A potter, whose name was Keizaburo Otsuka, built a kiln in Mashiko after learning pottery in Kasama then.
Since then, Mashiko began producing pottery necessary for daily life in Japan, such as bowls, pots for water and teapots. Mashiko became one of the leading pottery regions in Japan due to its excellent clay and relatively close location to the big Tokyo market.
In 1924, Mr. Shoji Hamada came to settle in Mashiko. He promoted the ‘Mingei’ Folk Crafts Movement with Mr. Soetsu Yanagi, who recognized ‘Yo no Bi’ or ‘beauty in Everyday Crafts’ strongly while influencing the other craftsmen living in Mashiko. Gradually people began to see pottery as ‘works of art’ as well as tools.
Today, there are about 400 kilns and 50 pottery shops.
Many potters, from freshmen to experts, set up their own kilns and create pottery in their own way.
Pottery Fairs have been held in spring and fall.

Mashiko-yaki (pottery) is a Japanese pottery which has been nationally designated as a traditional Japanese craft, born from the fusion of locally resourced Mashiko clay and the art of glazing.

In 1924, Living National Treasure Shoji Hamada began creating Mashiko-yaki, founded on the principles of the “Mingei (national art) movement”, expressing the world of “living beauty” that exists in daily life.

With this principle, the “Mashiko-yaki brand” became widely known not only in Japan but also in Britain and America.

This ideology continues today and the work born from the various design developments are loved by people all around the world.

In 1920, Shoji Hamada, the principle reviver of Mashiko-yaki, travelled with Bernard Leach to St. Ives in Britain and began to create work.

The following year he worked with weaver and dyer Ethel Mairet and sculptor Eric Gill in Ditchling, which had a huge impact on his life.

The village while not far from London, was a calm and peaceful place where craftsmen and designers could live and work under their own inspiration in a healthy and free lifestyle.

On the one hand Hamada could develop his work with many world class designers such as Charles Eames.

A lounge chair personally gifted by Eames can be found in Hamada's family home, which he relocated to Mashiko.

He was also a modernist with a fresh outlook who would line his table with British foods such as pasties and boiled ham, and would regularly drink Wilkinson carbonated water instead of beer.
In this way, it could be said that the concept of beauty born from combining eating habits, cutting edge designs and lifestyle, has its origins from Hamada’s experiences in Britain.

Photo：©濵田窯

Create the shape using a potter's wheel, build form and turn the hand.

When you have created the shape, make patterns; bring the white clay to life with brush strokes, and with Hakeme (brush mark) techniques for applying brush strokes, and by skilfully pouring the traditional Mashiko glaze using a ladle.

Then use Gosu (absolite) to bring out blues, Tessa (iron sands) and Dou (copper) to bring out shades of brown to black to decorate the pottery.

Mashiko-yaki also has many different types of glazes. Unique styles can be expressed using Kakiyu (Kaki glazes) and Kuroyu (black glazes) ,which use Mashiko produced Ashinumaishi (Ashinuma stone) as their base, and Nukajiroyu (bran-white glazes) made from straw, wood and bran ash, and Seijiyu (celadon glazes),

Exhibition&Event

「和樂展益子燒＋」	2019.10.23＞11.4 SOGO HK CWB 10F POP UP AREA 555 Hennessy Road,Causeway Bay, HK Following the exhibition at PMQ held in September, SOGO HK will exhibit and sell Mashiko and artists related to Mashiko. There are 13 artist. You can see a variety of works. Please take a look! ARTIST LIST 伊藤丈浩 (Takehiro Ito)、えきのり子（Noriko Eki）、岡本芳久(Yoshihisa Okamoto)、笠原良子 (Yoshiko Kasahara)、宮田竜司 (Ryuji Miyata)、生形由香 (Yuka Ubukata)、川崎萌 (Moe Kawasaki)、大塚一弘 (Kazuhiro Otsuka)、大塚雅淑 (Masayoshi Otsuka)、竹下鹿丸 (Shikamaru Takeshita)、幸義明 (Yoshiaki Yuki)、小林政美 (Masami Kobayashi)、苧坂恒治 (Koji Usaka)
Mashiko Pottery Exhibition(益子燒)　※完結	2019.9.6 >29 11:30 >19:00 Location: ARTS & CRAFTS STUDIO, H401, 4/F., Block B, PMQ 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong After a year of preparation, we are proud to announce that we will be holding a “Mashiko Pottery Exhibition” at ARTS & CRAFTS STUDIO, PMQ from 6 September to 29 September 2019. Around 300 Mashiko Pottery products will be exhibited at our event and they will be available for sale. Mashiko Pottery is designated as “National Traditional Craft” and has been very popular in Japan since 1980. In recent years, Mashiko Pottery products have received great attention in the UK, New York and Taiwan.
Reception party　※完結	2019.9.6 (Friday) 16:30 > 18:30 Location: ARTS & CRAFTS STUDIO, H401, 4/F., Block B, PMQ To celebrate the opening of “Mashiko Pottery Exhibition”, we will be holding an opening party at ARTS & CRAFTS STUDIO, PMQ from 16:30pm to 18:30pm on 6 September. Japanese sake and wine from Tochigi Prefecture, non-alcoholic drinks and light snacks will be provided at our party. 5 Mashiko potters, Mr.Takehiro ITO, Ms.Yoshiko IMAI, Mr.　Masakatsu KURIYA, Mr.Masayoshi OTSUKA, Mr.Ryuji MIYATA from Japan will attend our party and you will be able to engage in conversations with them. On that day, we will give out Mashiko sake cups to our first 30 guests! Please mark your calendar and save the date for our opening party! Don’t forget to bring your friends along!
MASHIKO POTTERY GALLERY TALK & DEMONSTRATION　※完結	2019.9.7 (Saturday) Gallery Talk: 14:30 - 15:30 (Doors　will be opened at 14:00pm) Wheel Throwing Demonstration: 16:00 - 17:00 Location: HUB PMQ, 7/F., Block A, PMQ Have you ever heard of Mashiko Pottery? Come join our Gallery Talk on 7 September and find out more about Mashiko Pottery! 5 Mashiko Potters from Japan will give a talk on Mashiko Pottery and demonstrate how to make Mashiko Pottery at HUB PMQ ※An interpreter will be there to interpret everything into Cantonese. ※Seats are limited, please register as soon as possible! Apply from August 17th!

Since we have reached the capacity, we will close the application for the 9/7 event.

Thank you for many applications.

Artists

10 Mashiko Potters

Takehiro Ito
伊藤丈浩

Yuka Ubukata
生形由香

Noriko Eki
えきのり子

Kazuhiro Otsuka
大塚一弘

Masayoshi Otsuka
大塚雅淑

Yoshihisa Okamoto
岡本芳久

Yoshiko Kasahara
笠原良子

Moe Kawasaki
川崎萌

Shikamaru Takeshita
竹下鹿丸

Ryuji Miyata
宮田竜司

Access

SOGO HK　CWB 10F POP UP AREA

SOGO HK

Location

555 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, HK

https://www.sogo.com.hk

益子燒