Large Shigaraki Bowl
Item number: T-3157Size: H 3.9" x D 17.5" (9.8 x 44.5 cm)
Age: 16th century
Stoneware with natural ash glaze
Fitted kiri-wood box inscribed: »Old Shigaraki [kiln], large and wide bowl,« Ko-Shigaraki Ōhirabachi 古信楽大平鉢, with unidentified connoisseur’s seal
Exhibited: Hakone Museum Shigaraki Exhibition and at another exhibition.
Published: Exhibition catalog from Hakone Museum and another (illustration attached to storage box)
Like the storage jar in this catalogue, this stoneware bowl also comes from the Shigaraki region in modern-day Shiga Prefecture, southeast of Kyoto. The area has housed potters for a millennium and remains an active area for ceramic production to the present-day.
This unusual large bowl has a fascinating surface that is scarred with pits, cracks, and protruding stones. The clay was clearly rough and largely unrefined: stones and minerals protrude with the Shigaraki trademark ingredient of partially melted feldspar. We can see that another piece of pottery was very close to the inside of the bowl during firing, as the proximity of that object left that part of the bowl unglazed.
The surface of the bowl, with its warm, glowing mosaic of earth tones and textures presents the viewer with an exciting series of spontaneous events. A warm palette of colors covers the surface of the bowl, from dark browns and reds to translucent deep greens. It is possible to see the places where the natural ash glaze settled and also the direction the fire took as the flames fanned over the surface. It is, in fact, possible to recreate the firing, step-by-step, by reading the events recorded on the surface of the bowl.
It is also possible to see the workings of a potter’s wheel, as we see the grooves throughout the surface, where the wheel and the potter’s hands touched the rough material. It was clearly difficult to control the process, due to the rough clay and its mineral impurities, including the forming of an edge with a fine outer lip. Yet the potter did not entirely rely on the wheel: a look on the underside of the bowl reveals the numerous impressions of finger marks that the potter left on the object, over four hundred years ago.
It is interesting to note that at first look, the shape and colors are reminiscent of some Bizen wares.1 The clay, however, is typical of Shigaraki, not Bizen. Similar Shigaraki ware can be seen in a number of museums and publications.2 This bowl is unusually large and well formed, however, making it one of the best specimens of its type.
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