Shino and Oribe: The Mino Wares of the Momoyama Tea World
In the late sixteenth century, the kilns of Mino, in present-day Gifu prefecture, produced a burst of ceramics unlike anything made before in Japan. They were created for the tea gatherings of the Momoyama period, when warlords and merchants competed in taste, and they remain at the centre of Japanese ceramic connoisseurship.
Shino: the white glaze
Shino is a stoneware covered in a thick glaze made largely of feldspar. In firing, the glaze becomes soft white, pitted with tiny holes, and often blushes orange or red where it thins at the rim. It was the first white-glazed ware made in Japan, and one of only two Japanese-made tea bowls designated a National Treasure is a Shino bowl known as Unohanagaki.
- E-Shino. Decorated Shino, with simple designs of grasses, reeds or bridges brushed in iron oxide under the glaze.
- Nezumi Shino. Grey Shino, where the piece is first coated in an iron-rich slip, the design scratched through, and then glazed. The slip fires grey and the scratched lines white.
- Aka Shino. Red Shino, where the iron slip fires to a warm red.
- Muji Shino. Plain Shino, without decoration.
Oribe: the green glaze
Oribe ware takes its name from Furuta Oribe (1544–1615), a warrior and tea master who succeeded Sen no Rikyū as the leading arbiter of taste. Where Rikyū prized restraint, Oribe favoured movement and surprise. The ware named after him is known for its translucent copper green glaze, often applied to only part of a piece, with the rest painted in iron with geometric patterns, lattices or everyday motifs.
Oribe forms are deliberately irregular. Tea bowls may be pushed into the asymmetric shape called kutsu-gata, a shoe, and dishes are made in fans, squares and other unexpected outlines. Much of this was made possible by the multi-chambered climbing kiln introduced to Mino around the start of the seventeenth century.
Yellow and black Mino
Mino also produced Ki-Seto, yellow Seto, with a soft, matt yellow glaze and incised flowers touched with green, and Setoguro, black Seto, tea bowls pulled from the kiln mid-firing to fix a deep black.
Rediscovery
For centuries Shino was believed to have been made in Seto. In 1930 the potter Arakawa Toyozō found Shino shards at an old kiln site at Mutabora in Mino, proving its true origin. He spent the rest of his life reviving the ware and was designated a Living National Treasure for Shino and Setoguro in 1955. Suzuki Osamu later received the same honour for Shino. Many fine potters work in the tradition today.
Collecting Mino wares
- Momoyama pieces are rare and mostly in museums and established collections. Most pieces you will meet are Edo period, Meiji or modern.
- Modern works by recognised potters come in a signed, sealed box. Compare the seal on the foot with the box.
- Shino glaze is porous and stains with use. Many collectors treasure that change; others prefer a clean surface. Ask for clear photographs of the inside.
- Glaze crawling and pitting are features, not faults. Chips and cracks are another matter.