Japanese Pottery & Ceramics

About this book

Five representative wares in the classic pottery primer — or two hundred kilns, styles and wares in one guide? Japanese Pottery & Ceramics covers 200 entries in a single uniform format: every entry gives the Kiln & Region, the Origins, How to Recognise it in a shop, and Buying & Experience — where to buy, what to pay attention to, and how the ware lives in use.

The Six Ancient Kilns split into their sub-styles (Bizen alone becomes five entries: hidasuki straw-fire, sangiri kiln shadow, goma ash and more). The porcelain heartlands of Hizen and Kutani, kiln by kiln and painting school by painting school. Tea ceramics — Raku, Hagi, Karatsu and the Enshu kilns — written from the guest's side of the bowl. Folk kilns from Okinawa to Hokkaido, with two buying routes. And a final part organised by what you see: glazes, kiln types, ware types and the modern studio kilns making Japanese pottery now.

A front chapter teaches the four checks that authenticate any pot — clay, glaze, foot, mark — and an honest section covers seconds, fakes and export ware. No photographs: the recognition fields are written for the hand and eye instead, because weight, foot and glaze break are checks a photograph cannot make for you.

Companion to Japanese Traditional Crafts (the five-material survey): that book covered pottery in 40 overview entries; this is the single-subject deep dive, every entry written fresh at kiln and sub-style depth.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.