Six Ancient Kilns of Japan
Seto, Aichi
Seto ware has been made without interruption in Seto, Aichi Prefecture, for around a thousand years, and the town gave Japanese the word "setomono", still used for ceramics in general. Of the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan, Seto was the only one producing glazed ware in the medieval period. Drawing on the official Six Ancient Kilns materials, this page outlines how Seto ware developed and what sets its clay and glazes apart, along with the Seto-connected potters, exhibitions and shops that megu knows about.
Seto ware traces its roots to the Sanage kilns, which made Sue stoneware from the late 5th century around the Higashiyama hills in present-day Nagoya. By the late 10th century kilns firing ash-glazed ware had appeared in Seto as well. Tradition credits Kato Shirozaemon Kagemasa, who studied pottery in China, with founding the Seto kilns in the Kamakura period, but kiln sites from the earlier Heian period also survive.
Around the end of the 11th century the kilns of the Tokai region stopped glazing for a time and turned to unglazed bowls known as yamajawan. Seto, however, began making glazed ware known as Ko-Seto ("Old Seto") — chiefly four-lugged jars, sake flasks and ewers — from the start of the Kamakura period, becoming the only producer of glazed ceramics in Japan. In the later Kamakura period iron glazes joined ash glazes, and pieces were richly decorated with stamped, sprigged and incised patterns. In the Muromachi period the focus shifted to bowls, small dishes and other wares for everyday use, which circulated nationwide.
Full-scale porcelain production began in the late Edo period, and in the Bunka and Bunsei eras (1804–1830) the Seto sometsuke technique of painting in cobalt blue was established. From the mid-Meiji era production moved to mechanical wheels, transfer printing and coal- and oil-fired kilns, and Seto became the "pottery capital", mass-producing not only tableware but sanitary ware, insulators, architectural ceramics and novelties.
Seto's clay comes from the Seto Group, strata laid down between more than 10 million and about 2 million years ago. Within it, the Seto clay beds are rich in kibushi and gaerome clays — both essential for pottery — and in silica sand, a raw material for glass.
These clays are highly heat-resistant and easy to shape, and because they contain almost no iron they fire to a white body. This beautiful white body, reminiscent of Chinese celadon and white porcelain, is the hallmark of Seto ware, and glazes and painted decoration applied over it have produced an enormous variety of wares. Seto sometsuke — painting in cobalt on the white body under a clear glaze — is one example.
It is said that "there is nothing Seto cannot make": besides Japanese and Western tableware, the town produces novelties, architectural ceramics, insulators and fine ceramics. When you look at a piece, pay attention to the whiteness of the body and to the glazes and painting laid over it.
The Six Ancient Kilns of Japan (Nihon Rokkoyo) is the collective name for six representative pottery-producing areas whose production has continued from the medieval period to the present day: Echizen, Seto, Tokoname, Shigaraki, Tamba and Bizen. The name was coined around 1948 by the ceramics scholar Fujio Koyama, and in 2017 the six were recognised together as a Japan Heritage under the story "Kitto Koisuru Rokkoyo" (roughly, "You're sure to fall for the Six Ancient Kilns: pottery towns born and raised in Japan").
Of the six, only Seto made glazed ware; the other five are known for yakishime — unglazed stoneware fired hard at high temperatures.
25 people. Potters who have exhibited at a shop or gallery in Seto, or whose profile mentions Seto. This is not a complete list of the area's potters.
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