Iga Yaki

Beauty made by fire

Iga Yaki is harder and a little heavier than its neighbour Shigaraki. Its charm comes from yohen, the changes the kiln makes: biidoro, a glassy glaze that forms when wood ash melts on the surface, scorch marks, and warm fire colours. Its forms are powerful too. It is made in Iga and Nabari in Mie, as tea ware, vases, tableware and yukihira pans.

Fired again and again

Clay is prepared by crushing it dry and by mixing it with water and sieving, then the two are combined. Pieces are thrown, coiled or built from slabs, decorated with cloth or spatula marks, and fired. Iga clay can take great heat and is very sticky, so pieces can go back into the kiln many times.

• Yakishime: unglazed, high-fired clay.
• Biidoro: glassy green glaze made by falling ash.
• Broken beauty: spatula marks, cracks and ear handles that break the neat form on purpose.
• Hi-iro and koge: fire colours and scorch marks.

A tea master's favourite

Pottery in Iga goes back to the late 7th and 8th centuries, with seed jars for farming and tiles for temples. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period, Iga Ueno's lord was a man of tea and ceramics, and Iga's name spread across Japan as tea ware. In the Edo period, the tea master Kobori Enshu guided the making of thinner Enshu Iga pieces.