Photos by Kristen McQuillin

Kristen McQuillin potters about the clay-happy artist town of Tachikui



Tachikui is a true artisans' town. Nestled in the mountains of Hyogo Prefecture about an hour north of Kobe, the tiny village is home to 63 family-owned potteries all practicing the traditional art from their studio homes. A third of the kilns are run by members of the extended Ichino family. Nine government-designated craftsmen live and work in the village.

Driving along the narrow main street, passersby are welcomed by signs and display windows sprouting from the sides of buildings. A glimpse inside reveals artfully arranged pots and vases. Evidence of the artists' lifestyle is everywhere - ranks of unfired earthenware fill most horizontal spaces; bricks, boards and trucks are covered with a fine coating of the local clay. The village is full of the tools of a rural working community with no pretensions to grandeur.

Portrait of a pottery
Seiji Ichino's pottery, Tansen Kama, is much like his neighbors'. His house, set back slightly from the main street which runs through the village, is attached to his workshop. The dogs bask in the sun on the porch listening to the clatter of cooking pots and dreaming of dinner. Inside the workshop, a worker pours red glaze into molded pots.

Ichino's father was a potter and so was his grandfather. But Ichino-san is carrying on a tradition that is older than three generations. Pottery in Tachikui runs back to the twelfth century. Tachikui is the site of Tanba Pottery, one of the "Six Ancient Potteries of Japan."

Ichino-san stands in front of his favorite kiln. It's an old-fashioned, hand-built, wood-fired kiln called a nobori gama (inclined kiln). It burns 800 bundles of wood over three days to produce a fire hot enough to finish the pottery. His nobori gama is heated up three times a year and used only for the most artistic projects. A kiln of the very ancient ana gama (hole kiln) style is available to the community but used infrequently. Pottery sold for daily use is fired in a modern gas kiln which requires only half the time of the wood-fired kiln.

The local clay, mined by the potters in the hills outside the village, is rich in iron which gives Tanba pottery a distinctive, rusty red-brown color. The thick, heavy shapes of traditional "Old Tanba" products are decorated with minimal glazing but the nobori gama is cross vented which allows ash to flow up through the kiln and settle on the pottery to produce flecked greenish-gray highlights and a slightly nubbly texture.

Long and varied history
Over 800 years ago during the Kamakura period, Tanba took its place as what would become known as one of the six ancient potteries. The Sueki (or more simply Sue) technique used here and at Bizen and Shigaraki, the two other Kansai members of the six ancient potteries clan, employs a very high firing temperature and unglazed clay which produces rustic finishes that are slightly shiny and rough to the touch.

In the Edo era at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Tachikui potteries expanded their range of container shapes and simultaneously abandoned the ancient unglazed finishes and adopted a shiny red glaze called akadobe. Contrasting glazes were applied through a bamboo tube to create a layered, dripping effect around the opening of the new-style pots and jars.

Three hundred years later, during the height of the Meiji Period, Western styles were so popular that the existence of the Tanba potteries was threatened. But a resurgence of popularity in the 1920s and the intervention of the government's Cultural Properties Protection Division kept the Tanba traditions from fading into obscurity.

Modern sense, ancient sensibilities
Contemporary works reflect the ancient beginnings of Tanba but blend the artful, historical techniques with fresh verve. In Ichino's small retail outlet at Tansen Kama, there are tea sets, beer glasses, vases, platters and bowls in shades of black, earthy green, and rust.

At a show last year in a gallery in Hiroo, Ichino exhibited asymmetrical incense burners and rough-hewn, solid-shaped vases as well as tableware. The gallery was bedecked with wildflowers and leafy branches imported from the woods and fields of Hyogo Prefecture. Visitors were served coffee in Ichino's handmade mugs. The gallery presented a polished, refined aspect to the rustic work that disengaged it from its earthy, unassuming origins in the bustle and dust of the Tansen Kama studio.

Get your hands dirty
Visitors to Tachikui village can try their hand at making pottery at the Tachikui Sue no Sato, the Tanba Traditional Art Craft Park. The craft workshop is filled with low tables, stools and hand wheels. Six hundred yen buys 400g of clay, enough to make a small bowl or cup, and the fee includes use of a wheel and a quick lesson in the basic techniques.

Novice potters anxiously concentrate on keeping their clay from collapsing, while stealing envious glances at the facile, coordinated manipulation of more advanced participants. No matter whether a lopsided cup or an elegant vase, visitors' creations are dried, glazed, fired and mailed within Japan for an additional fee.

A museum in the park compound gives a history of Tanba pottery and examples of the Old Tanba style pots. To fully appreciate the skill required to make the pots on display, visit the museum after trying the craft workshop. Of course, no tourist attraction is complete without a restaurant and a gift shop and Sue no Sato doesn't disappoint.

Getting there
From Osaka: JR Fukuchiyama line to Aino station, approximately 50 minutes.
From Kobe: By car, 9km from the Sanda Nishi interchange on the Maizuru Expressway. Approximately one hour's drive.

Tachikui Sue no Sato, Tanba Traditional Art Craft Park
Open 9am-5pm Fri-Wed, closed Thur
Admission: Adults JY200, children JY50. Pottery clay: JY600/400g
Access: Bus from JR Fukuchiyama line Aino station to Sue no Sato
Tel: 0795-97-2034