Bizen Ware
Designated as Traditional Crafts since 1982 November.
Bizen wares are one of traditional Japanese pottery formed by good local clay and baked without any decorations and painting so that they look soil-taste on the surface. Every single artwork has different taste and own unique feature, respectively because the taste on the surface changes depends on their arrangement in kilns and deployment of woods as fire source. Bizen wares are made by baking with high temperature fire 1000~ ℃ (1800~ F) fire for 7days to 10days, so the ware is significant hardness. No two things are exactly the same.
Bizen ware was traditionally produced in the village of Bizen province which is current Okayama Pref. Bizen is one of the oldest six kilns, and they have been in production since Heian era (794-1185). At the end of the Muromachi era (1392 - 1573), simple, primitive and undecorated design of the wares become popular for people of tea ceremony. As a result, Bizen ware is well-known not only as tea cup, but other tea implementations.
