Travel Tip

Bizen Ware Festival

Cultural News August 2007 Issue

Bizen ware

By John Thomas Wells

   The annual Bizen Ware Festival will be held in Bizen City, Okayama prefecture, on October 20 and 21. Bizen ware has been one of the major potteries in Japan for about 1500 years. Bizen was the most popular ceramic in Japan throughout the Muromachi (1336-1573) and Momoyama (1573-1600) periods. Bizen is a paramount example of Japanese aesthetics such as wabisabi “the taste for the simple and quiet.”

    The great Momoyama period icons Sen no Rikyu (most renowned tea ceremony master in history) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (great daimyo) loved, protected, and nurtured it.

    The wares are put in the kiln unglazed but acquire a natural ash glaze and subdued shadings from the 10-15 day long firing. Common vessels made throughout history include all kinds of tea ceremony wares, vases, giant water vessels, seed storage vessels, sake flasks and cups, plates, figurines, etc. 

    The two day festival features works of over 200 Bizen ware potters, wheel throwing demonstrations, a “try your hand at the wheel” room, transportation to the majestic Shizutani school (said to be the world’s oldest public school building still standing), founded around 1670 and located in a quiet serene mountain valley, and many other attractions.

    The Bizen ware festival is held at and around Imbe train station, a short rail or auto ride from Okayama, and is within walking distance of the giant Momoyama period kiln ruins and also the Bizen Ware Museum.

    During Festival days a wide variety of items, from small souvenirs to the finest of flower vases and tea ceramics are available at special discount prices, or simply on display for viewer enjoyment. For more information, visit  www.touyuukai.jp.

    John Thomas Wells is a potter living in Bizen, Japan.