What We See In The White of HANASAKA 【Article 1】

The Possibility of Sustainability in Traditional Craft

Delicate details and heavy brilliance in coloring are characteristics of Kutani ware. However, it is not widely known that there are kilns that bake the base ware that serves as the canvas of this craft. Taniguchi Seidosho, which manufactures Kutani clay from Hanasaka pottery stone is challenging the possibilities of this geographically specific material by utilizing the residual clay extracted from the stone. We will explore the allure of "HANASAKA" the brand, which discovers new possibilities in Kutani ware.

The Trinity of Clay, Pottery, and Coloring

The birthplace of Kutani ware, Kutani Village in the Enuma District, Kaga Province has been designated as Ishikawa Prefecture’s Intangible Cultural Property. This area corresponds to the current Kutani Village, Yamanaka Town, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture. The Kaga domain, which ruled the present-day Kanazawa region, invited master craftsmen and cultural figures from all over the country as a measure to encourage culture and to rule the world through arts and crafts, in contrast to the Tokugawa family, who had unified the country through military power. In the early Edo period, around 1655, Saijiro Goto, who had studied pottery in Arita, Saga Prefecture, opened a kiln in Kutani Village at the request of the Kaga Clan. However, the history of this first kiln ended only after a few decades, and the Kutani ware from that era are referred to as “Old Kutani” (Ko Kutani). The current day Kutani ware was revived at the Kasugayama Kiln in Kanazawa around 1800. These were referred to as “Revived Kutani'' and produced primarily from a raw material called “Hanasaka Pottery Stone'' which was excavated from the Hanasaka Village in Komatsu City.

Kutani ware is produced through three main steps: clay preparation, molding, and painting. It is unique in that each step of the process is assigned its own separate specialized craftsman or artists. This was due to post Meiji Period Japanism creating a growing demand for Kutani ware, heightening the craft to the world's top exported ceramic ware, and therefore the division of labor was necessary and implemented to increase efficiency and specialization. Kutani ware flourished as an industry and was thus mass-produced for the export market. The kilns that specialize in overglaze painting, and the kilns that handcraft the white clay that serves as the canvas on the potter's wheel, and the clay mills that produce the clay that serves as the material, have worked in unison, passing down the craft generationally creating the Kutani ware of today. Kutani ware has been a highly valued craft for its intricate details and vivid coloring. To this day, the craftsmen and artists dedicate themselves to improving their skills to continue to elevate the quality of their pieces.

Hanasaka pottery stone mining site. The yellowish rock surface can be seen.

The various types of Kutani ware and its history is explained in detail.

Koichi Taniguchi explaining the history at “CERABO KUTANI”.

“Hanasaka Pottery Stone” Supports Kutani

Today, only two clay mills remain in the Kutani ware production area. At one of them which is named Taniguchi Seidosho, Koichi Taniguchi who is the third-generation successor leads the preparation of the soil, transforming it to clay. Hanasaka pottery stone contains a high level of iron, resulting in beautiful white porcelain with a bluish tint once fired. The material has combined properties of high temperature resistance, allowing for the pieces to maintain its shape, as well as a moderate tenacity, making it suitable for molding on a potting wheel and complex forms.

Soil preparation begins with excavation work at the quarry, marking the inception of the multi phased process. The mined Hanasaka pottery stone is ground repeatedly for approximately 7 hours using an equipment called the "stamper”. The dense particles remain as pebbles, while the softer portions are mixed with water, and turned into finer stone powder by levigation. The impurities are removed through a process called elutriation (sui-hi) in which minerals are separated by gravity. By dehydrating the highest quality soil and blending it with a unique intentional mixture of feldspar and silica stone, a clay suitable for Kutani ware is finally created.

"Pottery stone naturally contains undesirable substances of which feldspar and silica are actually some of. If left in its natural state, the ingredients will not stabilize and the desired form or color cannot be sustained, resulting in inconsistent quality. Because of this, mainly for the potter’s wheel we use traditional methods to make high-quality clay. Visitors can observe this process at The Kutani Ceramic Laboratory (also known as CERABO KUTANI), a Kutani ware cultural facility that includes a clay-making factory, gallery, and offers hands-on workshops. Because the Taniguchi Clay Mill’s factory is operated within this facility, visitors can observe up close the process of producing high-quality porcelain clay."

Hanasaka potter's stone in its raw state. More impurities can be observed in the stone to the left.

The potter’s stone is crushed with a “stamper” until it is turned to powder.

The sedimentation and gravity separation can be seen.

A New Wind in Kutani

Mr. Taniguchi worked in sales for an advertising agency and as an editor for a publishing company in the Hokuriku area. When he decided to succeed the clay mill started by his grandfather, he says he felt it may be difficult to continue the business by making clay alone. My hometown was known for producing Kutani ware, and I always viewed the creating of the base material for this craft as an important job, so I had always had an interest. The timing was right, and role was meaningful. I had always wanted to be involved in the process of this craft. However, viewing the industry from the outside, I felt like there were many challenges to be address, or shall I say opportunities to do more. That is when I requested to my father that I would like to spend half of the week working at the clay mill studying the process, and the other half developing my own brand. I felt a sense of crisis that we may not be able to make a living just by preparing the soil and producing the clay, and that we needed to spread more awareness of the appeal and depth of Kutani ware. To begin with, it is not widely known that the material used for Kutani ware is Hanasaka clay. Therefor I decided to launch the brand HANASAKA to create an awareness and buzz of a traditional clay mill doing something innovative and interesting. The reality was, that even great artisan potter wheel master’s had never produced a fully finished product, and their position has always somewhat been like a subcontractor waiting for orders to come in. I began to want to highlight the beautiful forms and gentle textures of the natural clay, and to create a new style of Kutani ware that was chic and casual, without the embellishments of the glossy overglaze painting.

“There is a lot that I have learned through the process of developing my own brand.”

Potting clay individually refined for each kiln and artist.

This is a factory where materials can be mixed in a mill. This is the strength of Taniguchi Seidosho.

Not only the people, but the equipment has supported Kutani ware for many years.

The Reality of the 40% Waste

This is how Taniguchi launched HANASAKA in 2013. While maintaining soil/clay preparation as their primary operations, he began development of various products. However, in 2017 his father who was the second-generation successor passed away, forcing him to take a break for three years from product development and sales of the new brand. During this time, although his primary focus was on the main mill operations, there was something constantly in the back of his mind. It was the reality of the large amount of residual soil that is removed and disposed as impurities during the clay making process. It is said that as much as 40% of the quarried Hanasaka pottery stone during the clay production process was normally disposed at a cost as industrial waste.

“Soil, like many other natural resources cannot be dug up infinitely. Moreover, if we use the high-quality soil first, the percentage of residual soil will continue to increase, and one day we will run out of Hanasaka pottery clay. Not only from an environmental perspective, but as a clay manufacturer, I had the revelation that if we do not address this issue, the mere existence of the Kutani ware culture was at risk.”

This realization led him to develop a glaze made from the waste of Hanasaka pottery stone. The pottery stone was divided into two parts, the clay component and the glaze component, then fired back together into one single piece. It was an ingenious Kutani ware that could only have been produced by a clay manufacture. They called it “Une” (pronounced: yun-nu). A new Kutani ware series with a gentle texture far from the traditional image of Kutani ware was born.

Residual Hanasaka ceramic stone piled up outside the factory.

A diagram of how “Une” came to be.

The comforting look of the soft milky white color and gentle texture.