Places · 淡路焼
Awaji
Minpei ware — and its coloured glazes
Awaji ware, also called Minpei ware, comes from Awaji Island in Hyōgo. Recorded Awaji bonsai pots include pieces in specially made yellow, green and brown glazes.
Awaji ware, also called Minpei ware after the man who started it, is pottery from Awaji Island, in Hyōgo. Recorded Awaji bonsai pots include pieces in specially made yellow, green and brown glazes. Some combine the three colours.
00 · At a glance
Awaji, in four points
Kiln
Awaji Island, Hyōgo
Also called Minpei ware, after its founder.
Began
First half of the 19th century
Started by the Awaji merchant Kashū Minpei.
Style
Soft body, bright painting
Recalls the Awata ware of Kyoto.
Bonsai pots
Yellow, green, brown
Some pieces combine the three colours.
01 · はじまり
A merchant turns potter
In the first half of the nineteenth century, a wealthy Awaji merchant, Kashū Minpei, learned pottery from Ogata Shūhei, younger brother of the second Takahashi Dōhachi of Kyoto, and moved from his family’s soy-sauce brewing into ceramics.
The venture ran up heavy debts but carried on with the help of others. The second and third generations kept the work going, and in the late Edo and Meiji periods export helped spread its name.
02 · 作風
Soft clay, clear colour
Awaji ware has a soft body and clear, bright painting, and it recalls the Awata ware of Kyoto. Among its figurines and other ornaments are many highly regarded pieces.
Kyoto’s Awata line is described on our Kyoto page.
03 · 盆器
Bonsai pots in three glazes
Recorded Awaji bonsai pots include pieces in specially made yellow, green and brown glazes. Some combine the three colours.
Three documented examples:
- a pair of small round pots with an outward rim in a yellow glaze, about 6.2 × 3.6 cm and 6.7 × 4.6 cm;
- a green-glazed round pot with an outward rim, about 15.5 × 9.4 cm;
- a set of three round pots in a three-colour glaze with a raised band around the body, about 12.5 × 5.5, 17 × 7.5 and 14.6 × 6.5 cm.
Two of the three documented examples are sets of different sizes.
04 · 緑釉
A green compared with “apple green”
The green pot is described as close in colour to the famous “apple green” of Qing-dynasty Jingdezhen. The comparison is one of colour only.
For this one pot, the commentator suggests that the colour comes from a single coat of a glossy, low-fired glaze.
05 · 落款
Marks
No representative mark is shown in the record we use for this ware, so we do not describe one here.
06 · YAKUMO と淡路焼
Awaji at YAKUMO JAPAN
Our pots are grouped on eBay by kiln and origin.
Browse bonsai pots by kiln and origin on eBay →
Listings ship from Tokyo; destination availability and terms are shown on eBay.
07 · Continue
Keep reading
Glazes, marks and other kilns each have more to say on their own pages.