YAKUMO JAPAN

Reference · 形と寸法

Shape & size

A Japanese pot name is not a name, it is a description — four or five terms stacked up, each answering a different question about the pot. This page takes the stack apart, and explains why some pots are given three measurements and some only two.

First · 名の読み方

How to take a pot name apart

Here is a real pot name, with the maker’s name in front and the measurements behind:

祝峯　瑠璃釉　内縁　切立　隅入　長方

Six words, and each one answers a separate question. Who made it (Shukuhō). What is on the surface (ruri glaze). What the rim does (uchibuchi, turned in). What the wall does (kittate, straight up). What the corners do (sumiiri, indented). And what the outline is, seen from above (chōhō, a rectangle).

Read in that order — surface, rim, wall, corners, plan — almost any pot name comes apart cleanly. It is worth knowing that terms from different parts of the pot can be combined rather than excluding each other: a pot can be uchibuchi and kittate at once, because the first describes the lip and the second the side.

One caveat we should state plainly. Formal definitions are not recorded for most of these terms — what is recorded is the convention for writing measurements. The explanations below are drawn from documented usage, and where we are reasoning from usage rather than from a definition, we say so.

The plan

Seen from above

The last word in a pot name is almost always its outline seen from directly above. These seven are the plan names that carry most of the work: get the plan right and the measurements follow. The measurement conventions name one more alongside them, 下方 kahō, measured like seihō; its outline is not established here, so it is named rather than drawn.

Chōhō

長方

rectangle

Seihō

正方

square

Daen

楕円

oval

Maru

丸

round

Rokkaku

六角

hexagon

Mokko

木瓜式

pressed in at four points

Rinka

輪花式

petal-shaped rim
Family
Plan — seen from above
Definition
A round pot indented in four places
Named after
The cross-section of a melon
Measured as
Width × depth × height

Plan · 器型

Mokko

木瓜式

pressed in at four points

A round pot pressed in at four points. It is one of the most distinctive outlines in the repertoire, and it is one of the few form terms that carries a documented definition.

How to tell

  • Four indents, at the middle of each side. That is the whole test. Everything else about the pot can vary.
  • Most recorded pots indent deeply. Bonsai pots generally press the shape in much further than the crest it derives from, so a strongly lobed outline is the common case.
  • A shallow, nearly round one is not a failure. Quite the opposite — because the shape is originally round, a near-round mokko is described as old in manner and elegant, and is recorded as occurring only rarely among early pots.
  • Three measurements. Mokko is grouped with the rectangle and the oval, so it is written width × depth × height.

Often confused with

Its own name in English. 木瓜 is also the word for the Japanese quince, and in English listings we see the crest glossed that way. The documented derivation is something else: the cross-section of a melon, which is why the shape is properly round. That is the derivation followed here. Worth keeping the romaji, mokko, rather than translating at all.

Family
Plan — seen from above
Definition
A petal-shaped or lobed rim
Measured as
Outside diameter × height
Written form
輪花式, not 輪花鉢

Plan · 器型

Rinka

輪花式

petal-shaped rim

A pot with a petal-shaped rim. The form is described as elegant and high in tone, and it is the outline that most rewards being looked at from directly above.

How to tell

  • The petals are in the rim. The body beneath may be plain; it is the lip that carries the shape.
  • Two measurements, not three — rinka is grouped with round and hexagonal pots, so it is given as diameter and height.
  • It can combine with other terms. There are sotobuchi rinka pots, glazed ones and plain ones; the petalled rim is one term in the stack, not the whole description.
  • Big ones are rare. The largest recorded, at 45.5 cm, is singled out as almost certainly a one-off.

Often confused with

Its own spelling. The documented written form is 輪花式 rinka-shiki — the suffix means “in the manner of”. 輪花鉢 rinka-bachi, which is the form we see in listings, means the same pot but is not the recorded form. We use the recorded form here, and the other in our own listings where buyers will be searching.

The corners

A rectangle can meet its own corners in three ways, and pot names use a separate word for each. The distinction is easy to see and easy to miss.

Only the first is common enough to have earned an entry below. All three are in documented use.

Sumiiri

隅入

indented corners

Nadekaku

撫角

corner rounded

Sumikiri

隅切

corner cut off

Family
Corners
Siblings
Nadekaku 撫角 · Sumikiri 隅切
Combines with
Rim, wall and plan terms
Formal definition
None established — read from usage

Corners · 隅

Sumiiri

隅入

indented corners

A rectangle whose corners are indented rather than meeting at a point. It is the commonest corner treatment in recorded pot names. The exact profile varies; the silhouette here is one example, not a definition.

How to tell

  • The corner is taken out, not smoothed. A rounded corner is nadekaku; a corner cut off at an angle is sumikiri. Three different words for three different things.
  • It sits late in the name, just before the plan: …kittate sumiiri chōhō.
  • A corner can be the front. One recorded display has a pot carrying an inscription deliberately turned so that a corner faced the viewer, keeping the inscription off to the sides — and it is described approvingly.
  • All three siblings are attested. Nadekaku and sumikiri also occur in recorded pot names, supporting the three-way distinction used here.

Often confused with

Its two siblings, which is the whole point of having three words. Be aware, though, of the limit on what can be claimed: sumiiri is used constantly and nowhere formally defined. What is above is read off the names and the shapes they label, and we would rather say that than present a reading as a settled definition.

The wall

胴

One term that is easily mistaken for a rim word — because it describes the side of the pot while the words it is usually grouped with describe the lip.

Family
Wall — seen from the side
Means
The side stands vertical
Does not mean
A rim type
Formal definition
None established — read from usage

Wall · 胴 · seen from the side

Kittate

切立

wall standing straight up

A pot whose side goes straight up rather than flaring or curving. It is easily mistaken for a rim word.

How to tell

  • Look at the profile, not the lip. Kittate is about what the side of the pot does between the foot and the rim.
  • It appears beside rim terms, not instead of them. Recorded names include uchibuchi kittate chōhō and uchibuchi kittate sumiiri chōhō — rim and wall in the same name.
  • It is not tied to one kind of pot. Documented on glazed and unglazed pots, Japanese and Chinese pots, and suiban.
  • It says nothing about depth. A kittate pot can be shallow or deep; only the angle of the wall is being described.

Often confused with

The rim terms. In listings we see kittate treated as though it belonged in one set with sotobuchi and uchibuchi, one of three alternatives. Recorded usage does not support that: uchibuchi kittate is written repeatedly as one description of one pot, which is not possible if the two belong to the same set. The reading that fits is the one above — kittate is the wall, the buchi terms are the lip, and they are independent.

How a size is written

Japanese listings give pot sizes as a bare string of numbers, and the number of numbers changes. It is not carelessness: the documented convention uses three measurement patterns.

Knowing them turns an opaque string into a description.

Measurements in centimetres

長方 · 楕円 · 木瓜式

left-to-right × front-to-back × height

three figures

正方 · 下方

one side × height

two figures

丸 · 輪花式 · 六角

outside diameter × height

two figures

So 柴勝均釉外縁隅入長方　16×13.5×5 is a rectangle 16 cm across, 13.5 cm deep and 5 cm tall. And 均釉菊輪胴丸　14×15 is a round pot 14 cm across and 15 cm tall — taller than it is wide, which the two numbers tell you at a glance once you know the rule.

Two numbers is not a missing measurement. It means the plan is one of the forms a single figure describes — seihō, kahō, maru, rinka or rokkaku. The reverse is worth a second look: a pot called chōhō with only two numbers does not follow this convention and needs checking.

The surface

土目

Two words that sit across the whole vocabulary: one for a speckled clay body, one for the plain fact of a pot having no glaze at all.

Family
Surface of the clay
Reads as
Bright points scattered in the body
Caused by
Refractory grit or grog in the clay
Needs
Burnishing before firing

Surface · 土目

Nashiji

梨皮

pear skin · a speckled body

Not a colour and not a shape, but a skin: a clay body scattered with bright points, like the skin of a pear. It attaches to a clay name rather than replacing it.

How to tell

  • It is a prefix. Nashiji-shudei, nashiji-kōdei, nashiji-kakidei, nashiji-kokudei — the pot is still whichever clay it was.
  • Grit alone is not enough. The definition is specific: the surface has to be burnished after forming and before firing for the points to come up as light.
  • Natural or deliberate, both count. The grit may have been in the clay or mixed in on purpose; both are documented, with no preference between them.
  • The points vary. One early pot is described as showing large points sparsely scattered, another as finely speckled throughout.

Often confused with

A grade. In listings we see nashiji taken to rank a pot above plain shidei or shudei. No ranking is recorded here. Nashiji is used as a surface term alongside the clay name, not above it. What is recorded, of one pear-skin shudei pot, is that it has a wit about it that plain shudei does not. That is a different kind of remark.

Family
Surface
Opposite
Yūmono 釉物 — glazed
In pot names
Written as 焼締 or by clay colour
Firing
High-fired stoneware

Surface · 泥物と釉物

Deimono

泥物

unglazed — shown in the clay

The plainest and most useful distinction in the whole vocabulary: a pot shown in its clay, with no glaze. Its opposite is yūmono — a glazed pot.

How to tell

  • It describes a maker’s range. In the documented usage here, deimono describes makers’ ranges rather than individual pot names — this one specialises in unglazed work, that one began unglazed and moved to porcelain.
  • Individual pot names use a different word. In the documented pot names here, individual pots are called 焼締 yakishime, or are named by clay colour — shudei, shidei, udei and the rest.
  • A maker can cross the line, and the date can matter. For one potter the year he took up unglazed work is known, which divides his output in two.

Often confused with

“Bisque” or “unfired-looking”. Unglazed is not underfired: these are high-fired stoneware, which is why the word used for them in pot names is yakishime, fired hard. English listings that call them biscuit or earthenware get the material wrong. The other half of the pair is worth learning at the same time: yūmono, glazed.

Size classes

These describe tree size, not pot measurements. A “shōhin pot” is a pot suited to a shōhin tree — which is where a good deal of confusion comes from when the words are used in a listing.

In listings we see these words used constantly, so they are worth setting out.

Mame

豆

the smallest

Mini

ミニ

very small

Shōhin

小品

small

Chūhin

中品

medium

Daihin

大品

large

No centimetre boundaries are given because no single set is established. The names are shown in the order used here, with the boundaries left open.

Not yet covered

The rim is the obvious gap. 外縁 sotobuchi, 内縁 uchibuchi, 玉縁 tamabuchi, 反縁 sorubuchi and 帯縁 obibuchi occur throughout the documented pot names and, like the form terms above, are rarely formally defined there.

We would rather work them out properly, against pots we can hold, than repeat a definition we cannot check. One such reading — a neat three-way split of rims into sotobuchi, kittate and uchibuchi — is already contradicted by how the words are actually used, as the entry on kittate sets out. That is the kind of thing worth getting right slowly.

Questions

Common questions

How do I read a Japanese bonsai pot name?

Take it apart in the order surface, rim, wall, corners, plan. The last word is almost always the outline seen from directly above, such as chōhō for a rectangle or maru for a round pot.

Why do some pot sizes have three numbers and others two?

The documented convention uses three patterns, in centimetres. Rectangles, ovals and mokko pots are width × depth × height; square pots are one side × height; round, rinka and hexagonal pots are outside diameter × height.

What do mame, shōhin and chūhin mean?

They are size classes for the tree, not pot measurements. A shōhin pot is a pot suited to a shōhin tree. No centimetre boundaries are established for the classes.

Does kittate describe the rim of a pot?

No. Kittate is the wall, a side that goes straight up. The buchi terms, such as sotobuchi and uchibuchi, describe the lip, and the two are independent: a pot can be both uchibuchi and kittate.

Documented, not guessed

Every entry here states what is documented and nothing more. Where a question is unsettled we say so rather than pick a side; where a reading is not confirmed we say that, instead of printing a guess. Where an entry is based on a single observed example rather than a confirmed general pattern, we say so.

Found something here that does not match a pot in your hands? Tell us — corrections are how this gets better.