The pot, in words

Start here. The four things to read on a Japanese bonsai pot — shape, clay or glaze, size and mark — with a way into each page of this reference.

Guide

Who made your pot. Potters and workshops, with the marks they used, what each mark settles and what it leaves open.

Thirty published

Key clay and glaze terms used for bonsai pots, from shudei to namako — what each one is, how to recognise it, and which ones are routinely mistaken for each other.

Fourteen colours

Marks and signatures found on the base, the painted face and elsewhere. Grouped by how many characters there are, so you can find a mark you cannot read — with what each one settles, and what it does not.

Thirty makers

How a Japanese pot name comes apart into plan, rim, wall and corners — and why some pots are given three measurements and others only two.

Seven plans, three corners

The kilns, workshops and places connected with the makers presented here — including Tokoname, Mino, Kyoto and Echizen — and how some kiln names relate to individual makers.

By place

Where Japanese ceramics became setomono: Seto’s kilns from ancient times to the porcelain revival of 1807, the Owari blue-and-white pots, and the dealers, kilns and painters behind Seto bonsai pots.

Places

From storage jars to the bonsai pot: one of Japan’s Six Old Kilns, the Chinese teapot of 1878, and the clays, kilns and makers behind Tokoname bonsai pots.

Places

Colour on porcelain, lost and found again: the disputed story of Ko-Kutani, a century of silence, the revival from 1807, gold and colour, and what a Kutani mark can and cannot tell you.

Places

Bare clay, from farm jars to the bonsai pot: one of the Six Old Kilns, the long climbing kilns of Inbe, the tea room, the modern revival, and what “Inbe” means.

Places

A name on a stamp, from teapots to the bonsai pot: a merchant’s kiln near Kuwana, its revivals, red-painted pots, and what a Banko mark can and cannot tell you.

Places

Colour, blue and the capital’s kilns, from Ninsei to the bonsai pot: the masters who followed, Awata and Kiyomizu, orchid pots in the Ninsei manner, export pieces and tiny painted pots.

Places

White, black and gold, from kilns opened by Korean potters to bonsai pots: white and black Satsuma, the gold that went abroad, incense burners turned into pots, and what a Satsuma mark can tell you.

Places

A domain’s own porcelain, and its rare recorded bonsai pots: the Saga domain’s kiln within the Imari tradition, strict inspection, blue, celadon and colour.

Places

Porcelain named for a port, from gilded plant pots to tiny blue ones: Arita porcelain, the export trade, blue, red and gold, and the saihimono pots.

Places

A pottery named after its hill, and the Meiji-era record of its glazed bonsai pots: tea wares near Nara, Hagi and Kōchi glazes, and marks that were copied.

Places

A lord’s garden kiln, and its bright-glazed orchid and tree pots: the Kishū Tokugawa kiln, noted potters invited to guide its work, Kōchi-style glazes and marks.

Places

Famous for tea wares, with very few bonsai pots in the source used here: old Hizen pottery, beginnings at Kishidake, rough iron-rich clay, and five recorded entries.

Places

Kotō ware of Hikone, in Ōmi, and the bonsai pot: a private kiln taken over by the domain, noted potters invited, copies of wares from across Japan, and why a Kotō pot is hard to place.

Places

Takatori ware of Chikuzen and the bonsai pot: a kiln founded by a Korean potter, a glaze used far beyond it, and a documented kiln mark that does not by itself settle a date.

Places

Mumyōi ware from Sado Island takes its name from iron-rich red soil associated with the island’s gold mine. How bonsai pots came to be made there from 1957, and the marks recorded on them.

Places

Shibukusa ware from Takayama in the mountains of Hida is known for overglaze red painting. Its bonsai pots came much later, and many recorded examples carry a hornless, thin-tailed “rain dragon”.

Places

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, some combining all three.

Places

Sōma Koma ware, from Nakamura in today’s Sōma City, Fukushima, is best known for a painted running horse, a crackled celadon-green ash glaze and a sandy body. Bonsai pots intended for trees are rare in its record.

Places