Places · 相馬駒焼
Sōma Koma
Running horses, crackled green glaze — and rare bonsai pots
Sōma Koma ware comes from Nakamura in today’s Sōma City, Fukushima. It is best known for a painted running horse, a crackled celadon-green ash glaze and a sandy body.
Sōma Koma ware is pottery from Nakamura, in today’s Sōma City, Fukushima. It 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 the record for Sōma Koma ware.
00 · At a glance
Sōma Koma, in four points
Kiln
Nakamura, Sōma
Pottery known as Sōma Koma ware.
Best known for
A running horse
With a crackled celadon-green ash glaze and a sandy body.
Beginnings
Several accounts
One traces the kiln to the Keian era (1648–52).
Recorded examples
Two
One small round bonsai pot and one presentation orchid pot.
01 · 走り駒
Horses for Sōma
The running horse is a motif associated with Sōma. With a crackled celadon-green ash glaze and a sandy body, it is what Sōma Koma ware is best known for.
Ōbori Sōma ware, from Namie in Fukushima, is a separate tradition, and the running horse and crackled glaze appear there too. These features alone do not show which kiln made a pot.
02 · 伝承
How it began — as it is told
There are several accounts of how the kiln began. One traces it to the Keian era (1648–52), when a retainer named Tashiro is said to have learned the methods of the school of Nonomura Ninsei, the Kyoto potter, and opened a kiln.
We give this as one tradition among several, not as established fact. Ninsei is introduced on our Kyoto page.
03 · 盆器
Rare as bonsai pots
Bonsai pots intended for trees are rare in the record for Sōma Koma ware. The same record presents two different kinds of container: one small round bonsai pot and one large presentation orchid pot.
04 · 落款
Marks
No representative mark is shown in the record we use for this ware, so we do not describe one here.
05 · YAKUMO と相馬駒焼
Sōma Koma at YAKUMO JAPAN
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06 · Continue
Keep reading
Marks and other kilns each have more to say on their own pages.