Mino ware is the general term for ceramics produced in the southeastern part of Mino Province (Gifu Prefecture) (formerly the three counties of Toki, Kani, and Ena). The following is a list of the main kilns that are currently firing pottery. Tajimi Ichinokura, Onada, and Nemoto (Tajimi City), Tokitsu, Izumi, Tsumaki, Shimoishi, Dachi, Hida, and Sogi (Toki City), Mizunami, Inazu, and Toh (Mizunami City), Tsuruoka, Yoshida, and Akechi (Ena County), and Kasahara (Toki County).
In addition, there were Onna ware from Fuwa County, Kinkasan ware from Inaba County, Yoro ware and Soshin ware from Yoro County, and Funakiyama ware from Motosu County, but none of them are included in Mino ware because they are outside the mainstream.
The three counties of Tono originally bordered on Owari and Mikawa (both in Aichi Prefecture), and the geology and raw materials were similar to those of the Seto region.
In 1567, when Oda Nobunaga invaded from Owari and annexed Mino, more and more Seto potters came to the three counties, which determined the foundation of the pottery industry in the region. In the “Chawani-Bengokushu” published in 1672, all kilns in Mino, including the Tsumaki, Oyayaka, Ikaruga, and Ohira kilns, are described as “Seto-yaki” or “Mino-Seto”. The Seto Kiln Office is listed under the article “Seto Kiln Office Instructions”. In the Edo period (1603-1867), Kasamatsu-gunyo was established and all three counties came under the direct control of the shogunate. When porcelain production began to flourish from the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804-30), the Owari Clan imposed extremely strict industrial controls, forcing the twelve warehouses in Nagoya to deliver ceramics produced in Mino to the Twelve Bureaus of Nagoya, and forbidding the use of the name Mino ware in any of their sales. However, with the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the feudal domain, Mino ware was freed from its long-standing fetters and was able to be honored with its original name of Mino ware for the first time. In addition, Mino ware was once called Tajimi ware because it was concentrated in Tajimi, Toki-gun.
In the Engishiki, Mino is mentioned as a country that paid tribute to pottery, and in the Shinto rituals, in the Saigu-no-ryo annual fee offerings, it is written, “One crucible, 30 potteries, 2 mortars, and 10 boards are allocated to the Mino region. The following are from the Mino Province: “A crucible, 30 ceramic crucibles, two mortars, and ten vessels are to be given to the Mino Province. Four potter’s crucibles, four vessels, a potter’s wash, two potter’s pans, two vessels, and two vessels. The top part is from Mino Province.
It also states that “696 pieces of pottery were from Mino.
It is difficult to determine where in Mino the ceramics were fired, but it is believed to be in the area of the former village of Sue, Kakamu County (now Kakamu Village, Inaba County). Later, the techniques of the Sue ware makers spread to the Kasugai-gun, Owari Province (the end of Komaki City, Aichi Prefecture) or the Karayama region, and then to Seto in Owari Province, and from Seto, they flowed back into the southeastern Mino region of Toki and Kani, and then developed and moved into the age of japan porcelain. (Mikiya Akatsuka, “Outline of the History of Pottery Production”). Mino ware developed in direct association with Seto from early on, but it was not until the reign of Oda Nobunaga that negotiations between the two became apparent, and a few references to this are found in documents. In other words, since Nobunaga took over Mino in 1567, a number of Seto potters started to build new kilns in Mino with their cutting-edge techniques. In response to the popularity of the tea ceremony at that time, a variety of products were produced, including tenmoku glaze, kizeto, Setoguro, Shino, and Oribe. The following text from Nobunaga’s seifuda can be found in a manuscript that remains in Mino.
I. To open a township in Yamaki, Gunjiri-eup, and to build hearths in the area, and to cut down hearths freely.
The fields shall be opened and the land shall be free, and no tribute shall be paid to the landowner.
The following are the things that are to be done in the vicinity of the house, and that no one should be allowed to violate the law.
March 1573, Tensho 1 Kiyu (1573), magistrate.
In addition, the “Origin Record” of Kusajiri Seianji Temple, dated 15 New Year’s Day in the first year of Manji (1658), states, “In the spring of the second year of Tensho (1658), four boys named Yosanbei Kato from Seto Village in Oshu came to this place and found a place to bake pottery, and they already took pottery from the hill behind the house and began to bake it,” and in “Seto Dai-kama” dated 1686 (Jokyo 3 Hei-Tora), there is a description of the pottery and Karatsu hearth. In the article “Seto Daihegama Kama (Great Seto Hearth) and Karatsu Kama Toritate no Kiraku Sho (The Book of Reasons for the Arrival of the Karatsu Hearth)” dated 1686 (1686), the following is found.
In the article of “The reasons for the arrival of the Seto Dai-kama Kiln and the Karatsu Kiln,” the following is found in the “Reasons for the removal of the Karatsu Kiln and the pottery” section.
In the spring of the ninth year of the Tensho Period, Yosanbei Kato came and burned it.
Iemon Iemon came and burned it in the spring of the 11th year of Tensho
Kasahara hearth was burned down by Genjuro Oyaya in the spring of the 14th year of Tensho.
According to the above documents, within six years of Nobunaga’s arrival in Mino, Seto potters steadily moved to Mino. Since then, the pottery industry has flourished along with the growth of Seto craftsmen.
It should be noted that Shirouemon Kagenobu (1632, died on February 2, Kan’ei 9), the eldest son of Kato Yosanbei Kagemitsu, went to Karatsu, Kyushu, and implemented the climbing kiln method and the first white glazed Shino ware produced by him. The transmission method of the Karatsu kiln gave rise to the so-called Oribe ware, and even if Shino ware was created before Kage-nobu, there is no doubt that Kage-nobu was at least one of the first to produce it. According to the “Record of Origins” of Seian-ji Temple, Kage-nobu presented Emperor Shojincho (reigned 1557-86) with a white glazed tea bowl, which was given the name Chikugo no Asahi-te ware. Later, in 1587, he presented another pottery to Emperor Goyozei (reigned 1587-1611).
The following is a draft of the Chikugo no Mamoru Nobutome’s oral proclamation.
High Priest Nakayama Dainagon
Decree of July 5, Keicho 2
Fujiwara Kage-nobu
Appointment of Chikugo no Mamoru
Fujiwara Mitsutoyo, Kuraininchuuben Right Chuben
As the production of Seto Yaki pottery for high-level tea ceremonies declined during the Edo period (1603-1868), the products of this region began to specialize in crude articles for practical use. During the Genroku era (1688-1704), a system of kiln shares was established in Kasamatsu County and 24 kilns were set up in Tajimi, Kasahara, Kusajiri, and Shimoishi, and later Tsumaki and Dachi were added to the total of 35 kilns. In the early Bunka period (1804-18), some people started porcelain manufacturing in Kasahara Takiro and Tajimi. This was probably due to the influence of the porcelain manufacturing business in Seto, and porcelain production spread to all the villages thereafter and flourished. However, as already mentioned, the products were called Setomono. During the Bunsei Era (1818-30), Kato Enji of Tajimi became the director of the Mino Pottery, and planned to break away from the ties of the Owari Clan and sell Mino ware throughout the country under the name of Mino ware, and although he frequently petitioned the Kasamatsu county mayor, he was unable to accomplish this goal. After many efforts, the kiln restrictions were lifted and production and sales became free, and from around 1877 (10th year of Meiji), production gradually increased. In particular, in 1887, katagoe (pattern painting) was invented. In the following year, a person obtained a patent for copperplate etching, which further increased the production value of Mino ware.
After the Bunka-Bunsei Era, Mino ware almost exclusively specialized in porcelain, and was mainly used for eating and drinking utensils, furniture, decorative objects, etc. In 1909 (Meiji 42), there were 1,128 production houses with a total production value of over 1,475,000 yen. In 1933, the total number of manufacturing plants in Gifu Prefecture was 1328, and the total production value was 12 million yen. In 1965, the annual production of Mino ware was 730 million yen, and the number of manufacturers was 91.
The following article from “Kizeto” by Kato Karakuro is quoted to give an overview of the movement of Mino’s old kilns (Azuchi-Momoyama period) and the varieties of Mino ware produced.
The old kilns scattered in the vicinity of Seianji Temple in Ohohira, Aza Ohokaya, Kugari Village, Kani County, and in the vicinity of Seianji Temple in Kugiri, Aza Gotomaki, Izumi-cho, Toki-gun, namely in the western part of the Toki River and extending east from the north side of Mount Sengen, are the remains of his golden age that should be written about in a special note in the history of Seto. The old kilns scattered in this area are the remains of the golden age of Seto. First of all, there is “Ubagafu-ko” on the west side of Mt. It is a Wabicha (Wabi-tea) bowl in Seto black, so called “drawer black”, and the clay is exactly the same as that of the tea masters of Grandmother’s Brief in Seto, and pieces of Seto black tea bowl in Oharagi-style are exposed. It is important to note here that there are some buds of Ayame-te Kiseto, and that the black Seto tea bowl was fired together with a cup of copper-green gall on a childish line engraving pattern. If you cross the valley to the east from Ubagafukoro and turn left along the ridge, you will look down on the farmers’ village of Oshichinohe in the valley to the north. The kilns of Mutagahora and the kiln under the kiln are located across a small valley to the east and west of each other, and both kilns seem to be of the same period. However, even if Kizeto is excavated, it is not as good as under-kiln ware and the quantity is very small, while Shino is the most abundant and also the best. In other words, the kiln at Kikagata is a representative kiln for Ayamete Kiseto, while the kiln at Muta is a representative kiln for Shino. The Naka Kiln is located on the way to Ohira, eastward along the ridge from these two kilns. The name “Naka Kiln” is a name exchanged between the tribespeople of Oyaya and Ohira in later times, and may not have been the name at that time. Shino is the most abundant type of pottery produced at this kiln, but it is not as good as the pottery produced under the kiln or the pottery produced at Muta. The road following the ridge from the middle kiln descends eastward to the community of Ohira Valley, where the kiln ruins are densely packed and several stone walls of the remains of residences in the mountains and forests remain as they were, testifying to the heyday of the Ohira kiln, but this makes it difficult to determine the early state of the kiln. The surface of the kiln is of the later period, but in the north facing cliff to the east of Mr. Kiyomitsu Kato’s house, pieces of pottery were excavated which may have been similar to those from the Middle Kiln, including a piece of Kizeto, which was as similar to the Middle Kiln and therefore unimpressive. However, the excavation of this kiln site has not yet been fully completed, so it is impossible to say for sure. On the way east from Ohira to the village of Gotomakidaira, there is a group of old kilns on a high mountain peak to the north called the Takane Kiln. These old kilns produced the largest amount of Shino ware, but there is little evidence of the use of yellow Seto ware, which contains vitriol. Crossing a valley or following a ridge eastward from Takane to Kusiri, there is a small hill to the east of Seian-ji Temple called Shobugama or Oyasan. There are many kiln sites in the vicinity of Seian-ji Temple, including the Motoyashiki kiln in the bushes along the creek in front of Seian-ji Temple, where excellent shards are exposed. The white-skinned Shino and the black-skinned rat Shino are similarly fired in the Muta, Muda, Naka, Ohira, Takane, Shobu, and Motoyashiki kilns, but the Shino tenmoku bowls disappeared in the Muta and Naka kilns, and the Shino open-topped tea bowls disappeared in the Muta and Takane kilns. Rather, the Seto black tea bowls, which had been pure black from Uba, Muta, Naka kiln, and Takane, were replaced by a white space near Seian-ji Temple with a design painted on it. This makes me think that the kiln near Seianji is located in or near a village at the foot of a mountain near rice paddies, whereas the previous kilns were all located at the top of mountains. The kilns that fired Seto black tea bowls with a white border only at this kiln always applied copper-green glaze to some or most of the bowls and painted patterns with oniita-iwa pigments and white glaze on the parts that were not glazed with copper-green glaze, which is Oribe blue. I realized for the first time that this was Oribe blue, and that the drawer black teacups with white interlacing were Oribe black. I also confirmed that the kiln that fired the Setoguro was a single-chamber cellar kiln and that the kiln in this village that fired the Oribe suddenly changed to a continuous climbing kiln. The two mountain men who fired Setoguro moved eastward from Uba to Muta, Takane, and Kusjiri, following a ridge in search of potter’s clay and firewood, and finally changed their minds in Kusjiri. Oribe’s kilns were then moved to the west. Oribe’s kilns began a counterattack to the west, moving to Ohira and then to the Yashichida kilns in Ohya, and then to Hime, where Oribe black and Yamaji tea bowls began and Akaraku paints were invented. In Ohira, the kilns of Kiseto and Shino moved eastward along the mountain ridges, while the kilns of Oribe evolved into the kilns of Renbo-style and returned westward along the valley villages, and both types of pottery were produced here. The Ayame-kate Kiseto ware started at Ubagafu, the most developed kiln, and gradually declined in quantity and quality at the Muta and Naka kilns, although a few good pieces are still being produced at Ohira. Moreover, as it became scarce in Takane and was no longer seen in the vicinity of Seianji, I noticed a change to Oribe blue with copper-green coloring on the entire piece (of course, the elevation reveals the geology), using the same technique as Kizeto with iris hand carving with a linear pattern. The flow of ceramic culture, from Kizeto to Shino, from Shino to Oribe, from Uba, under kilns, Muta, Naka kilns, and Takane to Kusiri, and from Kusiri to Otomi to the north, to Katsuodaihira to the west, and to Yashichida in Oyaya, has continued to flow from west to east, from east to north, and from east to west in the north valley of Mount Asama, Kani-gun, as evidenced by the fact that it has continued to change. The excavated fragments of the old kiln site tell us that the flow of the small kiln culture has continued to change. The Hizen small kiln, in which Kage-nobu Kato Chikugo-no-mori of Kusiri was led by Mori Zen’emon, a Karatsu ronin, to learn the Karatsu kiln style, was a climbing kiln, while the earlier Seto large kiln was a single-chamber semi-cellar kiln with a nature that moved from mountain to mountain, and the Koshino and Ko-koseto, the first to fire Oribe in a climbing kiln, were fired in the Seto large kiln. We are beginning to get some idea that Oribe, the climbing kiln, and the semi-agricultural lifestyle of the potters began at the same time, and that the founder of the climbing kiln was Kagenobu Chikugo, and the location was the Kushiri Moto-yashiki.
We can also see that there are three different types of Seto pottery in the old Seto kilns: mountain kilns, village kilns, and mountain kilns close to the village that are in between, and that the mountain kilns are used for the production of “jushi” hand Kiseto, or his Fujishiro ware, and the village kilns for the production of Oribe, and the mountain kilns close to the village for the production of “iris” hand Kiseto, Setoguro, and Shino ware. Kiseto is a very popular pottery. The Kizeto ware was most developed in the Uba kiln, and then moved to the Muta, Naka, and Ohira kilns, where it completely disappeared.
The following is a list of the varieties excavated from old kilns in Mino (based on an article in “Ceramics,” Vol. 8, No. 2).
Kusiri, Izumi Town, Toki-gun (Toki City)
Takane Kiln, Seto black, Ekaratsu style, Shino (neriage, red)
Shino, black Seto, Shino, Oribe (top grade Shunomono), Shino, Oribe (top grade Shunomono), Seto black, Shino, Oribe
Motoyashiki Kiln, Guiitonte Kizeto, Ayame Te Kizeto, Tenmoku Glaze, Seto Black, Minoko-Ko Karatsu Glaze, Shino, Oribe (best quality)
Yabu in the eastern part of Motoyashiki, Seto black and Shino
Seto black and Shino, eastern part of Motoyashiki
Oribe, Oribe, Oribe (best item)
Oribe, west of Seianji Temple (elaborate, even if it is the last stage)
Gotoumaki-Hachiman Kiln, Oribe (Late period, elaborate)
Toki-gun (Toki City), Izumi Town, Otomi
Southern and Western parts of Otomi Kiln, Setoguro, Shino, and Oribe (Late stage)
Sorinji, Izumi Town, Toki-gun (Toki City)
Jorinji Kiln, Seto Black, Shino
Doenokawa Kiln, Seto black and Shino
Kiln under Kiln, Kamigo, Tsumaki Town, Toki-gun (Toki City)
Kiln under Kiln, Seto Black and Shino
Kama-ward, Kasahara-cho, Toki-gun (Toki City) (Kiln)
Inari Kiln, Oribe (transitional period to late Shimotsukimono)
Oribe, Nenbutsu Kiln (Transitional period to Late Shimotsukimono)
Oribe, Nishi Kiln (Transitional period to Late Shimotsukemono)
Sogi Village, Toki-gun (Sogi-cho, Toki City)
Gonoki-gama, Shino (daily utensils)
Ena-gun (Mizunami-shi) Toki-cho Okawa
Nishi Kiln, Shino (miscellaneous daily utensils)
Mizunami-shi, Ena-gun
Mukai Kiln, Shino (Miscellaneous daily use ware)
Ena-gun (Mizunami-shi), Toko Town, Saruzume
Kiln, Shino (daily utensils)
Kugari Village, Kani County (Kugari, Kani Town), At the foot of Mt.
Kiln of Kamogane, Guiitonte yellow Seto, Ayame hand yellow Seto, Tenmoku glaze, Seto black, Minoko-ko-Karatsu glaze
Kuguri Village, Kani District (Kuguri, Kani Town), Oyakase
Kiln, gui-don handled yellow-seto, ayame handled yellow-seto, tenmoku glaze, Seto black, Minoko-ko-karatsu glaze, Shino (plain, painted, nezumi, and neriage)
Muta-do Kiln, Gui (gui), handmade yellow-seto, ayame (soybean flour), black Seto, Mino old Karatsu glaze, Shino (plain, painted, nezumi, neriage) Handmade yellow Seto, Ayame handmade yellow Seto, Tenmoku glaze, Seto black, Minoko-ko-Taratsu, Shino (plain, painted, and rat)
Naka Kiln, Gui? Handmade yellow Seto, Ayame handmade yellow Seto, Tenmoku glaze, Seto black, Minoko-karatsu, Shino (rouge, neriage)
Oribe (thin and skillful), Yashanada Kiln
Ohira, Kuguri Village, Kani County (Kuguri, Kani Town)
Yuiemon Kiln, Kizeto with Gui-tome handles, Kizeto with Ayame handles, Tenmoku glaze, Seto black, Minoko-ko-karatsu, Shino (plain, painted, rat, and kneaded)
Seitayu Kiln, Oribe (excellent Nitsugu pieces from Motoyashiki Kiln, etc.)
Himeji Village, Kani County (Hime-machi, Tajimi City)
Oribe (transitional period to late period underglaze wares)
(“Mino Meisoki”, “Kogei Shiryo”, “Prefectural Pottery History Potter’s Biography”, “Gifu Prefecture Geographical History”, “Mino Pottery History”, “Gifu Prefecture Industrial History”, “Japan Early Modern Ceramic Industry History”, “Taisei Toji”, “Wahari no Hana”, “Nihon Tokorashi History”, “Kisedo”, “Toji” 8-2, “Toki Koza” 6)
