In Search of　Old Bizen pottery
Bizen Potter: Ken-ichi Kimura

Different techniques were developed and applied at different times but its rich texture unique to Bizen pottery has never faild to capture many apperciative minds.

Although clay manifestes its intrinsic beauty in different ways depending on from where it comes from and how it is handled , it has a power to move the mind of the beholder.

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When I was studying and working under a Bizen master, I become attracted to old Bizen pottery and my search for the way to reproduce the style of old Bizen sterted.

Materials used for building kilns, the structure of the kiln, special mixture of certain types of clay, use of different tools, the placement of pottery in the kiln, firing methods and fuels, many of which were different compared with
other types of pottery or even the modern Bizen pottery. These, I noted, were the key factors in recreating old Bizen ware.

As a result of my research, I challenged to build my first Anagama in 1988 by strictly adhering, as much as I could, to those methods of preparing clay and firing of olden times, and in 1995 I also build a Noborigama.

Instead of using fire-rated bricks, I made bricks with clay. I gatherd information from old masters of Bizen, visited many sites of old kilns, and experimented with different kiln-building methods myself, improving each time.

Avoiding the use of fire-rated bricks, tools and equipment of highly fire-resistant masterial,I tried to recreate old Bizen pottery.

After many trials and errors I began to realize that all I had done and tried in the past were necessary steps for a humble potter like me. Meanwhile,my search continues.........

to my show room

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