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Top view of a Ryumonji Yaki rectangular pottery plate showing a deep black kuro glaze field with teal accumulation along the rim and corners.
Ryumonji Yaki Pottery Rectangular Plate Black Glaze
Ryumonji Yaki Pottery Rectangular Plate Black Glaze
Ryumonji Yaki Pottery Rectangular Plate Black Glaze
RYUMONJI-YAKI POTTERY

Ryumonji Yaki Pottery Rectangular Plate Black Glaze

Sale price$99.00

Black Satsuma is what Ryumonji has produced since 1688, and the kuro glaze is its most direct expression. The iron-rich clay of Kagoshima's mountains fires to a deep, near-opaque black under high heat — a color that comes from the material itself rather than pigment applied over a neutral body. The glaze is collected locally, processed within the workshop, and applied to a clay sourced the same way. Where the sansai glaze distributes three colors across the surface, the black glaze asserts one: a dense, reflective field that holds depth rather than pattern. Teal accumulates along the rim and corners where the secondary glaze pools and breaks during firing, the contrast appearing differently on each piece depending on its position within the ascending kiln. The rectangular form is the same as the sansai version — low, with a gently raised rim. What changes is the presence the glaze brings to the table. Black Satsuma was historically made for daily use, and this plate carries that directness.
Top view of a Ryumonji Yaki rectangular pottery plate showing a deep black kuro glaze field with teal accumulation along the rim and corners.
Ryumonji Yaki Pottery Rectangular Plate Black Glaze Sale price$99.00

Meet the Artisan

RYUMONJI-YAKI POTTERY

Ryumonji ware was established in 1688 when Yamamoto Wan'emon, grandson of the Korean-born potter Hochin, discovered suitable raw materials in Kajiki, in what is now Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture, and built a kiln there. The settlement that grew around it came to be known as the Chawan-ya hamlet, a community organized around the making and passing down of ceramic knowledge. Over more than 300 years, the kiln produced everyday vessels for ordinary life and gave rise to a succession of accomplished craftsmen, among them Kawahara Yoshiku. In 1948, the potters reorganized the existing shared-kiln structure into a formal cooperative, the foundation of today's Ryumonji Ware Pottery Union. The Union manages the full process from raw material gathering through to sales, a model rare in Japan and central to how the tradition has survived intact. Potters still go into the mountains within 3 kilometers of the kiln to collect the clays, stones, shirasu, rice-hull ash, and hearth ash that compose the glazes. Everything is refined on site. The kiln is currently led by Kawahara Shiro, a certified Contemporary Master Craftsperson, alongside his son Ryohei and fellow Union members. Work is fired in an ascending kiln at up to 1,250 degrees Celsius, the same method used throughout the Edo period and essential to developing the textured surfaces that define Ryumonji ware.