I want to make pottery that is comfortable to use and enriches our lives.
After the Bunroku War (1592), potters from the Korean peninsula accompanied by Kiyomasa Kato established the Shodai ware kiln at the foot of Mt. is said to be the beginning.
Shodai ware is roughly divided into blue small, yellow small, and white small. Our workshop utilizes traditional characteristics and techniques, such as the strong shape and tasteful base glaze, and the white glaze that has the personality and power of an ancient samurai, while incorporating its own firing method to suit modern life. I try to make a suitable container. The more you use the pottery, the more the texture will come out. I think it would be nice if I could create a vessel that can be used every day. Tradition is not about protecting the ashes, but about keeping the embers secretly. Rui Fukuda (Excerpt from Ojiro Mizuho kiln materials)
Rui Fukuda grew up watching her father, who was trying to reproduce the old Shodai, the foundation of Shodai ware made in the Edo period.
After his father passed away, he inherited the "Ojiro Mizuho Kiln" and continues to make pottery that fits modern life by incorporating his own firing method while making use of traditional characteristics and techniques.
I studied oil painting when I was in college, but I became more interested in three-dimensional forms than two-dimensional forms. After training at Shimaoka Pottery in Tochigi Prefecture, which is famous for Mashiko ware, he continues to make pottery at Mizuho Kiln.
Shodai ware is broadly classified into blue, white, and yellow depending on the blend of glaze and firing temperature. In Fukuda's case, another major feature is the unique "indigo glaze" created from straw ash. Conventional blue shodai has a milky white color, but the indigo that Mr. Fukuda creates has even more depth. Another feature is the technique of "Shinogi". When it comes to Shodai ware, there are many techniques such as uchikake that take advantage of the degree of glaze coverage, but in the shinogi technique, a scraping tool is used to scrape the surface of the vessel, and it flows down along the scraped part. The glaze makes the pattern stand out. A rhythm is born in the vessel, and it will color the dining table regardless of Japanese or Western style.
“In order to make the most of the pattern, for example, in the case of tea bowls, we add depth and don’t divide the top part.
Because of the current lifestyle where storage space is limited, Mr. Fukuda's pottery does not have restrictions that limit its use.
"I think it's okay to use a single piece for many different purposes. We provide an easy-to-use shape, but it's the person who uses it that makes it perfect. I want you to make it your own color."
A simple yet warm earthenware that makes the most of its charm will become more attractive the more you use it.
