Koyama Kiyoko

Kiyoko Koyama, in 1963, stumbled upon an ancient kiln site in Shigaraki by chance. She personally excavated fragments of pottery bowls from the kiln site and was amazed by the long-lost ancient Shigaraki green glaze she saw on the pottery pieces.

"Shigaraki" is one of Japan's six major ancient kiln sites. However, during that time, the prevalent belief in the Japanese ceramics industry was that glazing methods using electric or gas kilns were the way forward to increase production capacity. "Unglazed" firing methods were considered primitive and had no future prospects in the Japanese pottery world at the time. But Kiyoko Koyama, undeterred by the challenging environment, persevered through numerous failures and eventually recreated the ancient Shigaraki green natural glaze. This caused quite a stir and sensation in the Japanese pottery scene.

This piece represents Kiyoko Koyama's masterpiece in firing "natural glaze."