Hagi ware

Forms, use and context#

It is best known for tea bowls with soft, porous bodies, pale straw-ash glazes and crazing, which take up tea over years of use and slowly change colour, a quality called 'the seven transformations of Hagi'.

Body#

Soft, coarse, porous local clays that fire to a red-brown stoneware and absorb liquid. Daidō clay (大道土, from Hōfu) is the main tea-ware clay, often blended with the rougher, more refractory white Mitake / Kanamine clay (金峯土) and the red, iron-rich Mishima clay (見島土) used under white slip.¹²³⁶⁴

Glazes#

Methods#

1. Clay blending Firing Daidō clay with pine fuel gives subtle variations; mixing it with Mitake (金峯) clay multiplies them (JAANUS). A 2014 Kyushu University paper says tea-ware clay was typically Daidō clay blended with Kanamine or Obata clay.²⁴
2. Firing Fired over several days in a long multi-chamber climbing kiln (登り窯), then left closed for several days to cool. The climbing kiln is described as having come from Korea; modern kilns may also be electric or gas.¹⁶⁷
3. Crazing (貫入 kannyū) Glaze and body shrink at different rates as the kiln cools, so fine cracks form in the glaze.¹⁵
4. Cut foot (切高台 kiri-kōdai / 割高台 wari-kōdai) A notch or cut through part of the foot ring is a recognised Hagi feature. Nipponica calls it 割高台. JAANUS reports an explanation that the deliberate 'damage' let potters sell bowls outside the elite, since Hagi was otherwise reserved for the upper class; this is a story, not a documented rule.³²⁵
5. Decoration Hagi is rarely painted and relies on clay and glaze; forms are simple.²³

With tea#

• 'Seven transformations of Hagi' (萩の七化け hagi no nanabake): tea and liquid seep through the crazing into the porous body and change the colour over years of use (茶慣れ chanare). Several sources say pieces 'are said to' change up to seven times; this is a saying about appearance, not a claim about taste.¹
• Saying 一楽二萩三唐津 ('first Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu'), a tea-world ranking of matcha bowls. See ambiguities for its documented origin.⁴

Typical objects#

Tea bowlterm: water jar (水指 mizusashi)term: tea caddy (茶入 chaire)term: incense container (香合 kōgō)

Periods#

1. 1592 – 1604Founding context: the Korean potter brothers 李勺光 (Ri Shakkō; Korean Yi Jak-gwang) and 李敬 (Ri Kei; Korean Yi Kyeong) came to Japan with the Mōri in the context of Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea (文禄・慶長の役, Imjin War, 1592–98). Accounts differ on the year and circumstances (see ambiguities).³
2. 1604 – 1868Domain (goyō) kiln of the Hagi (Chōshū) domain at Matsumoto after Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) moved his seat to Hagi in 1604. Licensed potter families included Saka, Miwa, Saeki (later Hayashi) and Yamamura (later Sakakura). Li Kei took the name Saka Sukehachi and was later granted the name Kōrai Saemon (高麗左衛門), inherited by the Saka family heads. Most Matsumoto output went as gifts to officials and nobles in Edo and Kyoto. Hagi is named as a known local product in 毛吹草 (1638).³
3. 1653 – 1868Fukagawa Hagi: the Li Shakkō line set up a branch kiln at Sannose (三之瀬), Fukagawa, Nagato in 1653. In 1663 the Miwa kiln was founded at Matsumoto.³
4. 1717JAANUS dates the discovery of Daidō clay to 1717.²
5. 1868 – 1904Meiji decline after domain patronage ended. A 2014 paper finds Hagi's share of national ceramic output fell from about 0.75% (1884) to about 0.21% after 1885, that porcelain made at Obata (from 1823) was the main product into mid-Meiji, and that only by 1904 was Hagi described mainly as a tea-ware centre.⁴
6. Meiji – presentAfter the Meiji era the Matsumoto and Fukagawa wares came to be called together 'Hagi-yaki'.⁷

Kiln sites#

Ambiguities#

• Start date: 1604 (Heibonsha, JAANUS; tied to Hagi becoming the Mōri seat), 1598 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten: brought from Korea that year), or 'unknown' (Yamakawa, Hōfu city glossary).³
• Arrival: the 2014 Kyushu University paper says the brothers came during the Bunroku campaign (1592); ja.wikipedia says they built the kiln 'during the Keichō campaign'; most dictionaries just say 'after/during 文禄・慶長の役'. The sources do not agree on whether they came by force or invitation; tourism and dictionary texts use 'brought' (連れ帰った / 招致) and Yamakawa 'invited'. Wording here stays neutral.⁴
• Who founded which line: Nipponica, Mypedia and Britannica Japan say Li Kei's line is Matsumoto Hagi and Li Shakkō's line is Fukagawa Hagi; a Yamaguchi tourism feature names Li Shakkō as 'the founder' generally. Ja.wikipedia places Li Shakkō's family as Yamamura (later Sakakura) and Li Kei's as Saka. That the two were brothers is stated by JAANUS, Nipponica and ja.wikipedia.³
• Romanisation of the founders: 李勺光 appears as Li Shakkō (JAANUS), Yi Sakkō (Kyushu paper, tourism site), Korean Yi Jak-gwang; 李敬 as Li Kei / Yi Kyŏng. Kept in Japanese characters as the reference form.²
• Origin of 一楽二萩三唐津: ja.wikipedia's Karatsu article calls it a Momoyama-period ranking, but the 2014 Kyushu University paper finds no Meiji-era use, traces it to an older 一井戸二楽三唐津 ranking (Ido bowls first, in 山上宗二記), finds the 'Raku first' form first in 1932 (陶器全集 vol. 14) and its spread through a 1943 book titled 萩焼. Ja.wikipedia's Hagi article links its promotion to the 1870s–80s ties between a Hagi merchant (熊谷五一) and the 11th Omotesenke head. Treat the saying as a modern slogan with older roots.⁴
• Tea ware vs everyday ware: dictionaries and the Yamakawa entry say excavations at the Saka kiln show mass production of everyday tableware alongside tea ware, and that some pieces once called old Hagi are now attributed to Takatori ware.³
• Cut-foot reason (to let bowls be sold to commoners) is reported by JAANUS only; not confirmed elsewhere.²

Heritage listings#

In other traditions#

• Influenced by Korean tea bowl 한Korea. JAANUS says Hagi tea bowls reflect Korean Ido bowls; Nipponica says many surviving pieces imitate Korean wares such as Mishima, Kohiki and Ido.²
• Influenced by Buncheong ware 한Korea. Mishima (inlaid), hakeme (brushed slip) and kohiki (white slip) styles on red clay are described as Korean-derived styles. The link to the Korean 'buncheong' category is the drafter's mapping and needs the Korean thread to confirm.⁶

Related#