This mug was made by Kaori Sasaki at her Nohara-ya kiln.

Her medium size mug form is typically decorated by two forms of glaze. In this case she has applied blueish ‘gosu’ glaze to the upper section, and ‘ganemiso’ black to the bottom. In Kagoshima ceramics, ganemiso is the name given to an iron-rich mud typically found at the edge of fields. Dried, it can become a glaze ingredient, and is the base for one of the blacks in Satsuma-ware.

The mug is 8cm high, and has a diameter of 9.5cm.

It weighs around 245g, and has a capacity of 170ml.

As a handmade item, each is unique, with differences between them.


About Noharaya Kiln (Kaori Sasaki)

At her Nohara-ya kiln in the Kagoshima interior, Kaori Sasaki fires ceramics that reflect both her training on the southern island of Okinawa and the ceramic traditions of her home region. In Okinawa she was one of the early disciples of Yoneshi Matsuda of the Kita-gama kiln, which has become a renowned training ground for craft potters. Here she learned a dedication to materials, and techniques such as the dotted pattern work and high footed bowls for which Okinawa’s yachimun ceramics are known. But Kagoshima holds a tradition too that she began to explore on her return. In particular the Kuro-mon (Black Satsuma) lineage that occurred in several strains, such as Ryumonji and Naeshirokawa. These were ceramics used in everyday life, with forms that expressed their region’s history. At Nohara-ya, Sasaki collects materials local to her, such as clay deposits from rivers, and glaze ash from the Sakurajima volcano. Her work is the summation of the influences and skills that inform her ceramic imagination. It expresses too a modern spirit of Kuro-mon, ceramics with beauty and Kagoshiman terroir, that are a pleasure to use.