The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Oribe is the term for the 16–17th century Japanese ceramics style that is often characterized by dramatic forms and an iconic free-flowing green glaze. This translucent glaze is typically paired with painted designs and popular Japanese motifs in
an iron-oxide underglaze. These vessels contrast the forms of prior Japanese ceramics that were both plainly colored and uniformly shaped. Oribe ware is often shaped irregularly, sometimes even so much so that the vessels appear deformed and are unusable
for their traditional purposes as tea and dining utensils.
Oribe Origins
The name Oribe originates from a Japanese warrior-turned-tea master, Furuta Oribe. Oribe studied under tea master Sen no Rikyū and went on to succeed him after Rikyū’s death. However, there is no clear evidence that Furuta Oribe had any real involvement
in the production of these controversial vessels. The term Oribe ware was first coined around 50 years after Furuta Oribe’s death.1 Oribe chose to use colorful and misshapen ceramics in his tea ceremonies, even going so far as to
break and reform vessels to fit his preferred aesthetic. His controversial preferences for asymmetry and non-traditional, vibrant colors in his tea ceremonies led to the rising popularity, and the eventual establishment of Oribe ware as a ceramic
style.
While there are a few different types of Oribe ware (such as black and red Oribe), green Oribe is arguably the most popular today. The characteristically green glaze color was made possible by the addition of copper to glazes. In the peak time of Oribe,
copper in Japan was plentiful, as it was one of the country’s highest exported goods.2 It is likely that the component of copper was the common naturally occurring form of copper, malachite (Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂).3 Along with
a plentiful copper source, the innovative Motoyashiki multi-chamber climbing kiln allowed for a more precise and higher temperature fire that produced the translucency of the green glaze.4 Today, Oribe green glazes are typically made with
the addition of copper carbonate (CuCO₃) or copper oxide.
A New Oribe Vision
Japanese artist Osamu Inayoshi has implemented traditional Oribe aesthetics into his modern work. Osamu studied in Seto at the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Art School. After graduating in 2002, he won his first award at the 56th Seto City Art Exhibition
that same year. He moved to Mino soon after to continue developing his ceramics career. Osamu’s first solo exhibition was in 2012 at the Robert Yellin Yakimono Gallery in Kyoto. Since then, he has won many more domestic and international awards.
Osamu grew up with a fascination and deep appreciation for nature, which is evident in his work. He describes the themes of his work to be “a fusion of the Middle Ages and modern times,” and “harmonizing with nature.”5 In addition to this nature-inspired aesthetic, he also uses environmentally-friendly materials. He adopts traditional approaches into his work and aims to reflect the value of appreciating and remembering local traditions in today’s fast-paced
society.
Osamu sources his own clay from the backyard of his studio. After processing, he forms the clay into the desired shape, presses his desired texture onto the walls, and then carves out the interior of the vessel. He uses rocks, pinecones, and other found
natural objects to add this texture to his organically shaped pieces. After an initial bisque firing, Osamu’s technique for glaze firing is rather unique. Rather than using cones and temperature, he determines when the firing is done by the
look of the pots in the kiln. Osamu’s techniques are unique in that they don’t conform to the typical modern-day systematic techniques of using mass-produced clay and glaze, and firing to a specific cone. He relies on experimentation,
and when he finds a glaze-firing combo that is satisfactory, his results are revolutionary.
Osamu’s Process
Despite not having created Oribe ware for several years, Osamu agreed to prepare and fire a small batch of work for this article. The results illustrate many of his processes, highlighting numerous requirements and materials-chemistry specifics to obtain
his particular Oribe ware aesthetic.
The yunomi pair in figure 2 reveal the glazing process on the bisqueware, with Oribe glaze drips across the body and iron oxide splashes across the entire vessel. The clay is identifiable as a stoneware (a flashing stoneware, from the fired work on the
right), likely containing mullite. The Oribe glaze is a translucent green, with some amount of blue/rutile glaze over top of it. Finally, the yunomi is fired on shells, which leave both shell imprints and cause orange flashing around the imprint,
as salt content from the shells volatilizes and deposits on the clay.
Osamu uses a red iron oxide wash and traditional brushes (3). The red iron oxide wash is splattered across vessels after glaze has been applied, such that the splatters are seen across each tea bowl and over top of the glaze drips. Previously, red-iron
markings can be seen on the fired yunomi, suggesting that iron was not reduced in this particular environment and its Fe3+ oxidation state was retained.
Noticeable in figure 4, vessels are fired on shells that are supported by wadding. Normally, white/pure atmospheric/supportive wadding is a combination of 50% EPK and 50% alumina hydrate. This is pressed into the shells and the pot is placed on its side,
balanced on three shells. During firing, the shells (calcium carbonate (CaCO3) with some salt in them) undergo a chemical change through thermal decomposition, losing CO2, and becoming a shell of brittle CaO and off-gassing the
salt that was trapped in the calcium carbonate lattice. The vaporized sodium moves up off of the shell, deposits on the clay surface, and creates the orange blush visible around the shell and visible on the wadding as a halo beneath it.
This particular process is similar to how concrete is prepared, heating lime to form quicklime. It is also part of the lime cycle for frescoes: CaCO3 –Δ→ CaO + CO2.
The formed quicklime also acts as a resist/barrier for running glaze, absorbing glaze and mostly preventing it from running down the wadding. After firing, the vessel can be quickly dipped in water, such that moisture is absorbed and slaked lime forms:
CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2.
The Ksp (solubility product constant) of Ca(OH)2 (slaked lime) is 7.9×10-6, indicating that it mostly does not dissolve in water and instead creates a slurry. The expanding remnant of shell will push any attached wadding pieces
off of it as it forms slaked lime and be soft/brittle to the touch. It should be noted that slaked lime eventually turns back into CaCO3 if left untouched, as it absorbs CO2 from the air and weeps water, such that if one does
not clean the slaked lime out of the shell imprints, it reforms limestone and is much harder to remove: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O.
In figure 5 you can see glazed works atop three to four shells, each. The shells are filled with wadding, and the shells have an aggressive convex curvature such that they don’t take up much space on the profile and act as an effective resist to
glaze running onto/around them. Additionally, the overall shape of the vessel is best if spherical, such that glaze pools at the bottom and forms drips that hang off of the vessel, like that of figure 4, bottom.
Noticeable in figure 5, a number of processes are visible. The glaze layering is fired, showing a transition of translucent green to clear glaze with iron-oxide splashes underneath. The shells undergo thermal decomposition and change from gray to white,
showing some flashing on the surface of the bowl from salt evolving out of the shells as they were fired.
Visible in figure 6, more detail can be seen of the before and after-firing process of yunomi and chawan/pouring vessels on shells. Most notably, flashing patterns can be seen around where shells were near the clay surface. Thicker splatters of oxide
are also noted to turn black, which is more often associated with a reduced iron, Fe2+, or even small amounts of Fe0 if gunmetal in appearance. This could be a function of larger amounts of iron, a mildly reducing atmosphere from the shell
off-gassing, or even a component of the sodium content evolving out of the shells during firing and depositing on the clay surface.
After works are fired, they are rinsed, allowed to set/let wadding drop off of the sides, and then the sharp edges of the remaining shells (where glaze ran against them) can be ground down, resulting in the shell imprints seen in images 1 and 2 with muted
edges.
This cone-10 process can be adapted for mid-range kilns and normal firing schedules.
Mid-range Oribe Ware
Oribe ware adapted to mid-range electric kilns is pretty similar to the works seen in figure 7, but there should be a little more effort taken to protect the kiln shelves. Everything is fired on a kiln-washed cookie to catch the drips that absolutely
do form and fall off. Pieces are fired on shells (collected from the nearby James River), stabilized atop wadding comprised of 50% EPK, 50% alumina hydrate (by weight, not volume). I aim for three shells, as the triangle is the strongest geometric
form and four support points may cause a piece to wobble and roll over.
Figure 8 (left side) shows a glazed yunomi, in which at least one third of the face is left bare of glaze, except for splattered iron oxide. The middle image has alumina stilts supporting shells, in which kiln wash is used to stick the wadding to the
clay cookie and the shells to the wadding. Three shells are most often used for stability, as it is more infrequent that a fourth point will become less weighted and topple over during the firing. The right pot in figure 8 shows the yunomi placed
on its unglazed side, atop the three shells, and angled slightly downward such that pooling glaze can pour out of the lip.
Clay Body Considerations
Finding a flashing clay is difficult at mid-range temperatures, especially one that sufficiently off-gasses so as not to leave bubbles in your clay. Standard 213 is a white porcelain-stoneware blend that does not flash, but works really well with these
methods and recipes. Standard 182 is a cone 6–10 flashing clay that possesses fireclay, such that it varies from batch to batch. Some bubble horribly at a standard cone-6 firing and some do not. Standard 630 is a mid-range stoneware that behaves
well and flashes a little (mullite used in the formula) from the salt present in most shells. It also off-gasses at standard cone-6 firings—for the first few firings.
Glazing and Drip Formation
Visible in figure 9, drips are present from where the glaze was piled up on the sides of the yunomi and it ran over the bare section of the vessel. It pooled mostly on the shells and dripped off onto the clay cookie. This made for good flashing on the
clay around the shells, where natural salt content from the shells volatilized and deposited on the clay body. When aiming for nice drips and flowing green rivers of glaze, it helps to create work with a spherical profile. If a vessel is narrower
in the middle, the drips move to the foot and lip before combining and dripping off. As such, small bowls and mugs should be shaped as rough spheres for the best drips and flowing profiles. I mostly pile glaze up (with a plastic pipet) above the spot
where I want it to drip, aiming for the center of the sphere when on its side, so it’s a straight shot to create a nice gravity-defying drip when held upright (10).
If you’ve seen some ancient Oribe ware pieces in museums, you’ll have noted that the glaze is crazed, it isn’t on the whitest of porcelains, and it isn’t the most saturated green color (explicitly because the clay surface isn’t
super white). The mid-range recipe that I use is shown above.
Firing
For a firing schedule, I use a modified stop-n-drop one, which allows the glaze to run, but not aggressively so, and then to seal over any pinholes/bubbles that formed.6 This involves jumping up to cone 5, a longish hold that equates to cone
6 in heatwork, dropping to cone 2, and another long hold for pinholes/bubbles to seal over. If using old wadding stilts (they can be used over and over), you don’t need the first hold. If you just made wet ones, the hold should likely be in
the range of four hours.
After firing, it will appear as though the shells are still intact, but they’ve changed from CaCO3 to CaO—quicklime! It’s important not to try to rip the shells and wadding off where glaze has stuck to them. Doing so can result
in ripping clay and glaze chunks out of the pot, effectively ruining it.
Briefly soaking the fired, shells-and-wadding-still-attached pot and letting it sit will initiate the chemical reaction of changing quicklime to slaked lime. The fired shells will begin to swell, absorbing water, and the wadding will get pushed off of
the vessel, leaving behind a shell imprint in the glaze (albeit with sharp edges). There will be some slaked lime left in the shell imprint that can be scraped out with a needle tool, and the sharp edges of the glaze-shell imprint need to be ground
off. This can be cleaned up pretty quickly with the standard pottery bench grinder or Dremel found in most studios.
Lastly, a really nice touch can be added by brushing the shell imprints (or using a Dremel with respective brass or steel brush head) to leave the shells with a brass or bronze sheen to them. It also perplexes other potters who then assume that you used
a luster!
the authors Julia Krichev is a biochemistry major and visual arts minor at the University of Richmond. Ryan Coppage is currently chemistry teaching faculty at the University of Richmond. He fiddles with various glaze projects and makes a reasonable number of pots. To see more, visit www.RyanCoppage.com.
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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Oribe is the term for the 16–17th century Japanese ceramics style that is often characterized by dramatic forms and an iconic free-flowing green glaze. This translucent glaze is typically paired with painted designs and popular Japanese motifs in an iron-oxide underglaze. These vessels contrast the forms of prior Japanese ceramics that were both plainly colored and uniformly shaped. Oribe ware is often shaped irregularly, sometimes even so much so that the vessels appear deformed and are unusable for their traditional purposes as tea and dining utensils.
Oribe Origins
The name Oribe originates from a Japanese warrior-turned-tea master, Furuta Oribe. Oribe studied under tea master Sen no Rikyū and went on to succeed him after Rikyū’s death. However, there is no clear evidence that Furuta Oribe had any real involvement in the production of these controversial vessels. The term Oribe ware was first coined around 50 years after Furuta Oribe’s death.1 Oribe chose to use colorful and misshapen ceramics in his tea ceremonies, even going so far as to break and reform vessels to fit his preferred aesthetic. His controversial preferences for asymmetry and non-traditional, vibrant colors in his tea ceremonies led to the rising popularity, and the eventual establishment of Oribe ware as a ceramic style.
While there are a few different types of Oribe ware (such as black and red Oribe), green Oribe is arguably the most popular today. The characteristically green glaze color was made possible by the addition of copper to glazes. In the peak time of Oribe, copper in Japan was plentiful, as it was one of the country’s highest exported goods.2 It is likely that the component of copper was the common naturally occurring form of copper, malachite (Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂).3 Along with a plentiful copper source, the innovative Motoyashiki multi-chamber climbing kiln allowed for a more precise and higher temperature fire that produced the translucency of the green glaze.4 Today, Oribe green glazes are typically made with the addition of copper carbonate (CuCO₃) or copper oxide.
A New Oribe Vision
Japanese artist Osamu Inayoshi has implemented traditional Oribe aesthetics into his modern work. Osamu studied in Seto at the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Art School. After graduating in 2002, he won his first award at the 56th Seto City Art Exhibition that same year. He moved to Mino soon after to continue developing his ceramics career. Osamu’s first solo exhibition was in 2012 at the Robert Yellin Yakimono Gallery in Kyoto. Since then, he has won many more domestic and international awards.
Osamu grew up with a fascination and deep appreciation for nature, which is evident in his work. He describes the themes of his work to be “a fusion of the Middle Ages and modern times,” and “harmonizing with nature.”5 In addition to this nature-inspired aesthetic, he also uses environmentally-friendly materials. He adopts traditional approaches into his work and aims to reflect the value of appreciating and remembering local traditions in today’s fast-paced society.
Osamu sources his own clay from the backyard of his studio. After processing, he forms the clay into the desired shape, presses his desired texture onto the walls, and then carves out the interior of the vessel. He uses rocks, pinecones, and other found natural objects to add this texture to his organically shaped pieces. After an initial bisque firing, Osamu’s technique for glaze firing is rather unique. Rather than using cones and temperature, he determines when the firing is done by the look of the pots in the kiln. Osamu’s techniques are unique in that they don’t conform to the typical modern-day systematic techniques of using mass-produced clay and glaze, and firing to a specific cone. He relies on experimentation, and when he finds a glaze-firing combo that is satisfactory, his results are revolutionary.
Osamu’s Process
Despite not having created Oribe ware for several years, Osamu agreed to prepare and fire a small batch of work for this article. The results illustrate many of his processes, highlighting numerous requirements and materials-chemistry specifics to obtain his particular Oribe ware aesthetic.
The yunomi pair in figure 2 reveal the glazing process on the bisqueware, with Oribe glaze drips across the body and iron oxide splashes across the entire vessel. The clay is identifiable as a stoneware (a flashing stoneware, from the fired work on the right), likely containing mullite. The Oribe glaze is a translucent green, with some amount of blue/rutile glaze over top of it. Finally, the yunomi is fired on shells, which leave both shell imprints and cause orange flashing around the imprint, as salt content from the shells volatilizes and deposits on the clay.
Osamu uses a red iron oxide wash and traditional brushes (3). The red iron oxide wash is splattered across vessels after glaze has been applied, such that the splatters are seen across each tea bowl and over top of the glaze drips. Previously, red-iron markings can be seen on the fired yunomi, suggesting that iron was not reduced in this particular environment and its Fe3+ oxidation state was retained.
Noticeable in figure 4, vessels are fired on shells that are supported by wadding. Normally, white/pure atmospheric/supportive wadding is a combination of 50% EPK and 50% alumina hydrate. This is pressed into the shells and the pot is placed on its side, balanced on three shells. During firing, the shells (calcium carbonate (CaCO3) with some salt in them) undergo a chemical change through thermal decomposition, losing CO2, and becoming a shell of brittle CaO and off-gassing the salt that was trapped in the calcium carbonate lattice. The vaporized sodium moves up off of the shell, deposits on the clay surface, and creates the orange blush visible around the shell and visible on the wadding as a halo beneath it.
This particular process is similar to how concrete is prepared, heating lime to form quicklime. It is also part of the lime cycle for frescoes: CaCO3 –Δ→ CaO + CO2.
The formed quicklime also acts as a resist/barrier for running glaze, absorbing glaze and mostly preventing it from running down the wadding. After firing, the vessel can be quickly dipped in water, such that moisture is absorbed and slaked lime forms: CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2.
The Ksp (solubility product constant) of Ca(OH)2 (slaked lime) is 7.9×10-6, indicating that it mostly does not dissolve in water and instead creates a slurry. The expanding remnant of shell will push any attached wadding pieces off of it as it forms slaked lime and be soft/brittle to the touch. It should be noted that slaked lime eventually turns back into CaCO3 if left untouched, as it absorbs CO2 from the air and weeps water, such that if one does not clean the slaked lime out of the shell imprints, it reforms limestone and is much harder to remove: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O.
In figure 5 you can see glazed works atop three to four shells, each. The shells are filled with wadding, and the shells have an aggressive convex curvature such that they don’t take up much space on the profile and act as an effective resist to glaze running onto/around them. Additionally, the overall shape of the vessel is best if spherical, such that glaze pools at the bottom and forms drips that hang off of the vessel, like that of figure 4, bottom.
Noticeable in figure 5, a number of processes are visible. The glaze layering is fired, showing a transition of translucent green to clear glaze with iron-oxide splashes underneath. The shells undergo thermal decomposition and change from gray to white, showing some flashing on the surface of the bowl from salt evolving out of the shells as they were fired.
Visible in figure 6, more detail can be seen of the before and after-firing process of yunomi and chawan/pouring vessels on shells. Most notably, flashing patterns can be seen around where shells were near the clay surface. Thicker splatters of oxide are also noted to turn black, which is more often associated with a reduced iron, Fe2+, or even small amounts of Fe0 if gunmetal in appearance. This could be a function of larger amounts of iron, a mildly reducing atmosphere from the shell off-gassing, or even a component of the sodium content evolving out of the shells during firing and depositing on the clay surface.
After works are fired, they are rinsed, allowed to set/let wadding drop off of the sides, and then the sharp edges of the remaining shells (where glaze ran against them) can be ground down, resulting in the shell imprints seen in images 1 and 2 with muted edges.
This cone-10 process can be adapted for mid-range kilns and normal firing schedules.
Mid-range Oribe Ware
Oribe ware adapted to mid-range electric kilns is pretty similar to the works seen in figure 7, but there should be a little more effort taken to protect the kiln shelves. Everything is fired on a kiln-washed cookie to catch the drips that absolutely do form and fall off. Pieces are fired on shells (collected from the nearby James River), stabilized atop wadding comprised of 50% EPK, 50% alumina hydrate (by weight, not volume). I aim for three shells, as the triangle is the strongest geometric form and four support points may cause a piece to wobble and roll over.
Figure 8 (left side) shows a glazed yunomi, in which at least one third of the face is left bare of glaze, except for splattered iron oxide. The middle image has alumina stilts supporting shells, in which kiln wash is used to stick the wadding to the clay cookie and the shells to the wadding. Three shells are most often used for stability, as it is more infrequent that a fourth point will become less weighted and topple over during the firing. The right pot in figure 8 shows the yunomi placed on its unglazed side, atop the three shells, and angled slightly downward such that pooling glaze can pour out of the lip.
Clay Body Considerations
Finding a flashing clay is difficult at mid-range temperatures, especially one that sufficiently off-gasses so as not to leave bubbles in your clay. Standard 213 is a white porcelain-stoneware blend that does not flash, but works really well with these methods and recipes. Standard 182 is a cone 6–10 flashing clay that possesses fireclay, such that it varies from batch to batch. Some bubble horribly at a standard cone-6 firing and some do not. Standard 630 is a mid-range stoneware that behaves well and flashes a little (mullite used in the formula) from the salt present in most shells. It also off-gasses at standard cone-6 firings—for the first few firings.
Glazing and Drip Formation
Visible in figure 9, drips are present from where the glaze was piled up on the sides of the yunomi and it ran over the bare section of the vessel. It pooled mostly on the shells and dripped off onto the clay cookie. This made for good flashing on the clay around the shells, where natural salt content from the shells volatilized and deposited on the clay body. When aiming for nice drips and flowing green rivers of glaze, it helps to create work with a spherical profile. If a vessel is narrower in the middle, the drips move to the foot and lip before combining and dripping off. As such, small bowls and mugs should be shaped as rough spheres for the best drips and flowing profiles. I mostly pile glaze up (with a plastic pipet) above the spot where I want it to drip, aiming for the center of the sphere when on its side, so it’s a straight shot to create a nice gravity-defying drip when held upright (10).
If you’ve seen some ancient Oribe ware pieces in museums, you’ll have noted that the glaze is crazed, it isn’t on the whitest of porcelains, and it isn’t the most saturated green color (explicitly because the clay surface isn’t super white). The mid-range recipe that I use is shown above.
Firing
For a firing schedule, I use a modified stop-n-drop one, which allows the glaze to run, but not aggressively so, and then to seal over any pinholes/bubbles that formed.6 This involves jumping up to cone 5, a longish hold that equates to cone 6 in heatwork, dropping to cone 2, and another long hold for pinholes/bubbles to seal over. If using old wadding stilts (they can be used over and over), you don’t need the first hold. If you just made wet ones, the hold should likely be in the range of four hours.
Briefly soaking the fired, shells-and-wadding-still-attached pot and letting it sit will initiate the chemical reaction of changing quicklime to slaked lime. The fired shells will begin to swell, absorbing water, and the wadding will get pushed off of the vessel, leaving behind a shell imprint in the glaze (albeit with sharp edges). There will be some slaked lime left in the shell imprint that can be scraped out with a needle tool, and the sharp edges of the glaze-shell imprint need to be ground off. This can be cleaned up pretty quickly with the standard pottery bench grinder or Dremel found in most studios.
Lastly, a really nice touch can be added by brushing the shell imprints (or using a Dremel with respective brass or steel brush head) to leave the shells with a brass or bronze sheen to them. It also perplexes other potters who then assume that you used a luster!
the authors Julia Krichev is a biochemistry major and visual arts minor at the University of Richmond. Ryan Coppage is currently chemistry teaching faculty at the University of Richmond. He fiddles with various glaze projects and makes a reasonable number of pots. To see more, visit www.RyanCoppage.com.
1 Murase, M. Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
2 Japanese Copper Across the Sea | About Sumitomo | Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee. https://www.sumitomo.gr.jp/english/history/s_history/japan_co/ (accessed 2024-10-24).
3 Murase, M. Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
4 Institution, S. Oribe Ware: Color and Pattern Come to Japanese Ceramics. Smithsonian Institution. https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/oribe-ware-color-and-pattern-come-japanese-ceramics:event-exhib-5532 (accessed 2024-10-24).
5 Statement – Inayoshi Osamu. https://inayoshiosamu.com/statement (accessed 2024-10-24).
6 Drop-and-Soak Firing. https://digitalfire.com/glossary/drop-and-soak+firing (accessed 2024-11-16).
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