Ohi-yaki – The Amber-Colored Tea Bowl from Kanazawa

There are colors that make an immediate impression. With Ohi-yaki it is a warm brown-orange, almost translucent in thin spots, that shifts between honey, amber, and dark caramel depending on the light, running across the body as if it had just come to rest. This glaze does not come from Kyoto, nor from one of the great kiln villages of central Japan, but from Kanazawa on the coast of the Sea of Japan – a city that lies under snow in winter and whose craft has been closely tied to the tea culture of its ruling house since the 17th century. Ohi-yaki originated there in 1666 and continues to this day within the same family line – with the same techniques, the same name, and, in most pieces, the same color.

What Is Ohi-yaki?

Ohi-yaki (大樋焼) is a Japanese tea ceramic from Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, the area of the former Kaga Province. It originated in 1666 and is considered a branch kiln of the Raku tradition: the vessels are hand-built without a potter's wheel, cut into their final shape with spatulas after partial drying, and fired individually at a comparatively low temperature. Its distinguishing feature is the amber-colored Ame glaze (Ame-yū, literally "malt syrup glaze"), an iron-bearing glaze that ranges, depending on the piece, from a light honey tone to a deep reddish brown. What is produced are mainly chawan (tea bowls), along with mizusashi (fresh water containers for the tea ceremony), sweets bowls, sake vessels, and vases. The name derives from the village of Ōhi, from which the clay originated.

How a Potter Came to Kanazawa in 1666

Maeda Tsunanori, the fifth lord of the Kaga domain, brought the tea master Senso Sōshitsu from Kyoto to his court in 1666 to promote the tea ceremony there. Senso was the fourth head of the Urasenke school and a great-grandson of Sen no Rikyū. Traveling in his retinue was a potter who at the time was still called Haji Chōzaemon: born in 1631 in Kawachi Province, in what is now Fujiidera near Osaka, he had lived in Kyoto since 1656, where he studied under Raku Ichinyū, the fourth head of the Raku family, whose best student he was. In Kanazawa he set up a kiln and thereby brought a way of working to the region that had not existed there before. Chōzaemon remained in the city until his death in 1712. The Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University describes the occasion in the same way: in 1666, Sen Sōshitsu, founder of the Urasenke school, was summoned to Kanazawa for a tea gathering of the Kaga clan – the first Chōzaemon came with him and founded Ōhi-yaki there. The Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University describes the occasion in the same way: in 1666, Sen Sōshitsu, founder of the Urasenke school, was summoned to Kanazawa for a tea gathering of the Kaga clan – the first Chōzaemon came with him and founded Ōhi-yaki there.

Where the Name Ohi Comes From

Senso Sōshitsu returned to Kyoto in 1686. Chōzaemon stayed – and what had begun as a craftsman traveling with him grew into a ceramic tradition of its own. North of the city, in the village of Ōhi, he found a clay that suited his working method particularly well. The ware was named after this source, and the family was granted permission to adopt the place name as their family name: Haji Chōzaemon became Ōhi Chōzaemon. From then on, the kiln operated as the official workshop of the House of Maeda, with the privilege and the obligation of supplying the daimyo's household with tea utensils. Ōhi is today a district of Kanazawa; the workshop of the main line stands in the Hashiba-chō quarter, right next to the family's residence.

Ame-yū – the amber-colored glaze

The Ame glaze is what makes Ohi-yaki recognizable at first glance. It is iron-bearing, runs in the fire, and gathers in depressions into dark, almost blackish-brown zones, while remaining thin on raised areas where it appears luminous orange. On a single bowl this creates a gradation of color that ranges from light honey to deep brown and looks different from every side. How the family came to this glaze is not consistently recorded in the sources: most accounts say that the first Chōzaemon brought the recipe from the House of Raku; other accounts relate that the Raku family, in turn, gave up the amber glaze itself. What is undisputed is the outcome: red and black remained reserved for the Kyoto bowls, while the amber glaze became the hallmark of Kanazawa.

Hand-Built, Cut with the Spatula

Ohi ware vessels are made without a potter's wheel. The clay is built up by hand (tebineri); the potter then lets it firm up and works the form with wooden and metal spatulas (hera) until the wall thickness, rim line, and foot ring are right. The result is a bowl that is never exactly round, feels lighter when lifted than it looks, and whose rim adapts to the lip rather than imposing a circular shape on it. Each piece is fired individually and at a low temperature – the figures usually cited range between about 750 and 850 degrees – with rapid heating and equally rapid cooling. The Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University describes the same process in two sentences: Ōhi ware is built up by hand without a potter's wheel, with excess clay then removed with a knife or spatula; during firing, the temperature is raised sharply within a short time, and the piece is then removed for rapid cooling. The Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University describes the same process in two sentences: Ōhi ware is built up by hand without a potter's wheel, with excess clay then removed with a knife or spatula; during firing, the temperature is raised sharply within a short time, and the piece is then removed for rapid cooling. Anyone looking for a Japanese tea bowl that is hand-thrown rather than wheel-thrown will find in Ohi one of the few traditions that has followed this path without exception for over 350 years.

Close to Raku and Yet Distinct

Technically, Ohi-yaki shares the essentials with Raku-yaki: hand-forming, low firing, and the rapid heating and cooling of the individual piece. The differences lie elsewhere. Raku-yaki originated in Kyoto in the late 16th century in the circle around Sen no Rikyū and is to this day associated above all with deep black and muted red. Ohi-yaki originated almost a century later, some two hundred kilometers to the northeast, at a feudal lord's court with its own tea culture – and developed, with its amber glaze, a world of color that did not exist in the parent house. Added to this is an often somewhat more compact, more robust formal language, one that carries perceptible weight in the hand and that can be seen in the bowls even before one lifts them. How close the connection to the parent house was is stated explicitly by the Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University: the first Chōzaemon was the leading student of Kyoto's Raku Ichinyū – according to the Raku Museum the fourth bearer of the name, 1640 to 1696 – and had thoroughly mastered his technique and principles. How close the connection to the parent house was is stated explicitly by the Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University: the first Chōzaemon was the leading student of Kyoto's Raku Ichinyū – according to the Raku Museum the fourth bearer of the name, 1640 to 1696 – and had thoroughly mastered his technique and principles.

Tea Culture at the Court of the Maeda

The fact that a distinct tea ceramic emerged specifically in Kanazawa has to do with the particular standing of the Kaga domain. After the shogunate, the House of Maeda was the wealthiest feudal house in Japan, and over generations it channeled this wealth into culture and crafts rather than military strength – an attitude that avoided suspicion in Edo and turned Kanazawa into a city of craftsmanship. Kutani porcelain, Kaga Yūzen dyeing, gold leaf, and lacquer work all trace back to this same policy of patronage. The tea ceremony was not a pastime but social practice at court: with Senso Sōshitsu, the Urasenke school came to Kaga, and with it the need for utensils suited to its taste. Ohi-yaki is the ceramic answer to this need.

Eleven Generations of Ōhi Chōzaemon

What is passed down at Ohi is not only the technique but also the name. Each successor bears the title Ōhi Chōzaemon, followed by his generation number; along with the name go the hand-made tools and the working method. The line runs unbroken from the founder to the present day. The tenth Ōhi Chōzaemon (1927–2023) was a member of the Japan Art Academy and received the Order of Culture, Japan's highest honor for cultural achievement, in 2011; after passing the name to his son in 2016, he continued to work as Ōhi Tōyasai. His son Toshio, born in 1958, has run the workshop since then as the eleventh Ōhi Chōzaemon and exhibits internationally. Alongside this main line, further Ohi workshops operate in Kanazawa, having emerged from side branches of the family.

What Is Made from Ohi Clay

At the center stands the chawan, the bowl for matcha. Its walls are thick enough to warm the hands, and the low-fired, porous body releases heat only slowly to the outside – a characteristic that in Japan is readily associated with the region's snowy climate and has earned Ohi ware the reputation of a particularly "warm" ware. Alongside these, mizusashi, sweet dishes (kashiki), sake vessels, and vases are made. Those who wish to buy Ohi ware will usually find the pieces together with an inscribed wooden box bearing the name of the workshop and often also the name of the vessel – in the Japanese art trade, it belongs to the object and is passed on together with it.

Holding a Bowl from Kanazawa

Hold an Ohi bowl up to a window: where the glaze has remained thin, the amber tone becomes almost translucent, and you can see exactly where the potter's hand left the wall standing and where the spatula took it away. At densho.de you will find handcrafted unique works of Japanese ceramics, each piece individually sourced from Japan. If you would like to buy a chawan that literally puts this warmth into your hand, it is worth taking a look at our selection of Japanese tea bowls – and comparing two pieces side by side, which reveals how differently the same glaze can turn out.

Sources and Literature

Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University: Ōhi Ware, artsandculture.google.com.

Raku Museum, Kyōto: Raku successive generations.

Richard L. Wilson: Inside Japanese Ceramics. A Primer of Materials, Techniques, and Traditions. Weatherhill, New York 1995.