Hirashimizu ware is pottery and porcelain made in Hirashimizu, Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture. In the Bunka era in the late Edo period, the landowner, Niwa Jizaemon, invited Ono Tojibei, a potter from Ibaraki, and had him make pottery using clay locally supplied from Mt. Chitose. This is said to be the start of Hirashimizu ware.
Currently, they have six potteries, but Seiryu Kiln’s “Nashiseiji” and “Zansetsu” are the best-known ones. The iron sulfide found in local clay is vaporized by reducing flame and is dissolved into the glaze, giving Nashiseiji a unique blueish-white color with a speckled texture that is similar to the skin of a pear. The third-generation head, Niwa Ryunosuke, developed this technique and won the Grand Prize in the Brussels World’s Fair, which instantly made Hirashimizu well-known.
Zansetsu was developed by the fourth-generation head, Niwa Ryochi. It is named Zansetsu (remaining snow) because it is made by pouring pure white glaze over the pottery, creating black speckles on the surface.
