Iwami ware

Iwami ware is a collective name for pottery from the Iwami area in western Shimane. Gotsu sits at the center, while Hamada, Gotsu, and Oda define the wider kiln area in the prefectural outline. The name carries a practical geography: clay was dug, shaped, glazed, dried, and fired for household vessels in towns along this part of Shimane.

The large hando jar makes that geography visible. Its broad body and heavy ceramic wall answered a household need for water storage, while related jars and lidded vessels held miso, umeboshi, pickles, salt, and rainwater. Before piped water, a large jar was part of the working equipment of a home.

The local clay is dense and able to withstand high-temperature firing. After firing, Iwami ware has low water absorption and strong resistance to water, salt, acid, and alkali. Those qualities matter in concrete use: umeboshi and pickles bring acid and salt, miso needs a stable container, and outdoor jars have to face rain and weather.

The surfaces also belong to the region’s materials. Around Gotsu, Tsunozu-layer clay forms part of the ceramic body, Kimachi glaze gives deep brown tones, and Onsenzu stone can bring a translucent bluish effect. The atmosphere inside the kiln can also shift the surface toward ocher or blue.

The making process starts with digging raw clay, then refining, kneading, forming, finishing, glazing, drying, and firing. Each step changes the material: rough clay becomes a workable body, the wheel and hands establish the form, glaze covers the surface, and the kiln gives the vessel its hardness and low absorption.

Large jars require large-forming skill. Iwami ware is linked with shinozukuri, a method for building big vessels with coils or rods of clay, and one process description includes rope-assisted wheel work for jars of about 72 liters. These techniques help the mouth, belly, and base of a heavy jar hold together before the kiln fixes the shape.

The old hando and lidded jars belonged to daily work. In kitchens, people stored well water, miso, umeboshi, pickles, and salt; outside, jars could hold rainwater or serve farm needs. The same ceramic strengths that resisted water, acid, alkali, and salt made one vessel family useful across these wet, salty, and fermented contents.

That practical role helped make pickle jars part of Iwami ware’s wider reputation. The high-fired clay body gave households a hard container for preserving food and keeping water, and the jars became familiar beyond their kiln towns through those everyday tasks.

In the late Edo period, Iwami hando jars moved by Kitamae ships to other parts of Japan. In the Meiji period, mass production expanded, and at the peak the kiln district counted more than 100 kilns. Later, rail transport after the opening of Hamada Station helped jars and storage vessels travel farther from western Shimane.

The need for large jars narrowed as daily life changed. Plastic and polyethylene containers appeared, and water and sewer systems reduced the need to keep water in the home. Many kilns closed, while others redirected large-vessel skills and high-fire clay toward tableware, umbrella stands, and other mingei-style household ceramics.

Current Iwami ware still includes jars, mortars, and umbrella stands, but the range now extends to tea ware, flower vessels, tableware, water basins, and interior pieces. Large-ware techniques support umbrella stands, water-lily bowls, garden table sets, and basins; smaller bowls and tea pieces bring the same clay and glazes to tables and tea settings.

Gotsu and Hamada remain associated with named kilns and makers, and Gotsu has pottery experience sites as well as places where multiple kilns are introduced. The continuity of Iwami ware is easiest to see in the objects themselves: clay from western Shimane, high fire, durable surfaces, and forms that moved from water storage to everyday rooms and gardens.