Obori Soma ware

Obori Soma ware carries the name of Ohori, a district of Namie Town in Fukushima Prefecture. It is treated as pottery produced and handed down there, and it is also named as a national traditional craft. In practical reader terms, that designation points to a place, a community of kilns, and recognizable techniques: blue crackle, double-wall construction, and the running horse.

Those three details give the first way into a vessel. Blue crackle begins with glaze and cooling air; the double wall changes how heat from tea reaches the hand; the running horse depends on brush speed, pressure, and training.

Blue crackle begins before the line is visible. Makers apply two or more glazes with different thermal expansion rates; after firing, when the vessel meets outside air, fine cracks spread across the surface and a clear crackling sound can ring out. The visible pattern and the brief sound belong to the same cooling moment.

The surface line reads as a material trace of firing, with glaze and air both present in the finished vessel. The cooperative names blue crackle among the defining traits of Obori Soma ware, so the close view of the glaze becomes one of the most concrete ways to recognize the family.

The double-wall form is easiest to understand through touch. The inner and outer vessels sit apart, leaving space between them; when hot tea is poured inside, heat is less likely to move straight to the hand. The form connects a cup’s shape to an ordinary tea-drinking gesture.

Local pottery history treats double-wall construction as a representative feature today and transmits an attribution to the potter Sakamoto Kumajiro in the late Meiji period. The account places the structure inside a period when vessel form and use were changing in the kiln region.

The running horse gives the vessel a moving line. It is painted in one sweep with skilled brushwork, and the motif is associated with Kano-school brush technique. On a tea bowl or cup, the sense of motion comes from the speed and pressure of the brush.

An early origin account places locally gathered clay, tea bowls, and horse images together; later, in the Meiji period, painters specializing in horse motifs also appeared. These transmitted details keep the focus on hand painting: the horse reaches the ceramic surface through practiced wrist movement and line control.

Early pottery in Ohori village is associated with locally gathered clay used for tea bowls. Later changes brought celadon glaze and other shifts in surface and form; celadon glaze is said to have appeared by the late Edo period, while the Meiji and Taisho periods brought changes in glazes and vessel shapes.

After 2011, the material chain changed sharply. Toyama stone, formerly used for celadon glaze, could no longer be used, so makers tested other clay and glaze materials to find blends suited to Obori Soma ware. Continuity here is concrete work: selecting clay, adjusting glaze, and reading the fired surface.

After the March 2011 earthquake and nuclear accident, the Ohori district was placed under evacuation restrictions. More than 20 kilns had to leave town, and about half later rebuilt kilns elsewhere; makers also restarted activity at new sites within Fukushima Prefecture.

In 2021, the cooperative opened an office and workshop inside Namie no Waza Nariwai-kan in Namie Town. Pottery classes, event appearances, visits, and displays of member works gave the ware a renewed town base for vessels and hand skills. In 2023, evacuation orders were partly lifted around facilities including Togei no Mori Ohori, and production-area recovery moved closer to Ohori again.

Encountering Obori Soma ware today can begin at the Namie workshop and pottery classes. Around hands-on making and displays, double walls, running horses, and blue crackle become tangible details rather than isolated names: vessel form, brush line, and glaze change can be seen together.

Since fiscal 2019, the cooperative has used a regional revitalization cooperation program to attract younger makers, while preserving experienced craft workers’ techniques on video. The continuing scene is concrete: a workshop, young makers, recorded hand movements, and vessels still being fired after displacement.