Tamba ware

Tachikui sits in the Tamba area of east-central Hyogo, within today’s Imada, Tamba-Sasayama. The cooperative base at Tamba Traditional Craft Park Tachikui Sue no Sato ties the place to clay preparation, product displays, pottery classes, events, and the everyday work of nearby kilns.

Two names often appear together: Tamba ware and Tamba Tachikui ware. Tamba ware gives the broader family name, while Tamba Tachikui ware places the kiln village directly in the name; in February 1978, the latter name received national traditional-craft designation. In reader terms, that status points back to concrete boundaries: kilns in the Tamba-Sasayama and Sanda district, shared clay work, inherited forming and firing skills, and the people who keep workshops active around Tachikui.

The beginnings of Tamba ware are placed from the late Heian period to the early Kamakura period. At the Sambontoge north kiln site in Imada, excavated old Tamba pieces, jars, and pots give the early period a material anchor in a named kiln site rather than a loose date range.

During the anagama period from the Kamakura through Muromachi centuries, kilns used mountain slopes for firing. Large coil-built vessels such as water jars, oil jars, seed jars, pots, and storage jars shaped the early production, tying the ware to storage, transport, and household use before later table and tea forms expanded the range.

After the early Edo period, Tamba ware shifted toward semi-aboveground climbing kilns built on slopes. A climbing kiln links several firing chambers along an incline, and the flame moves upward from the firebox through the connected chambers; compared with an anagama, this structure improves the passage of heat, shortens firing time to about one third, and suits larger batches.

The wider use of climbing kilns and kick wheels helped extend the product range beyond large jars. Pepper jars, tea utensils, and sake bottles appear in the later history, showing how a change in fire path, chamber structure, and forming tools opened room for different sizes and uses.

One local technique is especially specific: Tachikui forming uses a left-turning kick wheel. The potter’s foot drives the wheel while the hands raise the clay, and the rotation direction marks the making process as a Tachikui practice rather than a generic wheel description.

The present range includes tea utensils, bowls, tableware, flower vases, and decorative pieces. These forms let the wheel’s movement enter daily settings: a tea bowl meets the hand, a serving bowl meets food, a vase carries flowers indoors, and decorative pieces keep the clay and glaze visible beyond the dining table.

Tamba ware is often associated with tea-brown clay surfaces and a plain texture, yet the family also includes named surface techniques such as flowing glaze, nail carving, leaf patterns, stamped flowers, tube drawing, and marbling. A viewer can begin with the clay color, then look for glaze running down the wall, carved marks, pressed flowers, or leaf-shaped traces on the vessel.

Recent works also use colorful styles, so the ware should not be reduced to one fixed look. A more accurate reading stays with the material and process range: local clay work, wheel forming, climbing-kiln knowledge, other firing methods used today, and surface details that can be read by eye and hand.

The Hyogo Ceramic Art Museum holds 657 Tamba ware items: 522 collected pieces and 135 excavated pieces from old kiln sites. The collected materials center on everyday miscellaneous wares from the Muromachi to Meiji periods, keeping jars, pots, and household vessels visible as physical objects.

Later production followed changing use. The Meiji period brought one-sho sake bottles, the Taisho period brought medium-sized sake bottles, the early Showa period brought flowerpots, and after the war, jars, storage vessels, and bowls increased as everyday goods. Today the cooperative’s shared clay production, clay supply, displays, pottery classes, events, and successor training keep that practical vessel lineage connected to workshops around Tachikui.