Ceramics is an art form unlike any other. At the heart of pottery making is the kiln, where fire and ash holds court. From the dance of flames, air, wood ash and other combustibles, a piece comes out irreversibly transformed, looking nothing like the original raw clay. The Japanese call this kiln-induced transformation Yohen (kiln change) and the resulting surface landscape, Keshiki.

Keshiki manifests in an infinite number of ways. They include scorched marks from the heat of the kiln, flashes of reddish orange on a pitted surface, rivulets of glaze dripping this way and that, pools of glassy glaze known as “dragons’ eyes”, sprays of melted ash resembling sesame seeds, red and orange fire cord marks where rice straws dissolved onto the clay body (Hidasuki). While these accidental kiln effects seem like mistakes, they are highly prized by ceramic connoisseurs for their wabi sabi aesthetics – the profound beauty found in imperfection and transience. Nowhere is this appreciation more evident than in ceramic utensils used in the tea ceremony, where a tea bowl cherished for its earthly appearance sit side by side with a tea caddy with a similar Keshiki, both serving as quiet reminders of the grace found in rustic simplicity.

This post showcases examples of Keshiki, using pieces drawn from the Museum of Modern Ceramics SG, a private museum dedicated to Japanese ceramics from the 17th century to the present era. A total of 50 pieces have been chosen and presented with brief captions and descriptions. You are encouraged to view the works leisurely, taking turns to examine each piece’s unique landscape, noticing the subtle details as well as the “negative spaces” that contribute to each work’s character and beauty. Most of the objects are connected to tea and sake, Japan’s two foundational liquid cultures deeply intertwined with the country’s history, spirituality and artistic tastes. There are also objects of everyday use not directly connected to tea or sake but are included for the superb craftsmanship and landscapes they display. More details of the pieces featured can be found on the museum’s website at https://momc-sg.com.

The Landscape of Clay: Fifty Works from the Museum of Modern Ceramics SG

Bizen city is one of the Six Ancient Kiln sites in Japan, with pottery that dates over a thousand years. Bizen ware is elemental – it is unglazed and fired over long periods in wood-fired kilns, creating a variety of ash glaze sceneries the Japanese call Yohen (kiln-changed effects). Here, we see the highly-prized Hidasuki or fire cord marks pattern formed by wrapping rice straws around strategic parts of a vessel, creating a landscape born of chance and intention.

Besides Hidasuki, Bizen ware is known for the Goma or sesame seeds effect seen in this voluptuous sake bottle. The landscape is enhanced by a V-shaped pattern of glaze drips caused by fly ash settling and melting on the clay body during firing.

Three sides of a brilliant sake cup by Isezaki Koichiro who descends from a family of distinguished Bizen potters that include two Living National Treasures. From left to right, the images show the Goma (sesame seeds) pattern, streaks of melted ash and the Hidasuki (flame marks) effect.

The late Living National Treasure Fujiwara Yu (1932-2000) is known for his signature “shiso-purple” and blue hues on unglazed Bizen pottery achieved entirely through masterful control of the kiln atmosphere, especially the level of oxygen during firing. This magnificent vase shows clouds of silvery purple swirling around Botamochi marks (the circles of orange-brown) created by strategically placing small round pieces of highly refractory clay on the vase before firing.

A tokkuri by Wakimoto Hiroyuki who is renowned for his innovative interpretations of traditional Bizen ware. Operating as an “outsider” who did not inherit a multi-generational pottery lineage, he has gained international acclaim for breaking away from standard look and feel of traditional Bizen ceramics to pioneer distinct, geometric and abstract clay forms. The landscape of this bottle – with its bold abstract pattern – demonstrates his mastery of natural ash glazing and kiln atmosphere control.

A rectangular vase with an abstract landscape of biomorphic patterns by a rising star of Bizen ceramics, Isezaki Koichiro whose father is a Living National Treasure for Bizen pottery. The distinctive biomorphic patterns result when ash and direct flames interact organically with the unglazed clay surface during prolonged wood-firing inside an anagama (sloping cave) kiln.

Chaire are for tea caddies for storing powdered macha tea for the tea ceremony. They are considered aesthetic objects, the finest ones passed down over generations as heirloom pieces. This ancient tea caddy dates to the early years of the Japanese tea ritual in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was fired for a week at up to 1300 degrees in a wood kiln, enough time for wood ash to settle and and melt on the surface, imbuing it with unique natural glaze and textural variations.

Iga ware is known for its rugged, asymmetrical forms and rich, natural textures that is highly prized for the traditional tea ceremony. This vase embodies the best of that tradition with a rugged, uneven form and distinct natural ash glaze, A highlight of the piece is the “dragon’s eye” perched just below a corner of the rim, the result of high-temperature wood firing causing the ash melt to vitrify into a glassy glaze known as bidiro.

A muzusashi is a tea ceremony vessel for storing hot water. Made from Iga clay, its surface is covered with a rustic texture and greenish-yellow color typical of Iga pottery. The artist has added a few strokes of iron-oxide paint for artistic flourish. The overall landscape is subdued, fully resonating with the wabi-sabi aesthetic of restraint and imperfect beauty.

Raku tea bowls are synonymous with the Japanese tea ceremony. They are fired at relatively low temperatures in a charcoal kiln, then rapidly cooled to achieve dramatic glaze sceneries such as crazing (tiny surface cracks) and lustrous glaze textures. Sometimes potters add scenery by incising groves or thinning the glaze on parts of the surface as seen in this red tea bowl, a copy of the famous original piece by Ho’nami Koetsu. As with the original, the color variations of this piece comes from the interaction between the iron-rich clay, the translucent lead glaze, and the unpredictable conditions during firing in the charcoal kiln.

A black Raku chawan (tea bowl) by highly talented artist, Ho’nami Koetsu dating to the early 17th century. A striking feature of this tea bowl is the nearly vertical sides which drop down from the rim like a cliff. Adding to the naturalistic landscape are patches of raw clay breaking out of the glossy black surface.

This centuries-old Raku tea bowl has a slightly wavy rim that gives it a gentle character. Against a matte black background, the artist incorporated a landscape feature known as Hima – a small unglazed portion where the bare clay peeks through. While this might seem like a mistake, Japanese tea masters treasure these “imperfections” as they bring out the beauty of the clay and provide a subtle contrast to the dark glaze. Even today, Hima is celebrated by some of the most renowned Raku ceramicists, including Raku Kichizaemon XV, the 15th head of the fabled Raku pottery family in Kyoto (see next photo).

A Raku tea bowl with a “window” of yellow-amber mottling that resembles a mountain scenery. These landscapes occur naturally due to impurities in the clay being distributed unevenly or where the glaze layer is thinner, causing chemical variations known as yohen or kiln transformations. The spontaneous color variations are prized by Japanese tea masters for the natural wabi-sabi aesthetics they give. One of the most famous yohen black Raku tea bowl is the Yachiyo (“eternal”) chawan by the 13th century head of the Raku family, Raku Seinyu (see next photo).

Mount Fuji is the inspiration for this tea bowl originally by Ho’nami Koetsu in the late 16th or early 17th century. To create this tea bowl (designated a National Treasure of Japan), Koetsu applied a thick, white glaze over the surface, then fired it in a charcoal firing kiln, skilfully turning it to allow localized heat intensity and atmospheric changes to carbonize the lower portion. The current piece is a faithful copy of the original by the popular ceramic artist Yanashita Hideki.

Red Raku chawans are not uncommon but this one is special. It has a sublime glaze scenery marked by floating tuffs of grey and black resembling drifting clouds . The maker of this tea bowl is the 14th head of the renowned Raku family in Kyoto. Signifying the work’s artistic merits, this tea bowl is housed in a wooden box that bears the signature of the current head of the Omotsenke tea school, one of the three most prestigious tea schools in Japan.

Specks of white glaze dots the peach-gray surface of this Raku tea bowl that evokes a snowy scene. Sasaki Shoraku III is a highly respected potter based in Kyoto, known for his deep mastery of the Raku technique.

A white tea bowl in the Ido (traditional Korean) style. Reinvented by Japanese potters in the late 16th century as Kohiki ware, the style became a staple of the tea ceremony which celebrates rustic beauty and imperfections. This particular tea bowl is a modern interpretation of that style. It is created by coating a dark, iron-rich clay body with white slip and then finishing it with a translucent glaze. The three-layer method creates a soft landscape of rustic white that contrasts beautifully with spots of black.

Shino glaze is beloved by potters for its characteristic creamy white surface that is frequently pitted with tiny pores due to glaze shrinkage during firing. Black scorch marks are also common. They occur when carbon from the kiln’s burning wood is pulled into the glaze. Both effects define the landscape of this tea bowl.

This tea bowl by celebrated ceramicist, Hayashi Kotaro has a well-balanced form. The surface is covered with pitted white Shino glaze intermingled with raw clay. Brushes of iron-oxide paint (the dark brown areas) evoke a scene of wind-blown leaves.

A magnificent tea bowl made using Hagi clay by one of the most distinguished Hagi potter families in Japan. This tea bowl has a powerful presence reminiscent of a mountain. In fact, it is inspired by the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park where Miya Kyusetsu XIII, the current head of the Miwa family, spent time during his student days. The blend of thick white Hagi glaze and raw clay not only makes this work aesthetically pleasing but also lends it a monumental presence.

A tea bowl with variegated Shino glaze of white and orange hues. Parts of the clay body is left exposed, creating what looks like a mountain landscape. Elena Renker was born in Germany but emigrated to New Zealand. Her works reflect a profound sensibility to the Japanese’s love of nature.

A wood-fired white tea bowl by master potter Kato Kozo who was given the title of Living National Treasure for his work on refining Shino ware. The landscape of this tea bowl features a pitted surface with pockets of reddish-orange and purple splashes typical of Shino ware. The dark circular pattern known was Enso was intentionally painted with iron-oxide pigment but its rough and scorched texture was created naturally during the kiln firing when the iron concentration was heavy enough to bleed through the surface.

This sake cup embodies subtle textures and glaze gestures that have become the hallmark of Tsujimura Shiro, arguably Japan’s most beloved ceramic artist. Covered in a matte white glaze, the cup has scarcely any decorations apart from one spot brushed with dark blue glaze that appears like a butterfly in mid-flight. The abundance of negative space adds to the quiet beauty of the scene.

A wide-mouth sake cup with a captivating mottled appearance known as Madura. The effect is created by applying a cloudy straw ash glaze over coarse, iron-rich Karatsu clay and then firing the piece in a wood kiln under a reduction (oxygen-starved) atmosphere. As the kiln reaches high temperatures, iron from the raw clay body melts and dissolves into the rice straw ash glaze, creating a landscape of speckled spots in blue, brown, amber and black across the surface.

Resembling a mound of rock, the surface of this sake cup is draped in a combination of blossom pink and gray Shino glaze. Hayashi Yuka’s work is deeply inspired by nature and possess an aura of strength balanced by a softness that make her pieces appear both rugged and gentle at the same time.

A sake cup by the famed contemporary Hagi potter, Miwa Kyusetsu XIII displaying a scenery resembling snow clinging on rocks. Born in 1951 to an illustrious pottery family whose history dates to the 17th century, Miwa Kyusetsu’s work is characterized by applications of thick layers of white Hagi glaze on coarse stoneware to evoke the rugged landscapes of snow-covered mountains.

An asymmetric sake cup by the acclaimed Tanba artist, Nishihata Tadashi featuring a “snowy landscape” of thick, straw-white glaze pooled unevenly across a dark clay body like mountain snow. The raw clay at the bottom creates a stark grounding contrast that mimics exposed earth or rock beneath snow.

Shaped like a piece of rock, this kettle lid rest exudes wabi-sabi charm in its simplicity and rusticity. Yuko Ikeda’s work is inspired by nature, particularly the rocky landscape of the coastline she frequents.

The late Zenji Miyashita is a master of glaze gradations, a technique he developed to create the illusion of depth and distance like this sake cup which evokes landscapes like distant mountains or ocean waves. See also the next piece.

Within the tight space constraint of a sake cup, Akira Satake has created a landscape that alludes to waves crashing against rocks. Akira is a Japanese-American ceramist based in North Carolina, US.

An exceptional sake cup by the young Bizen potter, Baba Takashi featuring the rare Ao (blue) color achieved through precise reduction in the kiln atmosphere. But what makes this cup stand out is the swirl of colors and spotting from the wood-firing that suggests a picture of a galaxy.

This polygonal shaped sculpture is covered with a prismatic spectrum of colors achieved through multiple rounds of glazing and firing using special metallic oxide glazes. Depending on lighting and the angle it is viewed, the scenery of the sculpture changes, at times reminiscent of an aerial view of forests and coastlines and at other times, the look of some faraway galaxies.

Onishi Masafumi is the fourth generation head of one of the oldest kilns in Tanba, a mountainous region straddling Kyoto and Hyogo Prefectures. Its rugged landscape is the inspiration for the cracked rock-like surface of this tea cup.

Splashes of black on a white crackled surfaced defines the rustic yet contemporary-looking landscape of this pourer by Nikaido Akihiro who creates functional tableware using local clay from Mashiko. The signature deep black color on his vessels comes from a specialized technique called sabi-ki (literally translated as “rust-vessel”) which involves firing his pieces in an oil kiln, where the atmospheric conditions and heat draw out a matte and earthy black hue from the iron content of the clay.

This small vase is distinguished by a dense network of delicate and tactile cracks on its surface known as crazing. The crazing landscape is caused the glaze shrinking at a faster rate than the clay body as the piece cools down in the kiln. The glaze has no choice but to split into a fine web of lines as cooling takes place. Traditional Japanese aesthetics celebrate crazing as “imperfect beauty” that deeply resonates with the wabi-sabi philosophy central to the tea culture.

The young artist Gaku Nakane is a master of the craze technique which he applies to pieces formed by layering two varieties of clay. His works are inspired by the quiet beauty of aging, specifically his memories of how parched earth fractures when water drains from a rice paddy field. His mastery over his crazing technique earned him the prestigious Grand Prize at the Kikuchi Biennale XI in early 2026 for his piece Contemplation on Borders.

A sculpture by the young artist, Kamiya Asaho featuring jagged edges and a deliberately rough surface to evoke a geological landscape. The form of the piece was shaped by mixing vegetative materials with wet clay and then placing it in a mould dug into the ground. After glazing, the hardened piece is fired until it becomes a bed of bumpy bed of clay like a landscape that speaks of time, fragility and resilience.

Izumita Yukiya lives in Iwate Prefecture in Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region, known for its dramatic cliffs and coastal topography. His rugged-looking ceramic pieces mirror this rough terrain. This unique sculpture is created by pressing many thin layers of clay dug into folded paper in an origami-like fashion, a technique Yukiya calls Sekisoh (lamination). He uses locally sourced clay from the salt- and iron-dense coastal beaches of Iwate Prefecture, often mixing them with chamotte (pre-calcined, ground refractory clay) to give his pieces structural integrity and a gritty, robust texture (see next piece)

A powerful sculpture by Japanese-American ceramicist Akira Satake reminiscent of a geological fragment deeply fractured to reveal an inner landscape evocative of time, erosion and memory. The piece was carved from a single block of clay, then placed inside a charcoal kiln where it was fired under reduction to create a carbonized surface.

A rustic unglazed vase by Wataru Myoshu featuring a crackled textured surface that quietly embraces the wabi sabi notion of finding beauty in imperfection.

Shigaraki ware is known for its rough texture that epitomises the wabi sabi aesthetic. This faceted vase by one of Japan’s most respected ceramic artists blends the rustic look of Shigarki clay with a modern sensibility. The colors of the vase – dark brown with flashes of orange – are entirely from wood-firing without the use of glaze, while the faceted form gives it a alluring sculptural quality.

A cylindrical drinking vessel by Uchida Koichi who is also a painter and art collector. Uchida’s painting background shows up in this work which has a weathered and archaic look, and a simplicity reminiscent of modern abstract paintings like those by Mark Rothko and Agnes Martin.

A bottle-shaped vase by Sakata Jinnai who trained under the avant garde ceramic artist, Kamoda Shoji. The entire surface is covered with finely incised spirals echoing waves or the tempest of strong winds.

Moriyama Kanjiro’s works such as this sculptural vase feature Keshiki that manifest in a highly modern and unconventional way. While traditional Keshiki is usually associated with accidental kiln effects, Moriyama reinterprets this concept through intentional structure and complex firing techniques. He coats his pieces with iron and metal oxide-rich glazes, then fires them in a gas kiln under reduction, allowing a metallic sheen to develop when the fire draws out oxygen from the glazes.

Based in Iga, Mie Prefecture, Fukushima Kazuhiro works within the Iga tradition known for ceramics with earthly unglazed textures. His innovation lies in the application of specially formulated Oribe glaze to create vessels of vibrant green and blue as seen in this piece. The heavily textured and prominent crackled surface add depth to the landscape of the work.

This orb-shaped sculpture has a glossy sheen of natural glaze from fly ash that melted and settled on the surface during wood firing, producing a landscape of subdued colors and textures. Kato Kiyoyuki was a leading Japanese ceramic artist of the 20th century, celebrated for works that display strong sculptural quality and a refined modern sensibility.

A minimalist sculpture by Mihara Ken featuring a plain beige surface accented with a blush of orange on one side. The work is a unique blend of the archaic and modern. The simple palette sits within the traditional wabi sabi aesthetic, while the minimalist form gives the piece a contemporary feel. Mihara’s unglazed stoneware are exclusively fired in a gas kiln. His complex colors are achieved entirely through meticulous control of the kiln atmosphere rather than natural ash glaze as in wood-firing.

Although keshiki is normally associated with unglazed pottery, glazed ceramics can also produce beautiful landscape patterns such as glaze drips, glaze pools and crackle patterns. The scenery that results come primarily from the interaction between the kiln’s intense heat, the nature of the glazes, the reduction atmosphere and the cooling process. This contemporary tea bowl embodies all these elements. The artist used a specially formulated black clay as the base. He then brushes it with a bluish glaze that produces unique crackle patterns resembling ice crystals. The result of the surface is finished with platinum and palladium overglazes.

Kato Mami is an acclaimed ceramic artist based in Tokoname, celebrated for her “frost glaze” vessels she creates using specially formulated glazes and gas firing under exacting reduction control. This sculptural vase exemplifies her approach. It is made by layering, folding and draping thin wet clay slabs, firing the glazed piece at nearly 1300 degrees before cooling down to 1000 degrees. Her technique imbues the work with a distinctive icy luminous appearance reminiscent of shimmering glaciers.