"Listening to the Voice of the Soil from Seto" began on Saturday, September 28th.
This exhibition was created in order to let more people know about "Frog's Eye," a pottery clay found in Seto that is said to be of the highest quality in the world.The exhibit was created by listening to the stories of many different people and presenting what we saw and heard as faithfully as possible.
We hope that this information will help you enjoy the exhibition even more, so we would like to introduce you to Frog Eyes and the contents of the exhibition.
Encountering clay, the origin of pottery
The entrance to the venue is a corner where raw clay is lined up.
This page explains the concept and how the clay suitable for pottery was created.
The clay on display has been collected from the mountains by the Aichi Prefecture Ceramic Industry Cooperative Association. Types of clay commonly used in Seto include gairome (frog's eye), kibushi (wood knot), white clay, and yellow clay.
These soils have been formed over millions of years in the course of the Earth's activities. Plutonic rock formed when magma cooled deep underground eventually turned into granite and clay.
The soil collected in Seto comes from the area where there was once a lake called Lake Tokai, which is said to be six times the size of Lake Biwa. Thanks to the lake, the granite did not flow into the sea and remained, forming a clay layer. After that, the lake disappeared, and various conditions that allowed the soil to mature were miraculously created, making it an extremely valuable natural resource.
"Gaerume" is the best clay for pottery
Among these, one soil that we would like to draw your attention to is "Frog's Eye," which can only be found in this region of the world. Frog's Eye is a mixture of quartz, an impurity called kira, and clay, and when it rains, the quartz shines and looks like a frog's eye, hence the name.
Why is frog eye suitable for pottery?
Its main feature is its plasticity, which allows it to retain its shape like a shape-memory alloy, making it very easy to throw on a potter's wheel. It turns pure white when fired and is highly fire-resistant. If it is refined and the clay content is mixed with feldspar and silica, it can even be used to make porcelain clay.
It is truly a clay that was born for pottery. Thanks to this clay, pottery has been produced in Seto for over a thousand years. However, frogeye is a natural resource that is dug from the mountains, and as it is dug up, it disappears.
I hope that more people will become aware of this fact. This is also the starting point of this exhibition.
From raw clay to clay products
The next thing we want you to see is the back of the front of the exhibit. It shows the process of turning raw clay into clay. Here, sand and clay are lined up as "products" made by people who handle ceramic raw materials.
Jinya Marusen Ceramic Materials is a raw material processing company founded in 1950 that manufactures and sells silica sand and clay, which are used to make glass.
Seto is actually the top producer of silica sand, a raw material for glass, in Japan. The clay deposits mentioned earlier also contain a lot of silica sand. Even within the same mine , both soil and silica sand can be extracted depending on the layer.
At the Jinya Marusen Ceramic Raw Materials factory, unnecessary materials such as minerals, sand, stones, and wood chips are removed from the raw sand (which is the same as raw clay, but mainly refers to silica sand) extracted from mines, and the sand and clay are separated. The particles are then refined and elutriated to produce silica sand and clay.
If you look at these sands with uniform particles, you will find that they are interesting to look at, with some being smooth like the sand found in overseas resorts, and others with slightly larger grains like those found at Japanese beaches. These are also products.
Next up is the Kasen Mine. In the early Taisho period, the ceramic artist Kato Kasen purchased the current mine. Since building a factory in 1956, he has been manufacturing and selling "suihigarome clay."
The exhibit is "Gaeru-me clay," which is made by extracting clay from the original clay of Gaeru-me. In this corner, panels clearly explain how clay is made from the original clay, so please take a look.
Next door is Maruishi Ceramic Raw Materials, which started out as Maruishi Pottery, a porcelain pottery factory manufactured by the first generation owner, Sekibei Kato, in 1874.
They sell about 10 types of clay, blended with various ingredients based on frogeye clay and wood-bush clay from Seto, and have earned the immense trust of Seto craftsmen.
Raw clay dug from the mountains is far from easy to use. To ensure a stable supply of the quality required by Tsukuri-te, we mix feldspar, silica, and other materials, and also source raw materials from overseas, and deliver clay products to the world.
The clay is blended and made. There are panels showing the process, so I would definitely recommend taking a look.
We have also prepared some small columns along this wall. We hope that they convey the atmosphere of Seto.
Tsukurite clay recipes released
In the central corner of the exhibition hall, Seto ware makers will be introducing the clay they use on a daily basis along with recipes.
Each pottery maker purchases a wide variety of clay or creates their own pieces from raw clay and delivers them to us. When looking at the products, it's easy to be drawn to the painting, but we also exhibit the state of the base before it goes into the firing process.
In the web article, we will also be giving special information about the products.
[Shin Kiln]
[ Soujuen]
[Sakusuke kiln]
[Miyama Pottery Studio]
[Seto Hongyo Kiln]
The exhibition focuses on clay, introducing the types of clay used and the particularities that are taken into consideration. This is detailed information that is rarely shown, and I think that both those who are unfamiliar with pottery and those who work in pottery will enjoy it.
I'll be in the gallery on the weekends. I'll also be running a pop-up shop, so please come and visit if you'd like.
"Listening to the Voice of the Soil from Seto"
Dates: September 28th (Sat) - October 20th (Sun)
Hours: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Venue: MUJI Nagoya Meitetsu Department Store Open MUJI
Address: 1-2-4 Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture 450-0002 Meitetsu Department Store Men's Building 6F Meitetsu Department Store Main Store
POPUP SHOP
September 28th (Sat), 29th (Sun), October 6th (Sun), 12th (Sat), 13th (Sun), 19th (Sat), 20th (Sun) 11:00am - 4:00pm
*We apologize for the inconvenience, but we will be closed on Saturday, October 5th.
