POTTERY IN JAPAN.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1525, 14 November 1873, Page 13

POTTERY IN JAPAN.

An Exchange has the following:— At the Kioto Exhibition, which we have already made mention of, a small pottery was represented, in which natives, male and female, were engaged in moulding, glazing, and ornamenting saucers and basins of coarse grey earthenware. From a paper published at Hiogo, we glean a few particulars as to the mode of procecdJ ng, which has some novel features about it. There was a single potter's wheel, but the women fashioned saucers without its aid. Taking up a dish of clay, the workwoman flattened it with her fingers into a rude disc, then bending her left arm, which was covered with calico, till her hand rested on her shoulder, she held the flattened piece of clay in her right hand, and striking it several times against her left elbow, while at the same time giving the clay half a turn, she quickly succeeded in making a rude vessel—half basin half cup. One of the men brushed on the glaze, and another—armed with a hair pencil—dashed in an odd spray or two in a very rough style. The sides of the building were open, so that every process was to be seen from the outside, and appeard to afford much interest to the native onlookers. There were a couple of small portable kilns, in which the vessels were to be seen baking.