Hagi

Hagi ware, from Hagi City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, traces back to the early 17th century, founded by Korean potters brought to Japan following the late-16th-century invasions of Korea and supported by the local Mori clan, who favored the tea ceremony and created steady demand for tea utensils. That early tea-ceremony connection earned Hagi lasting prestige: a traditional ranking of Japan’s most admired tea-ceremony pottery places it second, in the saying “Ichi Raku, ni Hagi, san Karatsu” (“first Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu”).

What makes Hagi distinctive is a trait that most traditions would treat as a flaw. Its soft, porous body and milky glaze develop kannyu, fine crazing, more readily than most other pottery, and tea seeps into those cracks over years of use, gradually staining and deepening the color of the glaze. Hagi potters and collectors specifically prize this slow transformation, called nanabake (“the seven changes”), as the entire point of using a piece daily rather than a problem to avoid, making Hagi one of the clearest examples of why kannyu is valued rather than hidden in Japanese pottery.