Shigaraki

Shigaraki, around Koka City in Shiga Prefecture, traces its pottery tradition back to the Nara period (710 to 794 CE), giving it one of the longest continuous production histories among Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns. Its clay comes from the ancient bed of Lake Biwa, deposits roughly 4 million years old, valued for its fire resistance and workability.

Like Bizen, Shigaraki pottery is traditionally unglazed, relying on natural ash glaze (shizen-yu) that forms when wood ash melts onto the surface during firing, along with reddish hi-iro fire marks, so no two pieces come out identical. Shigaraki is also the birthplace of Japan’s ceramic tanuki (raccoon dog) statue, a good-luck figure that potters began making in the late Edo period. The tradition stayed largely local until 1951, when Emperor Showa visited Shigaraki, saw rows of tanuki statues lining the streets, and wrote a poem about them, a moment credited with turning the tanuki figure into a nationally recognized symbol associated with the region.