Shigaraki-yaki

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Shigaraki-yaki is one of the six oldest pottery styles in Japan. It is made around the traditional city of Shigaraki in Shiga prefecture. It is typically stoneware, made with local clay and fired in an anagama kiln which gives it an ash glaze. Typicaly Shigaraki clay contains small feldspar stones. Pottery making began in Shigaraki around the 12th century, towards the end of the Kamakura period. It came to prominence during the Muromachi period when the natural simplicity of the Shigaraki and Bizen-yaki pottery came into fashion for tea ceremony utensils. Shigaraki is also a center for the production of tanuki statues.