Collection: Wood-Fired Tenmoku on Porcelain

Tenmoku is an iron glaze often creating dark and beautifully irregular patterns in wood fired pottery.  This glaze comes originally from the Tianmu Mountain Temple (天目 tiān mù) where tea bowls were popular during the Song dynasty. In Chinese these iron-rich glazed tea bowls are know as Jian Zhan (建盏), and was brought to Japan during the Ming dynasty  to shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408). 

This tenmoku-glazed porcelain teaware was wood-fired in the Tozan Noborigama dragon kiln in our recent biannual community firings Each firing takes community members many hours of cutting, organizing and preparing and the firing itself takes 3 days and 2 nights around the clock of small-group 6 hour shifts, monitoring temperatures and adding wood.