Free guide · 6 min read
Japanese for ceramics & pottery
Studio vocabulary, the main regional styles, and the aesthetic words that come up whenever Japanese pottery is discussed.
Japanese ceramics carries a vocabulary of its own, much of which has no clean English equivalent - which is exactly why the Japanese words are worth having.
In the studio
焼く is the same verb you met for grilling food - Japanese uses one word for applying heat, which is why pottery styles are named 〜焼 (-yaki): 楽焼 (raku-yaki), 備前焼 (bizen-yaki). Once you spot 焼 you can read most kiln names.
Styles and pieces
金継ぎ is 金 (kin, gold) + 継ぐ (tsugu, to join). Rather than hiding a repair it makes the break the most beautiful part of the piece - the clearest possible expression of the aesthetic in the next section.
The aesthetic vocabulary
味がある literally means “it has taste”, and it’s high praise for an object: it means the piece has character, often precisely because it isn’t perfect. It’s the everyday, conversational form of the idea 侘び寂び names formally.
These phrases get built into real conversation in the90 day course. The first week needs no account.