Inside her studio, Murota Shiho paints intricate images onto miniature ceramic canvases.
Beginning with a white clay base, she uses a water-based ink pen to detail a contemporary design and fills it with gilded gold outlines and colourful enamels in a cycle of painting and firing. Murota makes use of her hard-won skills in creating Satsuma ware, yet instead of vases or teaware she produces delicate items small enough to sit in the palm of a hand: buttons. Murota has revived “Satsuma buttons” – first seen in the late Edo period when they were used as decorative fastenings for obi – and reimagines them as wearable artworks for today.
At its simplest, Satsuma ware is one of Japan’s well-established styles of pottery and one of Japan’s best-known export ceramics of the 19th century. The word ‘ware’ is used much like ‘ware’ in ‘earthenware’ or ‘stoneware’ in English. Unlike Arita ware or Kutani ware, which often have a smoother, porcelain-like body and more restrained or repeating patterns, Satsuma ware favours intimate detail, narrative imagery, or a slightly textured, earthy feel.
Black or white
Satsuma ware incorporates two very different styles of ceramics. Shiro Satsuma – White Satsuma – consists of ivory-bodied vessels gilded with gold and bright enamels depicting elaborate scenes that can captivate the eye from across a room. Its darker twin, Kuro Satsuma – Black Satsuma – favours restrained, dark glazes poured onto a black ceramic base. Unlike Shiro Satsuma, historically created as presentation pieces, Kuro Satsuma is primarily used for practical, everyday kitchenware.
A gallery of 2 items.
In the beginning
Satsuma ware takes its name from its historic birthplace, Satsuma, now known as Kagoshima Prefecture. It was here that Korean potters brought their skills and knowledge of ceramics in the late 16th century. Over generations, the craft flourished under the Shimazu clan, the powerful rulers of the Satsuma domain. White Satsuma, with its eye-catching decoration, was often commissioned as gifts for influential allies.
At the 1867 Paris Exposition, Satsuma ware was promoted as a cultural export, dazzling audiences and helping shape Western perceptions of Japanese ceramics. Its success continued at the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873 and the Philadelphia Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, opening new markets in the United States. By 1893, at Chicago World’s Fair, ‘Satsuma’ had emerged as a globally recognised name in the world of ceramics.
A gallery of 2 items.
This international demand developed alongside the Meiji Restoration in around 1868, which saw Japan emerge from a period of relative isolation. Kilns moved from domain control to cooperatives and, later, individually managed studios. The abolition of domain control meant that potters were no longer tied to daimyo (feudal lord) patronage – they could sell their wares freely. Artisans who’d once made decorated ceramics only on commission now had both the creative and economic incentive to produce for larger markets, including those overseas.
As the popularity of Satsuma ware grew, regional offshoots emerged: Kyō-Satsuma from Kyoto, Ōsaka-Satsuma, Kōbe-Satsuma, and Yokohama-Satsuma. Each reflects local tastes layered onto Satsuma ware’s successfully established style. In Kyoto, pieces were largely designed for overseas demand and often featured densely detailed scenes of Japanese life or floral patterns. A limited number of Kyō-Satsuma pieces incorporated ‘gosu blue’ – a deep, cobalt blue glaze – which was widely sought-after for its distinctive intensity.
Decorations and innovations
While Satsuma ware is often best known for painting and gilding, its surface richness relies on far more than pigment alone. One defining feature is kannyū, the fine cracks that form naturally as the glaze cools and contracts. Rather than being a flaw, cracks are celebrated: the lines are subtly stained or traced with gold enamel.
By the late 19th century, techniques such as sukashibori (openwork carving) had become a hallmark of Satsuma ware. Now a hallmark of Satsuma ware, sukashibori encompasses six different styles, which involve piercing and carving through the clay wall to create lattice-like patterns. The result is a delicate interplay of light and shadow that transforms a vessel into something almost architectural.
Beneath it all lies the clay itself. Kagoshima Prefecture is home to eleven active volcanoes and more than half of its mainland is covered with volcanic ash soil, or shirasu. Once heat-treated and expanded, “shirasu balloons” possess special qualities such as incombustibility, a high melting point, and low thermal conductivity. The Kagoshima Prefectural Institute of Industrial Technology and the Hioki Nanshū Kiln jointly developed a technique of incorporating shirasu balloons into the clay of Satsuma ware. This represents a contemporary attempt to fuse long-running craftsmanship with new materials.
A gallery of 2 items.
Satsuma ware today
Satsuma ware continues to flourish in Kagoshima, where a handful of active kilns shape clay much as they have for centuries. In small workshops, artisans bend over crackled vases and delicate bowls, layering enamels and gold with the same care given to those historic gifts sent overseas. The Chin Jukan kiln has been firing Satsuma pieces for over four centuries; visitors are able to watch firsthand as both white and black styles are created in their workshop. Nearby, the Araki-Toyo kiln also traces its lineage back to those same Korean potters who introduced their techniques to Japan. Its current head preserves a family lineage now fifteen generations strong.
For Murota Shiho, each of her miniature Satsuma buttons is a jewel-like keepsake. Collectors use them as earrings, cufflinks, or adornments on clothing. Behind each is a narrative – a favourite insect, a scene from the surrounding landscape or a symbolic motif for celebration. Just as the fires of the centuries-old kilns continue to burn, Murota’s Satsuma buttons build a bridge between the ceramics of Japan’s past and those created today. Satsuma ware is not only admired in auctions , but continues to thrive as a living ceramic tradition in Japan today.