SUZU-YAKI– THE POTTERY OF SUZU,

THE SISTER CITY OF PELOTAS[i]

L. C. Vinholes

When in 1962, I visited for the first time the city of Suzu I had the opportunity to know dozens of jars, plates, vases, bottlrd, etc. and pieces of what, years after, became to be known as Suzu-yaki (&
29664;&
27954;), pottery produce in the North of the Noto Peninsula, in the Prefecture of Ishikawa, facing the Japan Sea, immense water surface between Japan and the continental area of Asia where are the South and North Korea and the Russia.

Suzu, the sister-city of Pelotas, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, resulted from the merge, on July 15th, 1954, of fourteen villages with an area of 247,20 km2, with its municipal headquarter in the Iida Ward and, today, with having about 18,000 inhabitants.

The wordyaki has as its root to the verb yaku (&
28988;&
12367;) – to cook, to burn -, meaning cooked, grilled, burnt, roasted. Suzu-yaki flourished at the end of the Heian Period (794-1185) to the end of the Muromachi Period (1333-1573), disappearing during the Sengoku Era, marked by internal wars between 1493 and 1573. Carried by boots, it was commercialized in the markets of Izumo, Sado and Ezzo, today the prefectures of Niigata and Akita, and of the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the Japanese archipelago.

The plans to develop the Noto Peninsula in the second half of the XX century included the construction of roads, foundations for buildings until then unknown in the region, tunnels and other public improvements. From the excavations and diggings come out masterpieces and whole samples of pottery of domestic use, dark gray, unglazed; produced in kilns that reach temperature of more than 1,200ºC, using the Pinus densiflora, known as the “red Japanese pine”, and the cooling system called kusube-yaki in which the flow of oxygen is drastically decreased. From the excavated slops to create space for new improvements came out funerary urns and from the sea the nets of fishermen hoisted potteries covered with barnacles, marine crustaceans commonly attached to the hulls of boats, turtle shells and whales.

In the mid of the years 1950, were located furnaces remains identified as those used in the production of Suzu-yaki pottery that, in the process of firing clay with high iron concentration combined with carbon, produces the "ash-black color", with ash spread over its surface, giving a distinctive and unique finish. It is common opinion among experts that, with time, the color of the Suzu-yaki ceramic surface "matures" and also becomes more natural and accurate.

In 1978, around 400 years since de Suzu-yaki disappeared the Municipality of Suzu, after collect a significant number of pieces of expressive beauty and archaeological value, built the Suzu-yaki shiryokan, Center for Preservation of Relics, a kind of museum open to the public, with technical team headed by Tenshyu Hirata, administered by the Manager of Cultural Assets Syojyu Oyasu, where are promoted courses and workshops for the training of new potters. In its courtyard was built a kiln in the manner dictated by the research and the garden surrounding it is decorated with replicas produced in 2009. With the emergence of furnaces with specifications of those who were pioneers, this ceramic rose again, marking the rebirth of Suzu-yaki.

Suzu-yakipottery were part of the household equipment used in daily life not only by the inhabitants of the northern part of the Noto Peninsula, but also all along the coast of the Sea of Japan, from generation to generation. After the dissemination of research and studies done in the 1950s and the creation of the Suzu-yahi shiryokan this pottery has gained recognition which led to many heirs to sell it, which is why it is found in the antique fairs and markets at high prices.

Since October 2013, the collection of the Museum of Art Leopoldo Gotuzzo in Pelotas has six pieces of Suzu-yaki pottery produced by the most renowned contemporary potters among which stand out the names of Eiichi Konishi, Konishi Kazuko, Kou Nomura, Den Onodera and Takashi Shinohara, and also eight fragments donated by the above-mentioned Suzu-yaki shiryokan that allow to observe the characteristics of Japanese medieval period pieces: robust thickness, colorful unmistakable, external texture enriched by drawings produced by tataki-ita (chopping block) a kind of "paddles" with parallel grooves or folded, ribbed leaves of tree and logos (monsho = &
32011;&
31456;). There is disagreement on how was this wood instrument since it was not found a single copy, but it is believed that it was sturdy and heavy enough to beat and print drawings in the surface of the pottery at the same time that the corresponding inside was supported by a round stone.