Sougama 艸窯 — Arita, Japan
The workshop of three ceramicists from the same family: Yuji, Namiko and Eight Kusaba. Each works a distinct repertoire of patterns — traditional motifs, plant forms, camouflage — within a single shared technique. Arita is known for what is painted on porcelain; at Sougama, the pattern is in the porcelain itself.

Neriage 練り上げ
Coloured clays are assembled into a pattern, layered into a slab, then pressed by hand into a mould, one piece at a time, and finished on the wheel to keep the crispness of porcelain. The pattern runs through the wall rather than sitting on it, so it reads the same inside and out.

Neriage is usually a stoneware technique; in porcelain it is rare and considerably more demanding, the coloured bodies having to move together at high temperature. Fired high, these pieces are unusually strong for their delicacy.