Hori Toshiro

The Majesty of Glaze

Hori Toshiro

Hori Toshiro is an artist specializing in traditional Mino Momoyama ware techniques such as Shino, Setoguro, Oribe, and ki-Seto. Using local clay and a wood-fired anagama kiln, he crafts rich textures and lustrous glazes that exemplify the genre's wabi sabi elegance.

Hori is a Kani City Intangible Cultural Property Holder of Shino, and inherited Setoguro from Living National Treasure Kato Kozo, alongside whom he worked for fifty years. Today, Hori actively contributes to the revival and spread of Mino Momoyama ceramics. In addition to his own artistic pursuits, Hori acts as technical advisor to ceramics brand deidei to pass the craft on to future generations.

The Revival and Legacy of Mino Momoyama Ceramics

Mino ware ceramics of the Momoyama period (1573–1603 CE) helped define the wabi-sabi spirit of Japanese ceramics, yet key techniques like Shino soon disappeared. After a 300-year hiatus, potter Arakawa Toyozo revived these Momoyama styles and was designated a Living National Treasure in 1955; his findings were later passed on by Kato Kozo, Hori’s teacher. Following their path, Hori continues to explore and reinterpret Shino and Setoguro today.

Pursuing authentic Mino Momoyama ware, Hori fires in a traditional anagama kiln and experiments with clay mixtures to reproduce the textures of the era’s pottery shards. Yet he is neither beholden to the past nor to others’ judgments of what makes “good” art. Hori operates based on his own deep intuition to create works that feel true to his intention and inner sense of beauty. To pass on his knowledge and technical expertise, Hori remains actively involved in nurturing future talent.

The Art of Shino and Setoguro

Among Hori’s specialties are Shino ware and Setoguro. Shino was the first Japanese ceramic style to successfully use a white glaze, a technical milestone in Japanese pottery. Shino’s feldspar-based glaze has a soft-looking, milky-white finish. During firing, Shino glaze contracts more than the clay body underneath, creating a unique texture known as kairagi. This allows the clay body to show through, creating color contrasts of red, brown, gray, or crimson. A Shino ware piece continues to beautify with time and use as tea’s pigments slowly color the crackles in the glaze, a unique part of Japanese tea culture.

Setoguro is characterized by a glossy black finish, achieved by taking a piece out of the kiln mid-firing and plunging it in water to rapidly cool it. Correctly timing the moment of extraction is crucial, and firing in an anagama kiln has a unique power. Hori says, “When you pull a piece out, it’s incredibly moving. Kiln firing is like a fire festival and a battle with yourself.”

What sets Hori’s Shino and Setoguro ware apart is not only their rich artistic expression and the extremely high level of technique used in glazing and firing, but their place in the lineage of Mino Momoyama ware.

Biography

Hori Toshiro was born in 1953 in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. In 1976, he moved to Tajimi, Gifu Prefecture, to study Mino ware under Kato Kozo, who was designated a Living National Treasure in 2010 for his mastery of the Setoguro technique. Hori and Kato worked alongside each other for almost 50 years, until Kato passed away in 2023.

In 2018, Hori was certified as a Kani City Intangible Cultural Property Holder of Shino ware. He is a member of the Japan Kogei Association and the Mino Ceramics Association. His awards include the Japan Kogei Association Tokai Branch’s 27th Nagoya Mayor’s Award (1996) and the 28th Gifu Prefectural Board of Education Award (1997). From 2023–2024, he collaborated with Nara’s Yakushiji Temple, a World Heritage Site, to create Shino and Kiseto wares using clay unearthed during renovations to the temple’s East Pagoda. These pieces exhibited at World Expo 2025 in Osaka for the Yakushi Temple–Jordan Pavilion Commemorative Tea Ceremony. Since 2022, Hori has acted as technical advisor to deidei, which is managed by his son, Hori Taichi.

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