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, also spelled ''Onda'', is a type of
The earth for the pottery is found in the mountains around Onta. It normally comes in the form of rocks and needs to be ground to a powder. This is done by the usage of traditional water scoops or mills called ''kara-usu'', which rely purely on the flow of the river. The wooden mills grind the earth into a powder, which is then washed and filtered multiple times to purify the material. It is then dried, sometimes over a large oven. The village has a self-imposed limit on how much earth can be taken from the mountains each year to ensure that there is enough material for future generations to continue production.
The village is a tightly-knit community composed of, as of 2024, ten families of potters going back generations. The work such as the purification of the earth is done by women, while men are responsible for actually creating the wares. Pieces are never signed by an individual but only with the sign of the Onta village. This is to signify that the production of a single vessel was the combined work of the community, not just one person.
Onta ware traditionally consists of utility vessels such as bowls, plates, and tea cups. The style is most often
Ontaya website
JapanVisitor.com City Guide
A Tour of the Pottery Towns of Southern Japan Part II - Onta
{{Authority control Japanese pottery Culture in Ōita Prefecture
Japanese pottery
is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and Japanese art, art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Types have included earthenware, pottery, stoneware, porcelain, and Blue and white porcelain, blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exception ...
produced in and around the village of Onta in Ōita Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,081,646 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, K ...
, Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
History
The production dates back to the early 18th century CE. Onta ware is closely associated withMingei
The concept of , variously translated into English as " folk craft", "folk art" or "popular art", was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by a philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), together with a group of craftsmen, includin ...
folk art.
Onta ware was inscribed by the national government in 1995 as an Intangible Cultural Property. The area has also been inscribed as one of the protected 100 Soundscapes of Japan The are a number of noises selected by the Ministry of the Environment (Japan), Ministry of the Environment as particularly representative of the country. They were chosen in 1996, as part of government efforts to combat noise pollution and to prot ...
.
Production
The earth for the pottery is found in the mountains around Onta. It normally comes in the form of rocks and needs to be ground to a powder. This is done by the usage of traditional water scoops or mills called ''kara-usu'', which rely purely on the flow of the river. The wooden mills grind the earth into a powder, which is then washed and filtered multiple times to purify the material. It is then dried, sometimes over a large oven. The village has a self-imposed limit on how much earth can be taken from the mountains each year to ensure that there is enough material for future generations to continue production.
The village is a tightly-knit community composed of, as of 2024, ten families of potters going back generations. The work such as the purification of the earth is done by women, while men are responsible for actually creating the wares. Pieces are never signed by an individual but only with the sign of the Onta village. This is to signify that the production of a single vessel was the combined work of the community, not just one person.
Onta ware traditionally consists of utility vessels such as bowls, plates, and tea cups. The style is most often slipware
Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, whi ...
.
See also
*Mishima ware
Mishima ware (三島焼) refers to different types of imported and adopted Japanese pottery. Mishima originally refers to the shimamono pottery imported from the islands of Taiwan, Luzon, and "Amakawa" (Macau). They were characterized by being roug ...
, which also uses the slip technique
* Koishiwara ware
References
Further reading
*External links
Ontaya website
JapanVisitor.com City Guide
A Tour of the Pottery Towns of Southern Japan Part II - Onta
{{Authority control Japanese pottery Culture in Ōita Prefecture