Satsuma-yaki
薩摩焼
さつま･やき
Ceramic style from the former Satsuma prefecture, which is part of today's Kagoshima prefecture. In addition to the original dark clay ceramics, it is the ivory-coloured ceramics with sometimes very detailed and extensive painting that were originally produced especially for export and were very popular in the western world.
Midori Hashino developed this style further around 1985 to create Sakurajima Yaki. He used ash from the Sakurajima volcano in the bay of Kagoshima, which regularly covers the region with its ash during its frequent eruptions. He mixed this into the clay and also used water with a particularly high iron content to achieve completely new and unusual colour results.
Example of a Satsuma bowl from Markus Hastenpflug's collection of unique pieces.