美濃焼 (Mino-yaki)
Ceramics from the Tōnō region of eastern Gifu Prefecture, in a collective name for about fifteen traditional types. The best known were made for the tea ceremony in the Momoyama period: Shino, with a thick white feldspar glaze over iron-brown designs and small pinholes; Oribe, often in a copper-green glaze and deliberately irregular forms; Ki-Seto, in a pale yellow ash glaze; and Setoguro, a black glaze produced by pulling the vessel from the kiln while red-hot. The same region also produces most of Japan's everyday porcelain and stoneware tableware. It was designated a national Traditional Craft on July 22, 1978.
Risk level: Stable · Not inscribed; designated a Traditional Craft by the Japanese government (1978), and Arakawa Toyozō was designated a Living National Treasure (1955) for Shino and Setoguro
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