Makers · 作家 · Tokoname
Shibakatsu
柴勝b. 1943
A small-pot kiln with an unusual reach: more than five hundred variations of colour and form, built up over decades of making what growers actually asked for. Shibakatsu is also one of the few makers whose seals tell you roughly when a pot was made.
At a glance
Drawn from the standard Japanese survey of bonsai ware and checked against pots we have handled.
- Art name
- Shibakatsu 柴勝
- Real name
- Katsuichi Shibata 柴田勝一
- Born
- 1943
- Region
- Tokoname, Aichi 常滑
- Entered the trade
- 1968
- Kiln
- Shibakatsu-en 柴勝苑, founded 1977
- Sizes
- 2–9 gō — roughly 6–27 cm
- Bodies
- Vermilion, purple and grey Tokoname clays; glazed ware
- Known for
- Small pots; range of colour and form
01 · 転換 The turn back
From the mould, back to the hand
Shibakatsu began in ceramics in 1968 and opened his own kiln, Shibakatsu-en, in 1977. The early output was press-moulded production ware — efficient, repeatable, and not especially personal.
In recent years he has moved the other way: to slab-building and hand-pressing as the main methods. The kiln now runs across the whole span from unglazed Tokoname clays — vermilion, purple, grey — through to glazed work.
押型量産から、タタラと押型による手づくりへ。
02 · 小鉢 Small pots
Five hundred variations, and counting
The pots are small. Most fall between about 6 and 27 cm across, and small pots are deliberately the centre of the work rather than a sideline.
What the kiln is known for is what it does inside that narrow range. Counting glazed and unglazed together, the variations of colour and form run to more than five hundred — not a catalogue designed in advance, but the residue of decades of answering what growers asked for. More recent work adds applied decoration, a direction that is still opening up.
“Not a catalogue. A residue of requests.”
03 · 落款 The seals
Two marks, two eras
Both marks read the same name. They are not interchangeable.
One was used on the press-moulded production ware of the earlier years. The other is applied to the handmade work — the survey describes it as a mark put on as evidence of the new direction.
So on this maker the seal is a rough date stamp, and a guide to how the pot in front of you was made.
| Mark | Reading | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 柴勝 | Shibakatsu — later stamp | Applied to the handmade work, as a mark of the new direction. |
| 柴勝 | Shibakatsu — earlier stamp | Used on the press-moulded production ware of the earlier period. |
What this gets you
Few makers give you this. If you can place which of the two stamps a pot carries, you have a reasonable read on both its period and its method — moulded or built by hand — before you have looked at anything else.
Photographs of these marks on pots from our own stock will be added here. A mark in the hand rarely looks like a printed plate — clay, glaze pooling and wear all change it.
04 · 培養 Inside the pot
A detail you will not see
One habit is worth knowing about, because it is invisible once a tree is in the pot.
While the body is still soft, the interior wall is scored with a spatula to roughen the surface. It is done deliberately, and for the tree rather than the eye: a rough inner wall encourages fine roots to develop and helps the clay take up water.
It is a small thing. It is also the difference between a vessel made to be looked at and one made to be grown in.
05 · 代表作 Documented works
Pieces recorded in the literature
Not for sale — the reference pieces published in the standard Japanese survey.
| Work | Size (cm) |
|---|---|
| Kin-glazed cut-corner rectangle, outer rim — after a Shokodo form | 16 × 13.5 × 5 |
| White kochi-glazed mokko — after a Chinese original | 16 × 13.5 × 6 |
| Marbled-glaze hexagon | 10.5 × 4.9 |
| Straight-sided square — purple Tokoname clay, very thin-walled | 8 × 7.5 |
| Kin-glazed straight-sided form with kiln effects | 8.5 × 14.5 |
06 · 用語 Glossary
The words on the label
- 号 gō
- A size unit for pots. Two to nine gō is roughly 6–27 cm.
- 押型 oshigata
- Press-moulding — forming clay in or over a mould.
- タタラ tatara
- Slab-building — construction from rolled sheets of clay.
- 朱泥 shudei
- Vermilion clay — the classic Tokoname unglazed body.
- 紫泥 shidei
- Purple clay — darker, cooler in tone.
- 木瓜式 mokkō-shiki
- A lobed outline, named for the quince flower.
Available
Shibakatsu pots in the collection
We handle Shibakatsu regularly, and they are among the most usable small pots we carry. Each is 一点物 ittenmono — one of one — and ships worldwide from Tokyo.
Sources
盆器大図鑑【上巻】 Bonki Daizukan, Vol. 1, p. 169. Checked against pots handled by YAKUMO JAPAN. Last verified 18 July 2026.
Where the record is unclear we say so rather than guess.