Yabu Rokuemon from Ono village started to learn around 1804/1810 from Honda
Teikichi who was working at that time at Wakasugi-gama. He opened later, in
1819, after the death of Teikichi, a kiln in the village of Ono .
He made pottery first with clay from Hachiman which is near the village of Ueda
but he could not get good quality pottery.
In 1822, he received help from the Prefecture officials. In 1830 he discovered
"nabetani stone" at 4 km of the next village. He tried to improve
the basic pottery by using this stone. Slowly he reached a good quality.
But this stone, as many other clay in Ishikawa Prefecture, includes a lot of
alumina and the temperature of transformation of pottery is very high, same
as in Wakasugi kiln and then it becomes yellow.
At this time, among the Kutani potters, there were good painters in many places
and they prospered in performing so called detailed painting -Saimitsuga which
is a specific character of Kutani.
Due to the success of his kiln, Rokuemon attracted good potters from Kaga area.
The famous painter Aoya Genemon from Komatsu entered in 1830, Matsuya Kikuzaburo
and Kutani Shoza from Terai village, who were also specially talented entered
a few years later in 1832. They all stayed for some times at Ono kiln and worked
very well. The kiln was then very prosper.
In 1834, the Lord gave protection to the kiln and enlarged the scale of production.
Generally the main styles of those painters is to use red with some time a touch
of Kutani green. Some of them did not use red at all and made only green Kutani.
Regarding the design It may be more easy to name the topic of the painting rather
than calling it by its design name (monyo).There are some typical topics as
the main subject such as people, bamboo forest and person, landscape, dragon,
phoenix, crane and flower. These are the main characters and favorite motifs
of Ono kiln.
The detailed painting using red color reached a peak at this time. We should
consider that it was the reflection of this period. Because of its delicatessen
and beauty, this kind of production from Ono kiln are some time called "Hime
Kutani or princess Kutani" .
At this time the workers in the field of pottery did not spend their life at
the same place, but they freely changed as they pleased and went from one kiln
to one other or to one other painting place or even opened their own business.
They had a spirit of independence and had their pride to maintain as a free
professional.
During the period 1830-44 Ono kiln was at its top. However, in 1841 Kutani Shoza
started his own business in Terai village and concentrated only on paint work.
In 1841 also, Rokuemon retired from the management of Ono kiln and Tsukano Sendaku
was nominated by the Han in his place. Sendaku who came from Ichihachi village
in Nomi Gun, started to manage the kiln. Sendaku began new business such as
visiting Maeda family in Kanazawa and other officials to whom he delivered products,
and he made efforts to develop the sales.
Around 1844 Aoya Genemon and Matsuya Kikusaburo left Ono kiln to open Rendaiji
kiln. Ono kiln lost then its best painters. The production decreased and at
last Ono kiln was able to supply only raw pottery to neighboring kilns.
Around 10 years later, in 1854, Sendayou wanted to stop and he quitted the kiln.
Then Yabu Rokuemon was called back to the kiln, the production which was mainly
limited to white pottery continued. But in 1868 the kiln closed.
Generally the name Ono gama is written in a double square, but they are many
pottery who have no identification whatsoever.