The porcelain stone was left to dry in the sun and broken down into fist-sized chunks. The stone was pounded into powder with water-powered drop-hammers called karausu that operated like a seesaw. The sound of the thudding hammers would have echoed through the town.

The crushed stone powder was sifted and mixed with water in a process called elutriation. This was repeated several times over the course of a month.

The processed mixture was left to mature for several years in a pit until it turned into a clay.

The clay was kneaded to soften it and remove air bubbles. It was thrown on a ‘kick-wheel’, a potter’s wheel turned with the foot, to form the desired shapes.

One worker illustrated here uses a spatula to shape bowls and the other forms gourd-shaped bottles.

For making uniform sets of ceramics or adding impressed decoration, a thrown vessel is pressed onto a mould. The moulds are made of porous biscuit-fired clay or wood.

The formed ceramics were left to air-dry before being biscuit-fired at around 900˚C. Biscuit firing strengthened the clay and burned off impurities, giving the surface a uniform colour. It also helped to reduce the overall shrinkage which prevented the glaze from separating from the body.

Underglaze decoration was applied to biscuit wares using a large brush called a dami fude. The surface would have been very porous so the longer the pigment was in contact with the body, the more colour would be absorbed and the darker the result. There were two specialisms in underglaze decorating: drawing lines (sengaki) and infilling (dami).

To make the porcelain shiny and waterproof, glaze was applied by pouring or dipping. The amount of glaze had to be controlled as too much glaze would run when melted.

The glaze was opaque when first applied but became transparent when high-fired at temperatures of 1,200-1,300˚C.

The main firing took place in a climbing kiln. These kilns were built on a hillside and could have up to 20 chambers. The chambers were fired sequentially uphill until the heat inside reached the desired temperature of 1,280˚C.

The time needed to fire a kiln depended on its size. It could take several days or weeks and required round-the-clock monitoring and fuelling.

Firing a kiln required a large quantity of wood for fuel. When porcelain production was booming, demand for wood was high. Deforestation of the local mountain forests caused devastating landslides and floods. In 1637, local administrators prosecuted 826 potters, and closed 11 kilns, to prevent the overcutting of trees.

The finished ceramics were inspected for defects and the approved wares were bundled in straw. Porters carried the ceramics 6 miles north to Imari port, where they were sold to merchants and shipped around Japan.

Wares bound for Europe and South-East Asia travelled south to Nagasaki Harbour, where designated Chinese and Dutch trading posts were based.