The formation process of Hidasuki, a characteristic reddish coloring pattern on traditionalJapanese unglazed stoneware called Bizen, was studied through model experiments. Pelletsof the same type of clay used to form Bizen stoneware were heated to 1250
C with andwithout contact with rice straw and then were cooled at different rates. A reddish colorappeared for relatively slowly cooled samples when rice straw was present. Owing to thepresence of potassium in the rice straw, the mullite (3(Al,Fe)
2O
3·2SiO
2), the major phaseformed in the absence of rice straw, was replaced by corundum (
-Al
2O
3), hematite (
-Fe
2O
3),and others in the surface region of about 50
m in depth. The corundum precipitated ashexagonal platelike crystals, and on the edges of these crystals the hematite grew epitaxially.The growth continued so that the primary corundum crystals were wholly covered byhematite to form a specific single crystalline
-Fe
2O
3/
-Al
2O
3/
-Fe
2O
3 structure. Thecontribution of this unique microstructure to coloring is discussed. On the basis of theseanalytical results, the Hidasuki pattern was reproduced artificially in the form of writtencharacters.