The glaze was originally developed to try and replicate celadon ware imported from China, and the shape is a traditional Kinuta, or mallet, shape popular in the Chinese Song dynasty. Made with a porcelain body and a very refined warabai, rice straw ash, glaze, the Makuzu family use the same rice farmer year after year to get such a beautiful gentle colour from their glaze. The variation and colour of the glaze soon led to it becoming popular in its own right.