What is icchin-gaki?

イッチン描き【Icchin-gaki】

Slip-trailing/slip-trailed decoration

The English translation is slip-trailing, a pottery technique known as tube drawing.

 

Decorative clay, glaze, or paint is poured into a tube called icchin (a bamboo tube with a spout or dropper), and you squeeze and put it on the pottery and ceramic surfaces to create a pattern. Gaki means drawing.

 

The English word “slip” is muddy porridge.

 

The origin of the other word “trail” comes from “tra-“ like tractors and tracks, which has the etymology of “to drag” or “to leave a mark by dragging.”

 

Consequently, “slip tra(il)” must evoke the technique of squeezing out a porridge-like liquid and putting it on pottery and ceramic surfaces to create a pattern to leave marks or draw patterns.

参考：〈「工芸」英訳ガイドライン〉（ ザ・クリエイション・オブ・ジャパン）