Porous ceramic material

A porous ceramic material comprising:

• a ceramic sintered body having a sliding surface which is formed with pores dispersedly located in said sintered body and exposed to the sliding surface, said pores being defined respectively by surface layers forming part of said ceramic sintered body, wherein particles of said ceramic sintered body are comprised of at least one material selected from the group consisting of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 system powder, Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 system powder, SiC system powder, AlN system powder and ZrO.sub.2 system powder;
• silicon contained in said ceramic sintered body, a content of silicon being higher in at least a part of said surface layers than that in other parts of said ceramic sintered body;
• and
• a lubricant supplied at least in pores exposed to the sliding surface;
• said porous ceramic material being produced by a method including the following steps in the sequence set forth:
• mixing ceramic powder and hollow particles which contain silicon so as to obtain a mixture;
• forming said mixture into a predetermined shape to obtain a formed body;
• and
• sintering said formed body at a temperature higher than a melting point of each hollow particle to obtain said ceramic sintered body formed with pores and containing silicon.