Pottery Towns | Explore Japanese Ceramics

Pottery Towns in Japan

We have unique and traditional pottery towns in Japan.
You will find favorite places to visit from the following list.

Mashiko

Mashiko Ware: Characteristics

Mashiko Ware centers on the concept of “Functional Beauty”

It is said that Mashiko Ware began at the end of the Edo Era when Keisaburo Otsuka, who trained in Kasama, built a kiln. From that point onwards, because of the area’s yield of excellent kaolin and the fact that the large metropolis of Tokyo [...]

Mashiko - Potter

Hamada Shoji (1894-1978)
Hamada was a ceramicist who advocated the folk arts movement. He once wrote, “I found my way in Kyoto, began in Great Britain, learned in Okinawa and graduated in Mashiko”.
In 1955, he was designated as the first Living National Treasure, and in 1968, he was awarded with Japan’s Order of Culture.

Shimaoka Tatsuzo (1919-2007)
Shimaoka [...]

Mashiko - Photos

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Photos by Mashiko Town Tourist Association

Mashiko - Travel

Basic Information / Articles
- Wikipedia
- Wikitravel
- About.com
- iGuide
- The Japan Times
- Frommer’s
- e-YAKIMONO.NET
- Japan National Tourism Organization
- Mashiko Town Tourist Association (Japanese)
- Photos on flickr

Mino

Mino Ware: Characteristics

Kizeto (Yellow Seto)
This is a yellow pottery created in Mino during the Momoyama Era. Tableware such as pots and bowls, vases, incense burners and containers were created in this style with tableware being especially common. The name comes from the description “…yellow pottery from Seto”. From the consumer’s point of view, because there [...]

Mino - History

THE BEGINNING OF MINO KILNS
In Tounou, the southwestern area in Gifu Prefecture, the manufacture of pottery through kilns started from the early Kofun, or Tumulus, Era of the 7th century; such pottery was called Sue Ware, or Sue-ki, and were fired in underground kilns carved into mountain slopes called anagama.

Sue Ware was brought over from [...]

Mino - Potter

Kato Takuo (born 1918)

Takuo Kato, who was the eldest son in a family for the venerable Koubei Kilns, was attracted by Persian ceramics on a trip to Iran while he was a student in Finland during the postwar period. He underwent through a lot of hardship as he experienced excavations in the desert, but succeeded [...]

Mino - Photos

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>> History
>> Potter
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Photos by Tajimi City

Mino - Travel

Basic Information / Articles
- Wikipedia (Tajimi / Toki)
- Wikitravel (Tajimi)
- iGuide (Tajimi)
- e-YAKIMONO.NET
- Tajimi City Tourist Association (Japanese)

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