1823-1896
male
kyo pottery
kutani porcelain
Also known as Nishimura Wazen. Eldest son of Hozen. He was very fond of Ninsei, and in 1852, he and his younger brother-in-law, Munesaburo (Kaizen) opened the new Eiraku Omuro Kiln on the remains of the Ninsei Kiln. Afterwards in the 14th year of the Tenpo Era (1843), he inherited the 12th generation name of Eiraku due to his father Hozen’s retirement.
After that, in the second year of the Keio Era (1866), he was invited by Maeda Toshinaka of the domain of Daishoji in Kaga, and he opened the Kutani Eiraku Kiln with Munesaburo and his son Tsunejiro (who would later become Tokuzen) in order to improve Kutani pottery. He engaged in this for six years. He also experienced suffering and such due to the debts left behind by Hozen, but he greatly endeavored even after this time.
After returning to Kyoto, he changed his surname in 1872 (fourth year of the Meiji Era) to Eiraku (up until that point, his surname had been Nishimura and Eiraku was an alias) and two years later, he was invited to Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture and opened a kiln there. He created a wide range of pottery, mainly of the gold brocade kinrande style, the Nanking style, gosuakae red pottery and others and Western tableware etc.
In his later years, he moved near Kodai-ji temple in eastern Kyoto and opened the Kikutani Kiln. It was from this point onward that he started to become hard of hearing, and he began to call himself “Jiroken” which is a name that includes the words, “deaf ears.”
His style has a wide breadth, including the Ninsei style, the gold brocade kinrande style, akae red pottery, Cochi and celadon. He also created his own techniques, such as using gold leaf in the gold brocade kinrande style, compared to Hozen, who instead used gold paint. He died on May 7th, at 74 years of age.
