meiji period
male
banko pottery
He was a master ceramicist of Banko ware in the Meiji period and beyond, and is known as one of the “3 Keepers” of Banko ware.
In the beginning, he ran a tobacco store, but as his hands were dexterous, he started making hand molded tea sets and changed the store’s name to “Ensousha”, a wordplay on the Japanese word for tobacco.
The clay he used was rough and more similar in texture to Bizen’s rather than Banko, and his strength when shaping left his fingerprints on them, and as the shape looked particularly like “a raccoon hitting its belly drum”, it was widely admired as “Ensousha’s Raccoon ware”
The founder passed away at 68 years old, and his son-in-law inherited him as the 2nd generation but died young 10 years later, so the 3rd generation was an artisan in the workshop who was asked to inherit the business by the founder’s daughter (Kakyu).
