edo period

Takita Chinkei 滝田椿渓

1853−1932maletokoname potteryStudied under the second generation Inaba Takamichi, and engaged in pottery-making under Matsumoto Hoji in Tōtōmi (now Shizuoka Prefecture). Later, in the western part of Hekikai District in Mikawa (Aichi Prefecture), he started Nishibata ware (a type of Tokoname ware) together with Tejima Shuiji. He was commonly known as Tomijiro. (more…)

Kaguraoka Bunzan 神楽岡文山

late edo periodoraku potteryKaguraoka Bunzan was a potter from Okazaki Village, Yamashiro Province, who lived around Bunka-Bunsei (1804-1830). Although details are not known, Bunzan is a pseudonym. He specialized in Raku ware and produced many tea bowls and vases. He was a potter known for his skillful imitations of Raku Ichiryu and Raku Sonyu, in particular. Bunzan’s ceramics are known for his exquisite techniques and beautiful designs and still have many admirers today. Another Kaguraoka potter named Kaguraoka Tokunyu was active around the Man’en period (1860-1861), and some sources claim that this person was another name for Bunzan. (more…)

Kurasaki Gonbee 倉崎権兵衛

?-1694malerakuzan potteryFounder of Izumo (Shimane Prefecture) Rakuzan ware. Also known simply as Gonbee. There were two brothers, Kurasaki Gorozaemon and Kanbei, among the Hagi potters, and it is assumed that Gonbee was the son of one of them. According to the “Kurasaki Family Work Record,” when Izumo domain lord Matsudaira Tsunachika opened an official kiln at Rakuzan in the eastern suburbs of Matsue in 1677, he made an appeal to the Hagi domain to invite a potter, and Gonbee was hired with 10 pieces of silver and four men’s allowance. Gombee worked at the Rakuzan kiln for 18 years, and (more…)

Saka Koraizaemon 坂高麗左衛門

1568-1643Hagi potteryAfter Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s dispatch to Korea, Mori Terumoto, who at the time ruled the entirety of China, brought back from Korea a potter who went by the name Sakata. He later changed his name to Saka, and after Terumoto moved to Hagi, the second feudal lord of Hagi, Mori Tsunahiro, bestowed upon him the title of Saka Koraizaemon, a line which continues to the present day. The 1st generation Saka koraizaemon (1568 – 1643) teabowl 86,000 JPYThe 2nd generation Saka sukehachi (1615 – 1668) teabowl 133,000 JPYThe 3rd generation Saka Shinbe (1648 – 1729) teabowl 323,000 JPYThe 4th generation (more…)

Tanaka Somi 田中宗味

early edo periodmaleraku potteryHis name is Shozaemon.He was the son of Tanaka Sokei and the elder brother of Kichizaemon Jokei.In the Raku kiln genealogy up to around Genroku (1688-1704), he was the second generation after Chojiro, and Jokei was the third generation, but for some reason, in the subsequent genealogy, Shozaemon was omitted from the Raku generation and Tsunekei was the second generation.Therefore, after that, Somi is treated as a side kiln. (more…)

Kaneshige Riuemon 金重利右衛門

mid edo period –bizen pottery Riemon Kanashige, who died in 1767, was appointed as the first Bizen ware artisan of the Kanashige family by the feudal lord of Okayama in 1729. He was the first Bizen ware master craftsman of the Kanashige family, and produced many fine pieces for the shogunate and as gifts for the feudal lords.His eldest son, Kanashige Risaburo, who died in 1927, lamented the decline of Bizen Pottery during the Meiji period and sought new opportunities for Bizen Pottery. Anticipating the demand for clay pipes as construction materials for railroads, he invited craftsmen from Tokoname, Aichi (more…)

Takigawa Ichiraku 瀧川一楽

1815-1888male Ichiraku is a descendant of Takigawa Kazumasu, a general of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600) who followed Oda Nobunaga and contributed to the unification of Japan. The Takigawa family was a family that held important positions in the Owari domain for generations.Ichiraku was a warrior of the Owari domain with a fief of 3063 koku (stipend 459450 kg of rice).He retired in 1869 and changed his name to Ichiraku. He became a tea master of the Omote-senke tea ceremony school. (more…)

Kato Kagetsugu 加藤景次

early edo periodmaleseto pottery A potter from Owari (Aichi Prefecture). He is said to have been active during the Keicho period (1596-1615). He is also known as Hachiemon. From excavations at the Yuemon kiln in the late Edo period, many bowls with the seal of “Kagetsugu” in small oval have been excavated. (more…)

Ogawa Tokusai 小川得斎

1785－1865maleshigaraki potteryA potter of the late Edo period. Produced Shigaraki ware in his hometown of Shigaraki, Omi (Shiga Prefecture) during the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804-30). In 1830, he moved to Ueno in Iga (Mie Prefecture) and made copies of old Iga pottery. (more…)

Kato Sakusuke 2th 二代 加藤作助

1844-1923maleseto potteryBorn in August of Tempo 15. Son of Kato Sakusuke I. Born in Owari (Aichi Prefecture). His first name was Keizaburo. He seems to have collected old pottery and devoted himself to researching its shape and techniques. At first he fired porcelain, but later he turned to his main occupation and skillfully copied old pottery such as Furu-seto (old seto ware), Kizeto, Oribe, Shino, Ofukai, and Mishima. He became a master craftsman of the Meiji era with a technique as good as that of his father Kagekiyo. His first pottery was called “Kotoen-Shun’itsu” and he called himself “Shun’itsu”, but (more…)

Tsuchiya Zenshiro 土屋善四郎

?-1786malefujina potteryMid-Edo period potter of Fushina ware in Izumo Province (Shimane Prefecture). His name was Yoshikata. The Tsuchiya family is said to have originated from Matsumoto in Shinshu (Nagano Prefecture), and his father was a potter named Dokiya Zen’emon who ran a pottery business in the town of Yokohama in Matsue. In 1756, under the orders of Matsudaira Muneyoshi, the 6th lord of the Matsue domain, he became a potter at Rakuzan (Mt. Rakuzan) in order to revive Rakuzan ware. In 1780, Matsudaira Fumai, the seventh lord of the domain, ordered Fushina ware potters to produce his favorite wares, but (more…)

Shibata Ikko 柴田一光

1837－1911　maletokoname potteryA potter of the late Edo and Meiji periods.Born in May of the 8th year of the Tempo era. He was a wheel thrower in Tokoname, Owari (Aichi Prefecture), and made vermilion clay teapots. Died in May 1911 at the age of 75. His real name was Shibata Wakichi. (more…)

Furuta Oribe 古田織部

1543-1615maleoribe pottery Among Sen no Rikyu’s followers, seven people are thought to have been particularly excellent. One of those seven was Furuta Oribe. Oribe was a military commander, and also the lord of a province. He is more famous as a tea master than as a potter, but Oribe-ware was founded under the guidance of Furuta Oribe and produced many tea utensils with eccentric and innovative shapes and patterns that Oribe liked. When Sen no Rikyu was sentenced to death by the Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it is said that before he died, as he was being escorted across the Yodogawa (more…)

Kato Tamikichi 加藤民吉

1772-1824maleseto porcelain　Late Edo period potter who introduced porcelain to Seto ware and is considered the founder of Seto porcelain. In Japan, as pottery is generally called Seto-mono, Seto ware was the center of pottery production.However, it was unable to produce porcelain, and was gradually overtaken by the porcelain of Imari porcelain and in Kyushu, and was on the way to decline.　In 1804, Tamikichi went to Imari in Hizen Province, Kyushu, to learn the porcelain manufacturing method and the method of dyeing, and returned to Seto in 1807. He introduced a new method of dyeing porcelain to the Seto ware industry. (more…)

Aoki Eigoro 青木栄五郎

1845-1906malekutani porcelainKutani potter, also known as Eitei and Toko, the same pen name as his grandfather and father. After learning the style of his father, Aoya Gen’emon, he was invited by Maeda Nariyasu, the lord of Kaga-Kanazawa, and moved from Komatsu to Kanazawa to work as a potter. (more…)

Matsuya Kikusaburo 松屋菊三郎

1820-1889malekutani porcelainKikusaburo Matsuya was born in 1820 as the second son of a doctor in the village of Kazuhari Komatsu. When Kikusaburo was thirteen years old at the beginning of the Tempo period, the Wakasugi and Ono kilns were operating as porcelain production factories, and it was natural for everyone to have dreams and aspirations of becoming a potter. Kikusaburo also wanted to become a potter and began training under Aoiya Gen’emon, who had returned to Komatsu from the Yoshidaya kiln at that time. Choosing Gen’ emon as his teacher was the most important factor in Kikusaburo becoming a master (more…)

Aoya Gen’emon 粟生屋源右衛門

1797-1863malekutani porcelainSon of Aoya Genbei, a potter in Komatsu, Kaga Province (Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture). Using Toko, the same pen name as his father. At the Wakasugi Kiln, Aoya Gen’emon worked hard to acquire pottery-making skills under Honda Teikichi, and became a master potter at a young age, but he continued to study the style of Kutani ware, later called “Blue Kutani,” under the instruction of Teikichi. Even after Sadakichi’s death, he continued to strive for the revival of Old Kutani, refining the ceramic techniques of Raku ware that he inherited from his father, the techniques of mixing colored glazes (more…)

Honda Teikichi 本多貞吉

1766-1819malekutani porcelainBorn in Meiwa 3. Born in Shimabara, Hizen, the advanced area of porcelain production. In 4th year of the Bunka period, he established a kiln with Aoki Mokubei at Kasugayama in Kanazawa, Kaga, and started the revival of Kutani ware.Mokubei began to produce mainly daily utensils copied in red overglaze enamels, but was forced to return to Kyoto halfway through the project due to disagreements with the clan. On the other hand, Teikichi, who remained in Kaga, discovered high-quality Hanasaka pottery stones in the Nomi area and opened the Wakasugi Kiln under the guidance of Hayashi Yahei of Wakasugi (more…)

Kaburaki store 鏑木商舗

1822-kutani porcelainKaburaki store was established in Kanazawa, during the reign of the 11th Tokugawa Shogun as the first Kutani ware merchant family, and has maintained its good name for about 200 years.At the time of its establishment, there was a growing momentum to revive Kutani ware after the abandonment of the old Kutani kilns for over 110 years.In response to the wishes of the Kaga clan, the shop not only sold products purchased from various kilns, but also gathered master artisans to paint at its own workshop, thereby playing a role in the spread of Kutani ware within the clan.During (more…)

Shirai Hanshichi 7th 七代 白井半七

1857-1933imado potteryHe inherited his family’s business, Imado-pottery, but temporarily stopped firing after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.Later, he moved the kiln to Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, and continued the business.The works of Hanshichi before the seventh generation are called “Sumidagawa Hanshichi” or Edo-Imado-pottery.Currently, Shirai Yasujiro V, a branch of the Shirai family, preserves and passes down Imado-yaki pottery in Imado-Taito-ku, Tokyo. (more…)