The more you know about tea ceremony tools, the more the story starts to come to life. Once you have been to the production areas, you can revisit that scene each time you hold a tea bowl. So, let’s visit the pottery production town of Tokoname.
Tokoname, located on the west coast of the Chita Peninsula, has been a pottery town for over 900 years. Utilizing the abundant and high-quality soil, undulating terrain suitable for building kilns, and its convenient location for transportation facing Ise Bay, it has developed as a major production area of pottery. For this reason, along with Shigaraki, Bizen, Tamba, Echizen, and Seto in Aichi Prefecture, it has been one of the six most famous kilns of the Middle Ages and has been classified one of the Six Ancient Kilns. In 2007, Tokoname was also designated as a Japan Cultural Heritage Site.
Tokoname has prospered for such a long time not only because of its favorable location but also because of its flexibility in adapting the different kinds of products they produce to changing needs. Tokoname’s soil contains a surplus of iron which can be baked even at relatively low temperatures, so many large products such as jars and pots have been made here since ancient times. Tea ceremony utensils and “Shudei Kyusu,” the reddish-brown teapot you can find in almost any Japanese office or home, were also made during the Edo period. Since the Meiji era, Tokoname's main products have changed to clay pipes for sewage, shochu bottles, bricks, and tiles for construction. The first Imperial Hotel, designed by the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, also used Tokoname ware tiled terracotta. The ability to assess demand in each era and stay flexible is a model of a long-running business we can all learn from.
Tokoname ware was mainly used for practical products but was also an important part of Chanoyu. The simple, earthy texture of Tokoname ware has a wide range of uses-- it’s perfect for a flower box or confectionery container because it contrasts with the colors of flowers and sweets. At the same time, it was said that the tea master Rikyū had a Mizusashi, a container to hold fresh cold water, made of Tokoname ware. Master craftsmen of Tokoname started making tea utensils starting in the Edo period, which led famous people like Tokugawa Naritaka, who was famous for tea, to visit Tokoname for a demonstration of pottery.
The “Pottery Footpath” is a walking path along an area where more than 50 pottery workshops and galleries are gathered. Here you can talk directly to the creators as you enjoy their work up close. The undulating streets, dotted with old brick chimneys and filled with local charm, makes you feel a close connection to Tokoname ware. By all means, we want you to walk, see, touch, and ponder the history of Tokoname. This experience will surely come back to you when you see Tokoname ware at tea ceremonies or museums.
