Hirado-style Mikawachi Kiln

Hirado Matsuura Family
The Hirado Matsuura family is a branch of the Matsuura family, which includes the Hata family of Matagata, the Arita family of Arita, and the Imari family of Imari. Gentaifu Hangan His grandson Hiro, who was originally from the village of Mine in the Nishino-mine area of Kamimatsuura, was known as Minegoro, but in 1177 he moved to Iwaya (in the village of Genki in Higashimatsuura-gun) and built Shishigajo Castle, where he settled. In later years, he received a portion of the land in the area of Matsura that had been given to his father Naoshi, and became the lord of the castle in Tahira. Shishigajo Castle was built by his older brother Okawano Yuu, and became the castle of the Tsuruta clan.
In later generations, they divided up the territories of Mikuriya, Takashima, Hirado, Jitsukui, Himesashiooshima, Imari, Fukushima, Kusudomari, Yabuta, Egami, Ojika and Kuroshima, and some parts of Goto, as well as Higashijima, and became the local lords of Mikuriya.
Hirono Minamoto no Fujitsugu and his son Minamoto no Saburo both took Hirado as their surname, but when they reached the fifth generation, Minamoto no Saburo changed his surname back to Minamoto no Mine, and from that point onwards, the family took the surname Matsuura.
Of the Matsura clan, which was said to have numbered over 40 people at the time, only the Hirado Matsura clan prospered and remains to this day. The Hirado Matsura family tree is as shown on the left. (See the Hirado Matsura family tree)

Oni Hizen no Kami
The sixth Hizen no Kami Sadamu was renowned for his bravery in neighboring countries. Although he was a loyal retainer of the Southern Court and did much to support the Imperial cause, he eventually sided with Ashikaga Takauji. The twelfth generation, Yoshitomo, was greatly favored by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, to the extent that he was given Yoshimasa’s own waistcloth and decorative half-cloth, as well as a horse blanket. After Yoshimasa died, Yoshi had his hair cut and took the name Tensou, and he lived in Korai-ji temple in Hirado wearing a priest’s robe, but later he built Fumon-zen-ji temple and enshrined Yoshimasa’s statue there, and moved there again.

Red eboshi
Yoshimasa once asked Yoshimasa to wear a red eboshi, and Yoshimasa painted it himself, but in later years, Keinan of Nanzen-ji Temple also wrote a poem in praise of it.

Pursued by the Kojo Allied Forces
The second son of the 13th generation Toyohisa, Kojo, succeeded the 14th generation, but he frequently plotted to advance south, and in Entoku 2 (1490) he attacked his elder brother Minamoto Shiro Masaru (later Jun’i) at the castle in Tahira-ri, forcing him to flee. Takaki’s Arima Takazumi thought that Hirotsune’s actions were unreasonable, and in May of the following year, he rallied Omura Sumitada, Hata Mori, Saigo Iki no Kami Sumitaka, Matsuura Tan Masashisa Rokuro Junsho, and Toshimasa Oshima Chikuzen no Kami, etc., to form an allied army, and on December 27th of the same year they attacked the Taira Castle for the sake of Masaru. Hirosada was badly defeated and fled to Minobu Castle, which is to the east of Yasu, where he holed up for over 100 days. However, when Hirosada’s army was repeatedly pressed, he turned to Ouchi Yoshihiro of the Ouchi clan in Chikuzen for help.
In 1492, when Yoshikatsu heard that Oki Kiyoshi had saved Hirotsune, he asked Kiyoshi for help, and Hirotsune was finally able to dance again. In this way, Kiyoshi’s son, Koshun, succeeded to the 15th generation of the head family. Koushin also inherited the ambition to advance south, and he was named after joining the Allied Forces earlier. On December 20th, 1499, at the Sogamiura area, Matsuura Masamasa attacked the Daichian Castle by surprise and captured it, and Masamasa died in battle. (This sad story is recorded in the Arita edition)

Attacking Iimori Castle
On September 5th, 1542, Takayoshi, the son of Koushin, attacked Iimori Castle (which had been burned down when Ochi-an Castle fell, and a new castle had been built in its place), and there were one victory and one defeat for each side , but the following year, in the spring of 1549, Arima Naozumi of Takaki left two priests from Jitsueiji and Chionji temples to mediate between the two sides and bring about a peace agreement, and Yasunobu gave up Takashima to Takanobu.

Portuguese ship enters the port of Hirado
In 1548, a Portuguese merchant ship (captained by Tomar Te da Gama) entered the port of Hirado for the first time. Takayoshi allowed the ship to stay there and opened up trade with the port.

Christianity came to Japan
and the Society of Jesus (Roman Catholicism) came to this area to spread their teachings. They also imported muskets and harakans (a type of matchlock), which strengthened the military power of Hirado.
(The first time that cannons were imported was on August 25th, 12 years earlier, when three Portuguese men on a Chinese pirate ship that had come to Tanegashima in Satsuma were given them by the island’s lord, Tanegashima Tokitane).

Five Peaks, the Great Ship Owner
In the year 1541, a man named Five Peaks Wang Na, a Chinese national, owned several large ships and traveled to places such as Luei, Annam, Yara, and Masika, and sometimes appeared off the coast of China, trading or acting as a pirate for five or six years. trade or act as pirates for five or six years, and became very rich. He led a thousand or so men and was in Fukue, Goto, but came to Hirado and established a base in Miyanomachi (later Inzan-ji Residence) and made himself the lord of the area. In 1593, he recruited over 10,000 warriors from the coastal areas of Matsuura and China to form a fleet, and it looked as if he was about to take control of the seas of the East, as he invaded the coasts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The Portuguese ship mentioned above is said to have been guided by Oda Nobunaga when it entered the port of Hirado (according to one theory, the Portuguese ship mentioned above is said to have been guided by Oda Nobunaga when it was returning from Hachiboshiura in Bungo Province). After fifteen years of establishing a base in Hirado (in 1556, the second year of the Kōji era), Oda Nobunaga was lured and killed by the Ming Dynasty official Hu Zongxian and others. (After that, the pirate leader around the Keicho and Genna periods was Yang Tiansheng, who was a subordinate of Wang Zhi. The next was his colleague Andrija Dechi, also known as Gan Sizai. After that, his successor was Zheng Zhilong, who was known as the old one official in Sizai’s group, and he was naturalized in Hirado and married a Japanese woman, and his son, Tagawa Fukumatsu, is the famous Zheng Chenggong, also known as Kokusen’ya.
He succeeded in capturing the Dutch-built red fort at Anping in Zeelandia Castle, which was the base for his operations in Taiwan, and this caused a great stir in the Dutch government. In the Kanbun era, his son Zheng Jing finally took control of Taiwan.

Missionary work and weapons
During the Warring States period, it was only natural that each feudal lord would fight to obtain weapons such as guns and matchlock guns. The aforementioned Nanbanjin Ekurencha taught them the use of these weapons in exchange for teaching them about the Christian faith. In the Hirado domain, Kotedazaemon and Ikkan were the first to enter the sect and learn how to use the weapons, but later they both abandoned their faith.
However, the residents of the two islands of Tokushima and Ikitsushima, where these two men had once entered the faith, became fervent followers of the cross, and their unyielding faith was not broken even by the persecution that began in 1611, and they willingly became the largest number of martyrs.
From this time on, the number of people who believed in this religion increased, especially in the Hirado area and the southwestern part of Hizen, and Omura Rizen (Junchū) was baptized in 1562. Arima Jusen (Yoshinao) was baptized in 1576. Ekurenchiya, who was later banned from entering Hirado, passed on the above-mentioned methods to Ootomo Sorin (Yoshichika) of Bungo.

Attacking Iimori Castle again
In August of the sixth year of the Eiroku era (1563), Matsuura Takanobu, who was determined to carry out his plan to advance south, first decided to attack Aikamiura. He sent 250 soldiers under the command of Oono Buzen no Kami Sadaya and and 250 other soldiers, including Jiroemon Sadatsugu, as the vanguard, and he himself took up a position at Toriya Castle in Sasa, leaving Sadatsugu at Toko-ji Temple to advance his troops towards Iimori Castle.
From within the castle, Higashi Jinsuke, Higashi Gorō, Higashi Shiro, Kitano Genzō and others put up a good fight, and in particular, Yasuharu, who was planning to recover Takashima, brought his troops from the sea and land to fight a great battle, but at this time the enemy had guns, and it was not easy to defeat them.

The third attack on Iimori Castle
On May 5th of the same year, Takayoshi attacked Iimori Castle again, but the castle’s defenders put up a good fight and defended themselves well, and the Hirado forces suffered over 300 casualties, including Osaki Chikuzen no Kami Teruya, his younger brother Tamiyo, Sasabe no Chikara, Minamizo no Karasu, Nakayama Jiro, and Shikata Ichinomasa.

Matsuura Chikara becomes the heir
At this time, Takakuni made Arima Sengoku’s son Gorosaza Taka his heir, and named him Matsuura Sakai. Since Gorosaza had left, he had not received any support whatsoever . On March 2nd, 1570, Matsuura Takanobu burned down Nakazato in order to attack Iimori Castle again, and set up camp at Tokoji Temple. At the same time, Takayoshi Goto of Takeo was acting as an intermediary in the peace negotiations, and Takayoshi made Takayoshi’s third son, Kurochika, the heir to Iimori Castle, while he himself retired under the name of Sozen.
In 1571, Arima Gorosada returned to Iimori Castle, much to the surprise of his father. However, he was given the title of “Gorosada” and made the lord of the Arima and Hirado domains, and he was made to live in Karafune Castle.
However, he was greatly dissatisfied with this, and in October of the same year he attacked Iimori Castle, but the reinforcements from Hirado arrived and Goro’s forces were repelled.

The four villages of Hayakita were given to
Takayoshi, and from this point onwards, in 1564, he began to advance south, and in 1571 he took the four villages of Hayakita from his son, Takaaki Goto, the lord of Kisima Sumiyoshi , and in 1571, Takayoshi gave four villages in his territory to Takayoshi as a wedding gift.

The Origin of the Osai Tower
On January 20th, 1572, Arima Goro, who was in Karafune Castle, communicated with Arima Shogen, the chief retainer of Arima, and planned to secretly attack Iimori Castle with 5,000 soldiers. However, before the plan could be carried out, Yamamoto Ukyo, who was in the castle at the time, accompanied by his wife Osai, who was in her final month of pregnancy, crossed the mountain path in the middle of the night on December 29th in the midst of a heavy snowfall, carrying their five-year-old son Katsunosuke. and told his parents about the surprise attack plan, the Iimori forces, together with reinforcements from Hirado, attacked Goro’s army on the way and defeated them at Aitabara (from the present-day Ichinosakabe to Sanbongi-be), and Goro fled back to Takaki.

Matsuura and his son surrender to Ryuzoji
From this point on, when Takanobu was planning to expand his influence in the south, a powerful enemy who could be removed by his own efforts appeared before him. This was Ryuzoji Takanobu of Saga. In 1574, Takayoshi, with Nabeshima Nobushige (Naoshige) as his commander, marched to conquer Hirado, but Matsuura Takayoshi realized that he was no match for them, and after consulting with his eldest son, Shigenobu, he surrendered to the Ryuzoji clan.

Chinobu’s participation in the Korean campaign
Chinobu later joined the Toyotomi clan, and on April 12th 1593, he set sail from his home port with 3,000 soldiers, gathering at Nagoya Port and then landing in Busan on the 28th. From this point on, they joined the vanguard army of Konishi Yukinaga and fought their way through Korea, but on January 7th of the same year, they were defeated at Pyongyang, and many of them died in battle, including Matsuura Sadanobu (the son of Yukinaga’s father and the younger brother of Chinshin).
Although the initial quota for the expedition was set at 3,000 men, some died in battle or of illness along the way, and others were gradually replaced and crossed the sea, so that by the time they finally returned to Japan, the number of men who had actually taken part in the battle was seven thousand two hundred men were counted as having gone into battle, and of these, one thousand two hundred were killed or wounded in action. It is clear that the other clans were in a similar situation.

The arrival of Gokan, Tonroku and others
In December 1598, when Chinshin returned to his base, 125 Koreans who had accompanied him are said to have landed in Hirado. It is not known whether these were the same people who had come over during the war. The Hirado clan, which was at the forefront of the importation of Western culture, also tried to foster the pottery industry of the Korean potters in their domain. However, it is said that there were only ten potters among them.

Nakano’s official kiln
At this time, the Koreans were given land in the town of Hirado (now called Kora-machi) and were allowed to live there, and they were given the task of trying out their pottery skills in the castle town. opened a kiln in the Kamitsubakizaka (also known as Kamizukuri) area of Nakano village, 13 ri away from here, and produced the usual Koryo-style brush marks and powder sprays, etc.
He was born in Kumagawa, Hamgyeong Province, and was 43 years old at the time, but later he entered the domain of Hirado and changed his name to Imamura Yajibe.
Yajibe’s innovations included a type of Nakano ware with a clay glaze, and the clay was mainly imported from Korea. Originally, there was a shortage of good clay in this area, so it was necessary to import it from Korea. To solve this problem, the search for good clay was a long-standing desire. Of course, the porcelain from the Saraya kiln was fired using Amakusa stone as the raw material.

The Dutch ship and Miura Anjin
On May 30th, 1609, the Dutch ships Lode Leeu Met Pilen and Frijhoorn arrived in the port of Hirado. Through the mediation of the Englishman William Adams (who came to the coast of Sakai in June 1600, and died in Hirado on April 14th, 1611 at the age of 57), they received a license for trade from Ieyasu, and on August 22nd, they obtained the approval of the local lord, Toshitsune. died on the 14th of the 4th month of the 6th year of Genna, at the age of 57) and, on the 22nd of the 8th month, with the approval of the feudal lord Takanobu, the construction of the Hirado Trading Post was completed, and the clan elder Sagawa Umanosuke Nobutoshi (see the Hirado Matsuura Family Tree) also made great efforts.

Searching for clay in the area
Fourteen years later, in 1622, at the behest of the feudal lord Takanobu (the son of Hisanobu and grandson of Tadanobu), Imamura Yahei was sent to search for clay in various parts of the domain. and his son, Kihei, set out from their home and, after searching various places, they discovered clay at the Sankawa-no-miya area of the Gonnoji temple in Haki, and at the Higashi-no-ura-oriose area of the Hiyu area. They are said to have lived in the Yoshino area and experimented with firing the clay.

Nayadani and Hieda
There is a theory that Yajibe and his son tested firing in the valley of Hirota’s barn, but the upper and lower kilns here are, of course, thought to be from later years. There is also a theory that Sanjō was the first to make porcelain dishes, bowls and tea bowls with a snail-like pattern on the surface, but it is not clear.

Mikawachiyama
The pottery industry in Hirado had already moved south and expanded into the Oribe area. Although the origins of the pottery industry in Oroshiose are unclear, it is said that when the Hata clan fell in 1595, potters from the Kishidake area came to Nagahayama (formerly known as Naruhaya or Matuhaya) in Mikawachi and opened a pottery here. This is probably because the excavated items from this area include sea cucumber glaze in the style of the Hizen kilns, and this is reminiscent of the remains of the old Kijidake kilns.

Chouyasan Old Kiln Ware
Other Chouyasan old kiln ware includes bowls with Tenmoku glaze or black Tenmoku glaze, with green painted over with white glaze, or small plates with a border of greenish brown glaze, and unglazed small stands. In addition to the products of later generations, such as celadon porcelain and various types of underglaze blue and white porcelain, excavations have also revealed tea bowls with a design of Wu Zhou landscape paintings and multi-tiered boxes with stamped patterns.

Nakazato Yojo
There was also a woman named Yojo, born in Kumagawa, Hamgyeong Province, who was captured by our army during the war and came to Karatsu. There is also a theory that he came with Matsuura Chikayoshi when he returned to his base, but this is not certain. And so, as a man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, why was he captured? This raises the question of why he was captured.
If he was good-looking at the time, it is possible that the soldiers would have allowed him to stay with them in order to relieve their boredom during the long campaign, or to stay with them in their encampments. This is not something that a general would necessarily do, but it is not something that should be dismissed as mere speculation. And even if he came alone to Japan, which was not at peace but at war, he must not be regarded as an ordinary person.

Another theory
However, according to another theory, the character in his name, “Yo,” originally meant “ugly woman,” and was a nickname for his appearance, which is the exact opposite of the previous theory. He was born to a priestess in Busan, and had already come to Karatsu before the Imjin War, and married Shibamine potter Shigehei, but when her husband died, she took her 10-year-old son Moemon , she came to Chouyasan in the area of the present-day city of Busan with her son, Moeukmon, who was ten years old at the time, in 1622, using the potters from the Kijidake area who had been affected by the collapse of the mountain.

Koraibo
was a woman who was very strong and skilled at pottery, and she was the main person who laid the foundations of the pottery industry in this area by supervising her son, Shigeu, and many other workers. In 1629, he created a type of gray pottery, and in 1634, he further refined his skills and created a masterpiece of red clay. He grew even more vigorous as he grew older, and he also taught his children well. Everyone called him “Koraibo-baa” (Grandma Koraibo).

The myth of the name of the village
The village of Koshino, where Mikawachi-yama is located, was formerly the village of Fujitsu. At that time, a mysterious object appeared in the sky above this place, so the local lord was filled with fear and played a sacred music, and then a mallet suddenly came down from the sky. After that, the priest Gyoki used that mallet to make a statue of the Buddha Amitabha and enshrined it, and then he divided the Fujitsu estate into this area and named it after the mallet. 48 villages, and 48 pillars were donated from each of those villages to build the temple, which came to be called the Daianjō Daiamidado.

Orioze and Mikawachi
Mikawachi-yama, together with Kihara-yama and Enaga-yama, is a village in Oriose-mura, Higashi-saga-gun. The land of Oriose was once part of the Shikai domain of Hiroki. At that time, the name Hayakawa referred to the four villages of Hario, Saki, Hirota and Oriose, which were all under the rule of the Goto clan of Takeo at the time. In 1571, the area was divided up and given to Matsuura Takanobu, as mentioned above.
However, when the father and son came to Mikawa, they realized that the area was very suitable for pottery production, and they met with the Korean woman and observed her pottery-making techniques closely. However, Sanjokichi felt that his own skills were still immature, and he was determined to study pottery-making techniques.
At that time, he heard that the famous potter Goro Shichi Takahara was living in the mountains of Karatsu, and he set off to visit the area to see the pottery industry there.

Visiting Shiinomine
However, Gorosuke had already been invited to the Kakiemon pottery workshop in Minamigawara, so Sanjuro stayed at Shiinomine for a while, where he observed the techniques and also made friends with ronin and artisans from various parts of the country. Among them were people such as Fukumoto Yajikomon, a potter, and Yamauchi Chobei and Maeda Tokuzakomon, two ronin from Kyoto and Tanba Sasayama, respectively, who were painters. At this time, with the help of an intermediary, Sanjuro took Tokuzakomon’s daughter as his wife and came to Minamikawara to visit Goroshichi.

He visited Gorosuke in Minamigawara
He came to the factory that Gorosuke controlled, and wanted to learn the techniques from him, but Gorosuke had just succeeded in making Nanking white porcelain for the first time, following the Arita method, and there was no sign that he would easily reveal the method. He paid particular attention to the glaze, and when he saw that the women were the only ones being used to prepare it, he had the idea to employ his wife to prepare the glaze.

Searching for the secret of the glaze
It is thought that Sanjokichi’s wife was unable to help but accept the fact that her husband had once been acquainted with Gorosuke on Mt. Shi. In this way, before carrying the various materials for the glaze, the wife first estimated the total amount, and then, when sweeping up the remaining amount used, she calculated the difference before and after, and was able to memorize this mixing amount conceptually. (There is also another theory that says that before transporting the glaze and ash to the second floor of the mixing room, the water should be measured and the remaining ash after use should be closely measured and calculated. ) The Sano couple, who had already achieved their goal, left the place in a hurry in 1629.

Discovery of Ajiro clay
San’nojiro was not only hesitant to try it immediately, but also could not find a suitable raw material to use for it. He changed his name and, while touring the mountains of Hizen, discovered Ajiro clay on Harimajima (Mitsutake, Egami Village). It is said that when a certain temple worker from Gonjoji Temple was crossing over to Egami, he picked up some of this soil without thinking and took it home with him. When Sanjokichi saw it, he recognized that it was of good quality, and after trying it several times in the kiln, he is said to have personally investigated the production area of Mitsutake. This is a type of feldspar that is rich in alkali, and although it was first tried as the main ingredient in porcelain, it later became the main ingredient in glaze.

Ajiro analysis table
Ajiro clay high-grade water-insoluble matter analysis table
Silicic acid 70.94
Alum 17.98
Iron oxide 1.00
Coal 0.83
Magnesia 0.63
Potash 5.08
Soda 3.50
Loss on ignition 3.50

Table of analysis of medium-grade water-soluble matter in the same soil
Silicic acid 70.93
Alum 18.22
Iron oxide 0.75
Coal 0.86
Magnesia 0.41
Potash 5.63
Soda 3.18

Like a monkey
On the way to Suko, he stopped at Mogioka and had a child there in 1635, who later became the famous potter, Rōjō. At that time, a magnet was discovered on Nakaoyama in the Omura domain, and he heard that it was already being produced, so he first stayed in Mitsumata, but later moved to the vicinity of Nakaoyama.

Returning to the mountains
Around this time, after Goro Shichiro had succeeded in establishing the Arita Iwaya-gawa domain kiln, he had no hesitation in returning to the mountains of Ninohe and trying his hand at making porcelain. It was probably the same thing that had a light grayish color. This came to the attention of the Hirado clan, and the following year, in 1613, Takanobu sent the clan retainer Shikata Heinojo to order him to return to his country, and he handed over the business to his pupil Koyanagi Kichikomon and returned to Mikawachi.

Porcelain production in Mikawachi
From this point on, Sanjuroku succeeded in producing porcelain and celadon using the previously discovered Ajiro clay as the main ingredient, and he received great praise from Takayoshi, and in later years, his wares became highly prized during the Nanban trade in Hirado.

The clan kiln at Chouyasan
In the 14th year of the same era, Takanobu built a villa in the Jikuzan (Higashiyama) area of Mikawachi, and established a pottery for the clan at Chouyasan. San’nojō invited three potters he had met on Shiinomine: Fukumoto Yajikōmon, Yamauchi Chōbei, and his father-in-law Maeda Tokuzaemon, and made them work on the project under his supervision.
The invitation letter sent by Sanjikyoku in the name of Yajikyoku and Tokuzakikyoku, dated March 14th, is still preserved in the Fukumoto family. In addition to Sanjuro, the other people who signed the invitation to build the kiln were the painters Chobei Toyohide and Tokuzaemon Maeda, the kiln-builders Shigeuemon Nakazato and Yajiro Fukumoto, Kuchishi Chokun, Kanishi Tazaemon, Fujimoto Haruzo, etc., and in addition to the two rice allowances for each of these people, they were also given a rice allowance for attending work, but in addition to this, the name of the third retainer, Okita Kyubei, was also added.
At this time, Takayoshi gave Sanjuro a sword and a fief in Aikiba, and also gave Chobei, Tokusakomon and others their own fiefs.

Oyamada Sahei
In this year, Sanjō also invited Oyamada Sahei, a potter from Karatsu Shiinomine, who had already opened a pottery in the domain of Yoshino, and recommended him to the feudal lord, who also gave him a small stipend.

Yajiemon Fukumoto
Yajiemon Fukumoto was originally from Shiinomine, but after he moved to Mikawachi, fifty years later in the Genroku era , the lord of the Karatsu domain gave the family name of Fukumoto to the pottery artisan Tazaemon, who was in the service of the domain, and the Fukumoto family name, which had become extinct, was revived. The brief lineage of Yajiemon is as follows.

The Fukumoto Family Tree in Mikawa
Yajikomon Fukumoto, First Generation
Yaemon, Second Generation
Hisayoshi, Third Generation
Kiuemon, Fourth Generation
Onokishikomon, Fifth Generation
Kiuemon, Sixth Generation
Teibei, Seventh Generation
Umenosuke, Eighth Generation
Tokugoro, adopted son of Enaga Koguri Kizaemon, 5th generation, the founder
Wakiemon, 9th generation
Kitaro, 10th generation
Genshichi, 11th generation

Ushiishi
As mentioned above, the oldest pottery in Mikawachi is Nagahayama, and the next oldest is the Ushiishi (also known as Matasakaide) old kiln site in front of the Mikawachi Station. In this area, there is a clear flow from the Hara-myo kilns of the Imari school to the Yoshimoto area, and the small plates with incomplete candy glaze and gray glaze rims are completely the same. There are also thin blue porcelain rims and small round plates with four-eyed patterns, as well as black tenmoku tea bowls. Large plates and single-handled bowls were also produced.
The Mikawachi area is distributed to Yoshida Kotani, Aikiba, Kamitou Sugibayashi, and Kugurimaseki. There is a theory that the Shiinomine collapse entered the Sugibayashi area.

Kakuseki
The Kakuseki kiln produced a variety of wares, including bowls with a white brush pattern on a light purple glaze. Thus, the black wares (pottery) of Mikawachi also created a turning point in history, and there was a trend towards turning to the production of white porcelain.

Land Reclamation of the Dejima Settlement
In 1634, the shogunate ordered the Nagasaki Magistrate to prohibit the cohabitation of Japanese and foreigners, and to set up a fan-shaped embankment on the sea surface of Edo-machi with a total area of 3,969 tsubo (12,969 square meters), with funding from 25 wealthy merchants in the city. were allowed to move to this area, and it was called Nanbanya-shiki, with a gate set up to prevent people from coming and going at will. However, in the same year, pressure was also applied to 287 other Portuguese, Spaniards, and mixed-race people, and they were expelled to Fenggang.

Matsudaira Nobutsuna arrives
The Shimabara Rebellion of 1638 (1638) caused the long-peaceful Shogunate to be rudely awakened from its slumber, and the conquering of the rebels was a difficult task , who was having difficulty in conquering them, ordered Nicholas Coekebakker, the chief of the trading post in Hirado, to go to war on the Dutch ship De Liefde, and he used the new weapons he had there. After the rebellion was finally suppressed, Nobutsuna, together with Toda Samon, inspected Hirado on their way home and stayed there for four days. people, and was surprised at how solid they were. He then inspected the snappan (a type of firearm) that Bakker had brought with him, and was again impressed by its power.

Various Prohibitions
On May 2nd, 1638, the shogunate issued an edict forbidding each clan to build merchant ships larger than 500 koku, and (on September 15th, 1855) at the same time, it strictly prohibited Japanese people from traveling abroad and Christianity. In June of the 16th year of Kan’ei (1639), the men and women of foreign descent who remained in Hirado and Nagasaki were expelled to Jagatara (the name given to the area around Batavia, where there was a close relationship with Japan). As a result, trade between the Chinese and the Dutch was completely stopped, and on July 5th, 1639, the arrival of the Nanban ships was strictly prohibited.

The 17th-country envoys were beheaded
In 1640, the Portuguese, who had been ordered to leave Fushimi Port, and the envoys from 17 countries, who had come to Nagasaki in violation of the ban in order to restore trade, . Of these, thirteen were pardoned, including the doctor and the ship’s crew, but the remaining sixty-one were all beheaded on June 16th, 1640. The Dutch were the only ones who were allowed to continue trading, thanks to the skillful lobbying of the famous chief of the Hirado trading post, Francois Caron (who would later become the Superintendent of Commerce).

Abolition of the Hirado trade
On November 8th, 1640, Inoue Chikugo no Kami Masashige, a senior councilor to the shogunate, came to Hirado with a large retinue and ordered the destruction of the Dutch trading post on the cape. house in Hirado and ordered that it be demolished. In April of the following year, he abolished trade in Hirado and moved it to Nagasaki, and restricted the Dutch to the settlement of Dejima.
The Nagasaki magistrate at the time was Tsuge Hiraemon Masatoki.

Dutch House
From this point on, the name of the settlement was changed from “Nanban Yashiki” to “Dutch House”, and for the next 250 years until the conclusion of the Treaty of Commerce in 1859, Dejima in Nagasaki was the center of Western culture in Japan. The reason for abolishing the foreign cultural import center of Hirado and moving it to Nagasaki, and making it directly under the control of the shogunate, was probably due to the fear that, in addition to controlling foreign religions, the importation of culture by the Hirado clan would lead to the strengthening of the clan’s military forces.

The Loneliness of Hirado
In 1546, the 16th generation lord Takanobu made the bold decision to make Hirado the only trading port in Japan, and since it was opened to foreign trade in 1603, it has imported rare and exotic goods from foreign countries, and foreign traders lined the streets, and the world’s most powerful merchants flocked to the area, and together with the trade in the local Mikawachi pottery, the once prosperous city of Hirado suddenly became deserted. The people of Hirado at the time, as well as the feudal lord, were understandably disheartened.
From this point on, the lord of the Hirado domain had no choice but to console his sorrows by encouraging the domain kilns in Mikawachi. In 1641, the feudal lord Iki no Kami Morinobu came to Mikawachi and greatly promoted the progress of the industry, appointing San no Jiki as the head of the pottery and also as a deputy official, and further granting him the right to use the entire area of the Aikiba pottery.

Yajibe and Mt. Kurokami
From this point on, in 1632, Imamura Yajibe became a follower of the head priest of Daiti-in temple, Chuson-kakuho-in, on the sacred mountain of Mt. Kurokami in Keshima, and at the age of 77, he came from Yoshino to live in seclusion there. He discovered clay and tried making pottery. He brought his grandson Yajibe to the Daichi-in temple from the age of seven to be raised there, but he passed away in 1643 at the age of 88, and Yajibe returned to his father Sanenori in Mikawachi. This is the later Jōen.

Mizusara Mountain in Hirado
In 1643, the domain established branch offices of the Mizusara Mountain Office in Kihara and in Enaga, in addition to the one in Mikawachi, and made Koyamada Sahei in Kihara and a certain Tatsujiro in Enaga responsible for them, but the office was overseen from the Mikawachi Mountain Office and was called the Mizusara Mountain Office in Hirado. At the time, only Mikawachi was producing white porcelain, and the other two kilns were still making the traditional black ware. In 1650, the majority of the kilns in Nakano, Hirado Island, were moved to Mikawachi.
Yajie Masana, the third son of Yajie, was a great potter who surpassed his ancestors, and was greatly admired by the feudal lord. In 1658, he built a villa in the area of Kanseki, five chō (approximately 1600 meters) to the southeast of Maruyama, and devoted himself to researching pottery techniques.

Offering Hirado ware to the shogunate
In 1662, he began to make vessels to offer to the shogunate, and the name of Mikawachi ware became widely known. Orders from various domains increased, and it is said that the pottery industry in this area flourished greatly.
In 1664, the feudal lord Nobu rewarded Yajibei for his services by giving him 100 koku of rice as a reward for his services, and also presented him with a kimono with a design of a Japanese fan palm leaf (the feudal lord’s family crest), a kimono with a single layer of undergarments, a single layer of seasonal clothing, and a landscape painting by Kano Ho’in Tsunenobu, as well as various picture books.
He also invited Nakazato Yojo to serve, but he declined due to his old age (he was 98 at the time), but his descendants were ordered to serve the clan in black clothes for generations to come.

New construction of the Mikawachi Gofukuro
In 1668, the clan selected a plot of land measuring 4 tan in Mikawachi and built five new buildings, including the clan’s Gofukuro (ceramics workshop) and Goyakansho (office for the clan’s administrators), as well as residences for the workers. were built to manage all aspects of the pottery industry, and Shomei called on over twenty selected craftsmen to work under him, providing them with a stipend of two koku each, as well as a stipend for working hours. In addition, the guard house was equipped with one spear, two guns, two swords, and two pickaxes, and Nakata Denbei was in charge of guard duty, but then Kimu Taemon was appointed to the post.

Koraibo dies
In the 12th year of the Kanbun era (1672), Koraibo Nakazato died at the age of 106. A stone monument, 5 shaku high and 3 shaku wide, was erected on the hill of Tenjinsha overlooking the whole of Mikawachi, and is now enshrined at the Busan Shrine. The Nakazato family tree is as follows.

The Nakazato Family Tree in Mikawachi
Nakazato married a woman, the wife of Shigenobu Nakazato of Shiinomine
Shigenobu, 2nd generation
Shigenobu, 3rd generation
Sengenobu, Nakazato branch family
Shichibei, Yokoiseki family, living in Kihara
Gohei, Satomi family
Jingenobu, Furukawa family
Shigenobu, 4th generation
Shigenobu, 5th generation
Shigeemon, 6th generation
Togoro, 7th generation
Toshichiro, 8th generation
Shigetaro, 9th generation
Tokuju, 10th generation

San’nojisho passes away
On July 9th, 1696, Imamura San’nojiro died at the age of 167. The third generation Yajibe Masanao (later changed to Masakage), who had a reputation for being a great teacher, worked hard to improve his skills, and encouraged his lord Nobumata to improve his skills. He also studied under Yamaga Sokyo (Jingoemon Takayoshi, Shigiyoshi, and Takayoshi, who was also a student of Yamaga Sokyo (Jingoemon, posthumous name: Shigekiyo, 4th rank, died on September 26th, 1685 at the age of 64), worked to promote the domain’s studies, and this greatly contributed to the domain’s administration. (Sokyo’s son, Toshisuke Takamoto, and Sokyo’s younger brother, Yoshinobu Umayoshi, both served in the domain of Hirado.

He was given the name “Josen
In the 12th year of Genroku (1699), the feudal lord Nobu presented the Mikawachi ware that he had had made with great care to the shogunate, and was given the order to make it for the shogun. In the 15th year of the same era, when he was given a proper name and became a vassal of the feudal lord, Nobu gave him the name ‘Josen’. It is said that the appearance of Masana was very similar to that of a monkey.

Discovery of the use of Amakusa stone
In the second year of the Shoutoku era (1712), Yokoshi Fujishichibe (the third son of Nakazato Shigekun), who was in charge of the Kihara mine, bought stones that had been sent from Shimotsu Fukae on Amakusa Island in Higo Province to a wholesaler in Haki , and had been using it as a cosmetic for pottery, but one day he tried using it as a raw material for porcelain and discovered that it was an excellent stone.
From this point on, the stone was used as the main ingredient for porcelain in all the mountains of Hizen, excluding Arita, and throughout the country, and this was in fact 107 years after the discovery of the Arita Izumi-yama magnetite.

The production area of Amakusa stone
Amakusa stone is produced in large quantities in the coastal areas of the four villages of Takahama, Odadoko, Shimotsukie and Toru, which are located in the northwestern part of the island of Shikamishima, and is also found in various places in the southeastern part of the island, but the current mining areas are the four villages mentioned above. In the Genroku era, the third generation of the Ueda family in Takahama Village, Denukomon, discovered it for the first time in Takanosu, the same village, and while selling it as a raw material for whetstones and inkstones, it was discovered as a natural single-flavored porcelain material as mentioned above.
The degree of fire resistance (not in the firing kiln) of Amakusa stone varies depending on the quality, but it is generally between No. 17 and No. 29 of the Seigel cone (1,480°C to 1,650°C). , and the silica content of the stone decreases through water filtration. The following is an example of the analysis table of the chemical components of the water, as investigated by Dr. Kitamura Yaichiro, a doctor of engineering.

Amakusa Analysis of Amakusa Stone
First Category Analysis Table
Silicic Acid 78.94
Alum 14.07
Iron Oxide 0.44
Lime 0.18
Magnesia 0.17
Potash 3.12
Soda 0.62
Loss on Ignition 2.59

Second Category Class Analysis Table
Silicic acid 79.34
Alum 13.82
Iron oxide 0.54
Lime 0.68
Magnesia 0.23
Potash 3.63
Soda 0.51
Loss on ignition 2.24

Class Class Analysis Table
Silicic acid 81.43
Alum 12.23
Iron oxide 0.98
Lime 0.39
Magnesia 0.22
Potash 0.98
Soda 1.35
Loss on ignition 2.62

Class Class Analysis Table
Silicic acid 75.22
Alum 15.46
Iron oxide 0.59
Lime 0.22
Traces of magnesia
Potash 3.27
Soda 2.19
Loss on ignition 3.39

Class Type Analysis Table
Silicic acid 76.46
Alum 15.90
Iron oxide 0.48
Lime 0.18
Magnesia 0.22
Potash 2.79
Soda 1.48
Loss on calcination 1.74

Amakusa roasted
and then learned that it was the raw material for porcelain in its place of origin, and it was taught by Ueda family’s 6th generation Denbei from the herbalist Hiraga Kokkei (a person from Takamatsu, Minamoto Kuninori, alias Shijibeppu Furaizanin, Fukunai Kigai, died on December 18th, 1779 (An’ei 8th year) (1779), aged 51, posthumously awarded the rank of Junior 5th Court Rank), he invited Yamaji Koemon from Hizen in August of the 12th year of the Horeki era (1762) to learn the production method, and the village headman Den Goemon of Takahama Village began producing porcelain.
In the 8th month of the 8th year of the Meiwa era In May of the eighth year of Meiwa (1771), the aforementioned Hiraga Hōkei, who had found the production of Amakusa ware to be very poor, came to Shimotsu Fukae himself to submit a request to the then Amakusa magistrate, Katsuhide Jūdai, to improve the production of pottery. The request is as follows.

Hiraga Gen’nai’s application for a patent

1. Pottery clay
   The clay on the right is the finest in the world. Imari, Karatsu, Hirado and other pottery all use this clay. Imari and Karatsu pottery are famous throughout Japan, and even the Chinese and Dutch are also said to be in demand. Because the Hirado ware was presented to the lord of the manor, it was strictly ordered that it could not be sold freely. If it was not sold, the Dutch people would also greatly desire it.
   One day Even if it is grass, in recent years, the person called Den Goemon, the village headman of Takahama, has been making pottery, but the workmanship is not good, so the pottery is of a low quality. I think that if we can gather skilled craftsmen from Amakusa or Nagasaki, and make drawings of the patterns and designs of the pottery, and make them to suit the tastes of the Dutch, then we can gradually If the artisans are trained, the clay is of an incomparable quality, so it is possible to make very high-quality pottery. The pottery is being trained in the rough, and if there are any skilled artisans among the artisans I took in from Sanuki in previous years, I will call them in and train them. if you call them over from abroad and use them as models for your pottery, and then add your own ingenuity, you will be able to make very good pottery. The pottery of Hirado, for example, is very beautiful, but it has not yet broken free from the mundane. The same is true of the pottery of Imari and Karatsu, of course. If you can make it a little more elegant, even if only in a small way, it will be a great improvement. have gradually become aware of the fact that they are not as refined as they should be. Even if you put Dutch and Chinese pottery next to them, they still don’t compare, so they naturally become vulgar. After all, the clay used for Amakusa pottery is superior to that used for Nanking and Dutch pottery, but the shape is not elegant, so the Japanese value foreign goods highly and pay high prices for them. If Japanese pottery is superior to foreign pottery, then naturally we will be satisfied with Japanese goods. It is natural for people to value things that are close to them and to look down on things that are far away. are superior, so it is natural that we value Japanese goods. If we do not spend money on foreign pottery and instead use Japanese pottery, then we will be able to make our country more prosperous. Originally, pottery is made from clay, so even if we use a lot of it, there is no need to worry about it running out. even if we send it, there is no need to worry about the decrease in the amount of gold and silver that we originally had. If we can accomplish this, we will secretly send some craftsmen to Amakusa to make it.
   Meiwa 8 (1771) May 1875, Inscription by Hiraga Gennai
   It was a shame that the magistrate, who was not in favor of this project, did not allow it. The amount of pottery produced in Japan , and the annual production is said to be 50 million kilograms. Ueda Matsuhiko mines Takahama, Odadoko and Shimotsu Fukae, and Kiyama Michihiko mines Tororo. like Takahama, the raw material is transported by rail from the source to the coast.

Polishing Amakusa stone
The finest Amakusa stone is crushed at the source and transported in bags. When it was mined, it had a red iron oxide coating on the surface, so it was a special item that required a lot of work to polish off the colored part with an axe. Ordinary stone becomes yellow clay when it is ground up, but when it is fired, it becomes a blue-white porcelain.

Mikawachi porcelain porcelain was perfected.
Thus, Imamura Josen completed his research on mixing the Amakusa stone with the Ajiro clay from the Mikawachi mountains, and he succeeded in making Mikawachi porcelain the finest porcelain in the world. This Ajiro clay caused a dispute over ownership in later years, but this was resolved in April 1880 (Meiji 13) by an administrative decision by Nagasaki Utsumi Tadakatsu (later Home Minister).

Jōen passes away
On March 9th, 1717 (Kōhō 2), Jōen Imamura Shōkei passed away at the age of 83. He was skilled not only in pottery, was also skilled at carving, and the five-and-a-half-inch-tall statue of the goddess of mercy that is now in the possession of Imamura Toyohisa is considered a masterpiece. The following is a brief family tree of the Imamura family.

Brief family tree of the Imamura family
Yajibe Imamura, a Korean, the first generation, died in 1643 at the age of 88
Shoichi, Sanjo, the second generation, died on July 9th, 1696 at the age of 87
Shokei, Yajibe, the third generation, died on March 9th, 1717 at the age of 83
Kosei, Yajibe He died on June 22nd, 1716 at the age of 52.
Masayuki, the fifth generation, died on June 3rd, 1861 at the age of 50.
Masayoshi, the sixth generation, died on September 3rd, 1803 at the age of 73.
Masakazu, the seventh generation, died in November 1681 at the age of 88.　Seventh generation, died in November 1889 at the age of 88
Masafumi Tsuritaro, Eighth generation, died on June 7th 1861 at the age of 57
Masayoshi Shohachi, Ninth generation, died on April 24th 1879 at the age of 45
Masakata Jinzaburo, Tenth generation, died on July 14th 1890 at the age of 57

The tenth generation Masakata ‘s daughter, Tan, married a man named Masakatsu Hirokazu, who was adopted into the family. He ran a shipping agency, and the pottery business of the Imura family died out in the 10th generation.

Pine-patterned design
The design of the pine-tree and child pattern, which was produced at the Mikawachi domain kiln, was prohibited from being used at other private kilns at the time, and was only used for the domain lord’s own use or for vessels to be presented as gifts. In particular, the seven-person were the most highly prized, followed by those with five children, then those with three children, etc. This was probably due to their use in tea utensils. There was also a technique of detailed open carving, such as the “kagome” pattern, and there were also products with extremely elaborate coloring, such as raised or celadon ware, or with “hotate” (firefly) handles.

Rinbou
Mikawachi ware also includes a type of rimmed pattern called rinbo, which is a simplified version of the Korean character “ko” written in seal script. The products of this area are fired at a slightly lower temperature than Arita ware, so they are slightly less hard, but their pure white color is unmatched in the world, and unlike Arita ware, they do not have any minute depressions , and it is also very elegant in terms of design, so it is said that it is better suited to underglaze designs than red designs.

Mikawachi blue color of flowers
and the defects that occur when using the earthenware for overglaze enameling have now been almost completely remedied. It is said that the coloring of the overglaze enamels after firing in the kiln is more muted than that of Arita ware, and this is probably due to the difference in the geological composition of the soil. , it is said that it is impossible to achieve the same coloring without using about 20 yen worth of Koshu in Mikawachi ware.

The special technique of Mikawachi ware special technique
There is a technique in the production of Mikawachi ware, in which the unglazed pottery is taken out of the kiln, wiped with a white cloth after cooling, and the fine powder that sticks to it is removed, as well as a technique to smooth the surface. There is also a technique in which the raw cups absorbing the Wushu juice, and a technique for making the glaze show no signs of firing, etc. These techniques can only be achieved using the clay from Amakusa and Ajiro, and would be impossible to achieve using Arita’s raw materials.
In Mikawachi , the two mountains of Kihara and Oie produced only the traditional pottery, and even after the Shoutoku era, when they began to use Amakusa stone, the domain did not allow the use of Amijiro outside Mikawachi. Furthermore, the best Amijiro clay was more expensive than the best Amakusa stone. (around 1910, the price of 1000 pieces of high-quality Amishiro was 1000 times higher than that of 1000 pieces of high-quality Amagusa)

The mixing ratio of Amagusa and Amishiro
The mixing ratio was as follows: for high-quality items, 4 parts Amagusa to 1 part Amishiro; for medium-quality items, 3 parts Amagusa to 1 part Amishiro; for medium-low-quality items, 2 parts Amagusa to 1 part Amishiro; and for low-quality items, 5 parts Amagusa to 5 parts Amishiro. , of course, they were all made by combining different types of materials. And since the beginning of the production of white porcelain, it would be hasty to say that all the mountains have been completely changed, and even if there are some dealers who have switched over, of course the production of traditional pottery has continued. However, when it comes to the low-priced production of porcelain production at low cost has reached the point where it is used for everyday items, and it seems that the traditional black wares have been completely overwhelmed by this, and that all of them have switched to porcelain.

The history of Mikawachi ware family tradition
From the Kan’ei era to the Kan’ryaku era, there were many people who came to Mikawachi from various countries and mountains, disguised as pilgrims or merchants, in order to discover the secret of porcelain making. the lord of the domain decreed that the secret of the kilns must be kept even more strictly than before, and that the method of production must never be taught to anyone except the eldest son. The special technique of Mikawachi ware is said to have reached its peak of perfection in the Kansei era (1789-1801), 140 years ago.

Control of Mikawachi Domain kiln products control.
Any products that were imperfect were not allowed to be sold or even used by the clan, and were all smashed and buried in the ground. This was done by piling up a number of rejected plates and then giving them a single blow from above. At the time, it was even said that the punishment of death punishment, there are even stories of people being saved from death at the mercy of the sword-bearer. Therefore, some of the lower layers of the pile were saved from death and escaped being buried, and some were even hidden in chests and other containers in the back door of the official’s house, escaping being buried.

The Oryu Mountain Tree Felling Commotion
On October 9th, 1725, 340 people from the Omura domain came to the Oyanagi mountain in the Shimohasami border area of the Hirado domain to cut down trees for fuel to make pottery. also cut down a large number of trees in the forests of Omura territory, and the following day, he came back with a large group of people, so the Hirado side also sent out 400 people to control them, and eventually both sides retreated.

Imamura’s resume
The following is from Imamura’s resume, which was investigated in the 18th year of the Kyouhou era.

Third generation of San no Jikko
Imamura Yajibe (later renamed Jozaru)
For the various pottery works that I presented to the shogun, I was awarded a stipend and other rewards as detailed in the attached list. After that, I was summoned to Edo and presented with a picture of the items I had made.
100 koku of rice, 100 koku of rice, 100 koku of rice 1000 koku rice
4th generation: Imamura Yahei (this person died before Saru)
1st person to receive 1000 koku rice In addition to the rice allowance of 100 koku, he was granted 200 koku of new rice fields (this was granted in the third year of the Jōkyō era, and was known as the “Jōen Grant”).
5th generation: Dojibe
The same as above (this was granted in addition to his role as magistrate of the Mikasayama region)
200 koku of new rice fields The third generation’s younger brother Isuke was allocated four koku, the fourth generation’s wife Jirobei was allocated two koku, and the fifth generation’s wife Jiro was allocated two koku. The remaining four koku were allocated to Yajibe, making a total of 16 koku. This was handed down to his descendants.
Kouhou 18th year, 10th month, 4th day Investigation on the 4th day of the 8th month of the 18th year of the Kyouhou era
6th generation, Imamura Yajibe Masayoshi

San Hauke
On the 26th day of the 6th month of the 3rd year of the Kansei era (1791), Imamura Yajibe Masayoshi presented a document to the feudal lord Iki no Kami Kiyoshi (the 28th generation) that described the history of the Sarayama area.

(omission) The god of the pottery kiln is called and worshiped the mountain god. Around the year 1672, there was an old woman (Nakazato’s wife) who had come from Korea and was the only one left, and she continued to perform the annual festival as a woman, but later she said, “When I die, you must set fire to this shrine. If the smoke rises to the heavens and goes towards Korea, you must stop this festival and build a new shrine to worship the mountain god. rises and goes towards Korea, this festival should be stopped and a new shrine to the mountain god should be built and worshipped. If the smoke does not rise and disappears on the ground, this shrine should be worshipped for a long time. After the old woman died, they set fire to the shrine, but the smoke did not rise and disappeared, so they thought it was a wonder and decided to hold the festival forever. At the time of the great fire that destroyed the roof of the kiln and burned down the large pine trees on either side of the shrine, people were afraid of further disasters, so the shrine was moved to the present location on the mountain. The name of the present shrine mountain is thought to be a Korean word. The god of the mountain is said to be the god of the Korean pottery kiln.

Naotoshi Tanaka
Kansei era (1789-1801), Tanaka Yohei Mukai Shun created the design of pine and bamboo children that he had previously described for the dyeing of the clan’s utensils. Shun was the younger brother of the clan’s official painter, Hokkyo Shokkei, and he succeeded the mantle of Yamauchi Chobei Toyohide.

Breaking the rule of was
established, it was later found that there was a problem with the second son and other idle people being born, and in the Kyowa era, when Yozaburo Satomi was the administrator of the Sanzarayama area, a request was made to the feudal lord to lift the ban, and with his permission, it became possible to pass on the production method to the second son and other family members.

Tsugane Taneomi
In the fourth year of Bunka (180 In 1807, the story of how Kato Tamikichi of Owari perfected porcelain in Seto is of particular interest to the history of Mikawa pottery, so I will now summarize the story. In the twelfth year of the Kansei era (1800), 00, while inspecting the newly cultivated rice fields, he came across a group of laborers who were very poor at using the hoe. When he asked them about their background, they replied that they were former potters from Seto, so he called Kato Kichizaemon, who was one of the most prominent potters in the area, and asked him to investigate the matter.

The Seto Potter System
From In the years 1673-1681, Tokugawa Mitsutomo, the lord of the Owari domain, prohibited the use of the clay used in Seto ware outside of the domain’s official kilns, and ordered that each pottery family be limited to one pottery wheel. many of the other family members who were not the head of the household took up farming or became laborers, and Kisakomon was also said to be considering a career path for his second son, Tamikichi.
Toshimi had previously studied was studying the oral tradition of Nanking stoneware, he sent Kichizaemon and his son to Seto the following year, where they worked with Kato Koraemon Takakage, the head of the Kato family, to immerse themselves in research into the production of white porcelain. Koraemon had also Yushichi Soejima of Hizen Okawachi-yama had taught the porcelain-making method to Kume Hachie, Tadayoshi Kageyoshi and others when he fled from the clan kiln, and he had harbored the same hope since then, but in the end he was unable to obtain the raw materials needed to make it a reality.

Trial firing of porcelain in Seto
From this they examined the raw materials from the village of Ketsu in Chita County, based on the original documents, and after several dozen attempts at firing, they finally managed to produce a few cups that resembled the original, which they showed to Toshimune. Toshimune was very pleased, when he was about to build a kiln on the old embankment of the Atsuta-shinden area, Karasakumon was perplexed by the objections that arose, which would have a major impact on Seto’s traditional pottery industry.

Creating a new system
The traditional pottery makers agreed with the deputy governor Mizuno Norimasa that this project was a matter of life or death for Seto, and they strongly opposed it, using the system as a shield.
Karasakomon intervened, and the decision was referred to the judgment of the clan elder Hayami Kai no Kami. In the end, Taneomi agreed to Akai’s proposal, and the project was given the name “Shinsei”, meaning “new production”, and it was decided that the business would be run by the second son and younger.

The failure of the first firing at Seto In November 1802, the first firing was carried out in Seto, but the results were very unsatisfactory. And on the 19th of the following month, Taneomi passed away at the age of 75. (He was posthumously awarded the rank of Senior Fifth Rank on November 11, 1928 (who was posthumously awarded the rank of Shōgo-i on November 11th) and the selection of a person to go to Arita, and Tamikichi, the son of Kichizaemon, volunteered to go to Hizen and infiltrate the strictly guarded domain, vowing to learn the secret dance and vowed to learn the secret and dance it, and on February 22nd of the same year (1804) he left Seto, but his actions were extremely well-prepared.

Tamiyoshi’s arrival in Takahama
Tamiyoshi first landed at Takahama on Amakusa Island in Higo Province, and inspected the isoyama (white porcelain clay) with the help of Tenkyu, the priest of Tohkouji Temple. Tenkyu was originally from Hishino Village in Aichi Prefecture in Owari Province was born in Hishino Village, Aichi Prefecture, and so he asked him to help, and Tenchu agreed and put him in touch with the local potter, Ueda Genpaku. For half a year, although he worked very hard, he never revealed the secret of the porcelain glazing method.

Minkichi’s arrival in Mikawa
One day, after seeing the Suwa Festival in Nagasaki, he left the area under false pretences, and in 1805 (the second year of the Bunka era) he arrived at Saikyoji Temple (now Hachiman-cho in the city) in Sasebo Village, Hirado Domain, carrying a letter of introduction from the Tenchū domain. He left the letter at Saikyoji Temple village, and he was made to live and work as an artisan for the potter Ikuemon Imamura (a relative of Imamura) of Mikawachi. However, at some point, a census was taken and a decree was issued forbidding foreigners to stay in the area, so Tamikichi left and became a temple worker at Oji.

Tamikichi’s arrival in Enaga
In the he married a woman from the Enaga area and gradually began to make friends with the locals. In the same year, he moved in with the Kueiemon pottery kiln in the area, but at the time, Enaga was not yet permitted to use the ajiro technique, and the style of the white porcelain from Mikawachi was quite different from the style of the ware, and while he was waiting for an opportunity to return to Mikawachi, he learned that Arita, the home of porcelain, was only a mile away, so he obtained a guide and sneaked into Arita.

Tenkichi’s arrival in Arita
He stayed at the house of Tsutsumi Sōzaemon, the kiln builder at Izumiyama. While he was observing the structure of the round kiln and the method of firing it, something strange happened, and he hurried back to Yakuō-ji.

Minokichi’s arrival in Sasu
However However, he also felt danger around him here, and on December 28th of the same year, he ran away with his wife, taking refuge with the potter Fukumoto Nizaemon in the city of Sasamura (Kitamatsuura-gun) on the Ise River. Nizaemon loved Tamikichi’s loved his spirit, and having opened his heart to him and carefully taught him the methods of making glazes and other things, he now felt that he had achieved his goal, and with his wife and daughter in mind, he left this place on the 7th day of the 1st month of the 4th year of Bunka (1807).

Returning to Amakusa
On the way back, he landed in Amakusa again from Nagasaki landed in Amakusa again, visited Tōgō-ji, and then stopped by Ueda to apologize for his earlier deception and reveal his true identity. It is said that the original greatly approved of this, and taught him the secret red-painting method. From this point, Tamiyoshi visited the factory of Katsuemon Yanagimoto at Takada Pottery in Yatsushiro, Higo Province, and arrived in Seto on June 18th of the same year.

Expulsion from Yakuoji
After this flight After the crime of harboring Tamikichi, the 13th chief priest of Yakuoji Temple, Yuzan Taiken, was banished from the country with only an umbrella in his hands, in accordance with the national law. When Tamikichi returned to his hometown with the secret of porcelain making and returned to his hometown, Seto, as well as Atsuta Magistrate Tsugane Motonobu (the son of Toshimi), should have been delighted.
From this point on, the traditional main business was eclipsed by the new production, and the height of porcelain production was reached. The production value of Aichi and Gifu prefectures now accounts for nearly 70% of the total. For this achievement, Kato Kozo Takakage and Kato Kichizaemon Kageharu were both awarded a stipend of three people.

Minkichi’s posthumous rank
Kato Minkichi Hoken passed away on July 4th, 1810 at the age of 53, and was posthumously awarded the rank of Junior Fifth Court Rank on November 11th, 1928. Among his students were Kosen-do Kawamoto Jihei and Kato Shinshichi, and in later years, famous potters such as Sankyo Kawamoto Hansuke and Togyokuen Kato Gosuke emerged.
Later, potters from Mikawa also went to the city of Mino also contributed to the success of the sake cup industry, and Aizu ware, which at one time imitated the Mikawachi-style sometsuke, was also very popular.

Mikawachi’s trade with the Netherlands
In the 13th year of Bunsei, the first year of Tempo (1831), the exchange rate changed and soon became one shu silver not in circulation, so Nakazato Risuke and Furukawa Ruizo from Mikawachi, who had gone to Nagasaki, concluded a contract with the Dutch to sell Mikawaya pottery. From this point onwards, Masakazu (a descendant of the Nakanosato family and a descendant of Jinkomon), Keisuke Ohno, Jinzou Ohno, and others began to make modifications to suit the tastes of the Dutch, and the overseas trade of Hiroto ware began.
At this time, when the Dutch people were in need of coffee pots, Imamura Toshitaro Masafumi (the 8th generation from Kogane) submitted a proposal to the feudal lord Matsuura Hiroshi (the 29th generation) and actively produced these items.

Hirado Pottery Production Center
The feudal lord also established the Hirado Pottery Production Center in Nagasaki and began trading. The founders of the thin-walled coffee pot are said to have been Yasujiro Ikeda, Heisuke Takahashi, Ushitaro Nakazato, and Shosaku Furukawa.

A passage from Koshiyawa
The following is an excerpt from Koshiyawa, Volume 3, Chapter 11, which was written by the feudal lord Matsuura Hiroshi in 1835 and tells the story of the previous feudal lord, Kiyoshi.

(Written by Kiyoshi in later years)
(omission) In the eighth year of An’ei (1779), while I was in my country, I left Hirado and went to inspect the territory, and I came to Saki and went to that mountain village and rested at the house of the Imamura family. The house was not unpleasant to look at, and the sitting area was spacious, with a line of cut-off eaves and a natural lawn on the other side, like a small hill, with trees growing are planted in the distance. There is a small shrine in the middle of the grassy hill, and a small torii gate has been erected in front of it. On the tablet above the gate is written the words “Kumagawa Myojin”. I asked him who this god was, and he replied, “He is my guardian deity. I asked him what kind of god he was, and he replied, ”I was originally from the Korean Peninsula, and I am the 17th generation of the Chinshin family. came to this place as an attendant when he returned to Japan, and so he invited the god of the Koryo Kingdom to be the guardian deity of this house, and he is also the guardian deity of this area. I think that Kumagawa is the name of a place in the Koryo Kingdom, and I think that it is appropriate to call it the guardian deity of this area. Also, when I looked around the small shrine, I saw that a gourd was hanging from a branch of an old Japanese apricot tree, and I thought that this was a very unusual sight. with a string attached to it. When I asked about this, a mountain sparrow came and perched on it. Thinking about these strange things, I remembered a story from Hizen Province that I had heard a long time ago. If you go to the shrine of the Imamura family in Mikawa, you will find that the shrine of Kumagawa, which was mentioned in the story, has now disappeared. there was no response. There were also searches in Hizen, but it seems that the people of the village, including the head of the village, all knew about it, and the search never stopped. From the beginning, it was not a story that should have been told, but now, is it not truly lamentable? Looking back, it has already been 56 years since An’ei, and the change in the mulberry fields is not a lie. If you long for the past, you should seek it in the future. Also, when Imamura was searching for his ancestors, he heard that they were called Kogane, from Kumagawa in Chosun. Kumagawa is the name of the god of the land where Imamura’s ancestors came from. When I was a child, I was called Yajibe, but my son, Chohachi (the 7th generation), and his son, Tsuritaro (the 8th generation), are now called Yajibe. his son, Chohachi (the 7th generation), and his son, Chutaro (the 8th generation), and now I hear that Yaji is the grandson of Chohachi. The way of the world is like a floating cloud or a flowing stream, and it is hard to bear the sadness of it all. In the Kumagawa region, the land of Gyeongsang Province, the sea is not far from Busan Port, and I think that the thoughts of the priest Hoin from long ago must surely be true.

Ikeda Anjiro
Ikeda, who had been researching coffee machines for the Dutch, succeeded in producing a thin material that was as white as paper in 1838.

Like a monkey On March 9th, 1843, the feudal lord Matsuura Hiro erected the following inscription and two waka poems on the mountain.

Kaku
Its As the descendants of the founder of the clan, the monkey, who received the blessings of the gods in the past, you must never forget this, and from now on you must pray to the Monkey God for the fulfillment of your wishes.
March 9th, 1842, in the 13th year of the Tempou era, the 9th day of the 3rd month, Hiroshi Minamoto
Here a shrine was built on a high plateau 200 shaku (660m) above sea level in the eastern part of the Mikawa Uchiyama mountains, and the deity was worshipped as Jorai Daimyojin.

Two Japanese poems
The god who watches over the mountains and the rivers, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at play, who is always at work, who is always at work, who is always at work, who is always at work, who is always at work, who is always at work, who is always at the path of compassion

The completion of today’s white porcelain, through the use of Mikawachi clay and the coordination of Ajiro and Amakusa, is due to the achievements of the monkey, but it is also due to the efforts of the Koreans, who worked with the Imamura father and son to make the Mikawachi pottery industry flourish industry, and it is said that the collapse of the Okawachi domain kilns in later years also contributed to the development of Mikawachi ware.
In the 14th year of the Tempo era In the 14th year of the Tempo era (1844), a shrine to the deity Yajiro Saru Daimeijin was built using stones from Osaki on Haruoshima Island, and the 9th day of the 3rd month (the anniversary of Yajiro Saru) was designated as the regular festival day, and it became customary to read aloud the memorandum and two tanka poems that had been handed down from the feudal lord. the clan decided to provide 1,000 sacks of rice to the Mikawa Uchisara Shōya as a form of rice allowance.

Kihara Eiwa is granted permission to use Ajiro clay
In 1847, Ishimaru Yaichikokumon and Higuchi Koro of Kihara-yama, together with volunteers from Eiwa-yama, applied to the deputy governor, Kawabuchi Jubei, and were granted permission to use Ajiro clay. , there were distinctions made between different types of pottery, and the use of the pottery from the Mikawachi domain kilns was prohibited for the thick, white pottery, while the use of the pottery from the Mikawachi private kilns was permitted for the next type of white pottery and below, and the use of the pottery from the Kihara and Enaga kilns was permitted for the thin, white pottery. after the Meiji Restoration, of course, this system disappeared, and it became difficult to distinguish between the three mountains for ordinary tableware.
At the time were used by the Mikawachi domain kilns, with 88 workers, 51 kiln-handlers, and 6 red-painters, and there were over 300 houses in Mikawachi, plus Kihara and Enaga, making a total of 500 houses in the three pottery mountains.

Mitsutake Mitake guardhouse
At this time, some people were seen digging up the Mitake area’s Ajiro clay and secretly selling it to the pottery mountains in other territories by loading it onto boats in the middle of the night. , and in November of the third year of Ansei (1857), the Mitsutake guardhouse was completed through the cooperation of Kida Kichitaro, who was in charge of building the guardhouse, and the pottery master Honkaji. The mined clay was transported to the warehouse at the guardhouse, and Kida Kichitaro was put in charge of supervising the warehouse.
From the Ansei From the Ansei era (1855-1861) to the Man’en era (1861-1864), the local magistrate Shirakawa Tsunejiro worked hard to correct local customs and was one of the people who devoted themselves to the development of the mountain. In the first month of the first year of the Genji era (1864), Nakazato Shonosuke was appointed as the local magistrate of the Sarayama area. The following year, in the first year of the Kei In the first year of Keio (1865-1868), Inamoto Taro was in charge of the business of the Hirado Pottery Association.

Miwakouchi Akae Ware
This year, Akae Ware with a second coating was created by the efforts of Kuni Taizaburo, Imamura Tsunekazu, Mori Rikimatsu, and others.

Presentation of Hirado Pottery to the Imperial Court offering of Hiroto ware to the Imperial Court
On August 4th, 1865, the feudal lord Matsuura Akira submitted a written request to the shogunate stating that, of the four items he was required to offer to the Imperial Court each year, he would be offering Mikawachi ware and boiled abalone this year.
Keio In the first year of Keio (1865), Furukawa Matazo was employed as a craftsman for the shogunate, and his colleague Takahashi Taro was given a stipend of 5 gō and 2 people. In addition, Hashimoto Taihei, who was in charge of the horse stable, was appointed to succeed Konomi Eshichi, the deputy official of Mikawa.

Manpōzan Shōho
In the fourth year of Meiji In 1871, when the Meiji Restoration took place, the domain handed over all operations of the Hirado Pottery Association to the then county governor, Kiyoshi (Unkichi) Furukawa, and Kiyoshi took over the business with Eitaro Fukumoto as a private enterprise, changing the name to Manpozan Shoho. the products of the time bear the name “Manpozan Eiei-sei” or “Hirado-san Eiei-zo”.

Reconstruction of the climbing kilns in Mikawachi
From around 1872, the traditional 30-40 ken climbing kilns were abolished and replaced with 15-20 ken kilns. In 1873 In 1873, Arita’s Fukagawa Eizakomon ordered a thin coffee pot to be made for an exhibition at the World Exposition, and in response, Mori Rikimatsu decorated the pot with a polychrome painting of the Six Poets of the Nara Period, which was highly praised. (His (His sons, Uzaburo and his younger brother Eishiro, were both skilled ceramic painters.)
In the sixth year of Meiji, Shonosuke Nakazato, who had been the head of the Sarayama area (from the second year of Meiji), became a director of the Mitsutake Pottery Company. (He then became the manager of the Mikawachi-yama Line in the eighth year of Meiji.)

Toshima Politics
Toshima Seiji, who was the nephew of Furukawa Sumiji and a wealthy farmer named Kuwakiba Tou, was formerly a village headman. He left the management of the family business to his younger brother Kiku and came to Mikawachi himself, taking over the aforementioned Manpozan store.
In 1884 In 1884, Toshima Seiji opened a store in the deputy governor’s residence in cooperation with Tomita Kumasaburo, and from then on was engaged in trade in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, etc. In the same year, Nakazato Shonosuke organized the Kosan Company and became its director.

Kuchishi Imperial gift
In May 1889, Kuchishiro Jounosuke applied to present his openwork products to the Imperial Household, and on November 14th he received permission from the then Governor of Nagasaki, Yoshio Kusaka, but it was not until the following spring of 1890 that he was able to complete the presentation.

Mikawa Purchase of Mikawa-style pottery
In 1890, during the visit of Emperor Meiji to the Sasebo Naval Base, a pair of white chicken ornaments by Katsujiro Imamura were purchased from the items on display at the time.

Fukumoto Genshichi
In 1890, Fukumoto Genshichi became the person in charge of the pottery used at the Matsura Hakutei residence in Asakusa, Tokyo. He was a nensai (pottery) craftsman who studied under Imamura Ryosaku, and was known as Jyosai. He worked there until 1894.

Satomi Masashichi
In 1892, Masashichi Satomi was appointed as the head of the Mikawa Uchiyama kiln, and was given overall responsibility for the kiln, including the supervision of the Jitoyama forest, the Egami village clay pit (Ajiro), and the storage warehouses for the raw materials at Haki Port. During this year, Yoshisaku Satomi (a side-line of the Moei school) was appointed as the official potter for the Matsuura family.
From this time Toshima Masaharu was busy traveling all over the country, expanding sales in major cities, while also working hard to improve and develop Mikawachi ware. As a result all the potters and workers in the three mountains were inspired by this encouragement, and gradually the pottery became famous both in Japan and abroad, and demand increased, leading to an expansion in the scale of production.

Naonosuke Ikeda Naosuke
In 1897, when Matsuura Sen built a kiln at his main residence in Hirado Tsurugamine, Ikeda Naosuke was chosen to work there as the head of the pottery production.

Ceramic Design School for Ceramic Art
In 1900, Toshima Seiji, together with Satomi Masashichi, Nakazato Riichi, Imamura Toranosuke, Nakazato Migota and others, established the Design School for Ceramic Art with financial assistance from the government, and set up two courses: one in ceramic painting and the other in mold making. using the summer vacation, he invited Yoshimi Shimada from Tokyo and Tomotaka Tokumi from Arita to improve the designs. Thus, Seiji became the director of the school, and Masashichi Satomi and Matazo Furukawa were the vice-directors. Nakazato Migota and Imamura Toyohisa laid down the style of painting, and the teachers of the craft included Shokuma Kotaro, Furukawa Yonejiro, and Ikeda Naosuke.

Fukumoto produced the Rakan
This year, Hogen Shichiro produced 500 Rakan at Chomei-ji Temple in Kanda, Gunma-gun, Gunma Prefecture. (In later years, he also produced 26 Rakan at Anraku-ji Temple in Musashi Province, 500 Rakan at Shouan-ji Temple in Shinano Province, and a statue of Kobo Daishi at Kyouji Temple in Tokyo.

Sasebo A gift from Sasebo City
On the occasion of the wedding of the Crown Prince on May 10th, 1900, I was commissioned by Sasebo City to make a pair of 1 shaku 8 sun (approx. 55 cm) tall openwork incense burners, and I made them with the utmost care.

Imamura Rokuro
In 1901, Rokuro Imamura began working as the head of the Oniyayaki pottery at the Tsurumine residence.

Kigota
In 1906, he founded the Industrial Evening School, and Kigota became in charge of it.

Mikawa Mikawa-uchi pottery presented to the British royal family
Toshima Seiji, representing the Mikawa-uchi Pottery Association, presented three vases to the British royal family, His Royal Highness Arthur of Connaught, through the hands of Shogo Nagasaki, the chief advisor to the Imperial Household and a member of the Imperial Household.
In 1907, the Goeisha company was established, and Toshima Seiji became its president.

Mikawa-uchi production and sales of Mikawa-uchi pottery
According to statistics from 1909, there were 39 Mikawa-uchi pottery kilns, with 335 male and 175 female workers. and 1,000 sen for Amakusa stone, 1,000 sen for three-tiered wickerwork, 4,000 sen for fuel wood, 39 main kilns, 30 red-painted kilns, and a production value of 113,500 yen , and the products were sold in Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, etc. (60%) and in Tokyo, Osaka, etc. (40%).
Meiji In 1910, the tombstone and remains of Kogane were moved from Mt. Kurokami to this mountain, and he was enshrined there along with his three generations, including Sanjō and Nijō.

The Crown Prince visited the Matsuura The Crown Prince’s visit to the Matsuura residence
On June 1st, 1911, the Crown Prince visited the Matsuura residence in Asakusa, Tokyo, and the Count Atsushi (32nd generation) was deeply honored by this, and presented a Mikawachi ware incense burner.
Taisho In the sixth year of Taisho, Atsushi Matsuura, at the request of the mountain people, selected an inscription to commemorate the opening of the Sanjirayama kiln, and in the seventh year of Taisho, in March, he wrote the title for the monument commemorating the 300th anniversary of the opening of the kiln, and thus the two monuments were beautifully erected by the side of the Busan Shrine.

Technical Vocational School
In 1918, the vocational school was renamed the Pottery Apprentice Training Institute, and the school system was reformed, leading to improvements in the training of apprentices.

Toshima Seiji Passes Away
In 1919 On May 31st, 1919, Toshima Seiji passed away at the age of 69. It is worth noting that the success of Mikawa-uchi pottery during the Meiji era was due in no small part to the efforts of this active man. During this busy period, he also contributed to local government as a member of the Koumura-kai and the Gunkai.

The current apprenticeship training school
and later the children’s training school, the director, Yamada Yuji, worked hard to make it a facility that was actively managed, and from April 1923, he began to have Umehara Jinichi teach there. During this time produced a large number of excellent potters and molders, and became the center of the Hirado pottery technique. The current director is headed by Mr. Kengi Orio, the mayor of Orio Village, and has two technical staff members, 17 full-time students, 37 part-time students, and 12 research students. It maintains contact with the Nagasaki Prefectural Ceramic Guidance Center in Kami-Hasami.
From this there were no shortage of masters of local pottery, and in 1870 Kihachiro Imamura created porcelain white wax, in 1884 Kotaro Fujimoto created porcelain go stones, and in 1887 Kumajiro Fujimoto and Genkichi Fujimoto created porcelain teeth. The following are some of the potters who should be called master craftsmen of this area.

Mikawa Master Craftsman from Mikawa

Imamura Rikoumon
Died on July 27th, 1864. He was a master craftsman of Mikawa-uchi style flower and bird paintings.

Nakazato Ushitaro
Died on June 17th, 1862, aged 32. He was a master craftsman of thin-walled pottery, and his paper-thin work is astonishing, with no thick or thin areas even at the bottom of the piece.

Imamura Kusaburo
Born on December 13th, 1874, he was a master potter at the clan kiln Matsukarako.

Ryosaku
Born on May 12th, 1877, he was a master potter of carved works, and died at the age of 48.

Shosaku
Born on June 21st, 1888, he was a master potter of thin-walled works, and died at the age of 75. He made long-handled brushes.

Kuchishi Tonosuke
Died on February 6th, 1902 at the age of 69. From around 1882, he devoted himself to researching openwork carving for incense burners and the like, and by around 1884 he had produced some excellent works, the techniques of which were extremely refined.

Imamura Rokuro
He died on January 9th, 1905 at the age of 72. He was a student of the aforementioned IMAURA Riemon, and was given the name “Hyōen” by the feudal lord. He excelled at the Mikawa-uchi Fūryūko pattern, and was a master sculptor.

Mikawa Modern master craftsman
A modern master craftsman is Migota Nakazato, the eldest son of Shonosuke, the eighth generation of the Nakazato branch family, who studied pottery painting at the Tanaka South Gate and was given the name of Sanen by the Matsura clan in 1911. Toyohisa was the grandson of Chobei, who branched off from the family of Kisakuro, the second son of Josen, and was commonly known as Jyuudai Tsugu. He studied under the official painter of the domain, Funamizu Katayama, and was a specialist painter who used the name Chonosai Chouno.
Naonosuke Ikeda Naosuke Ikeda was the great-grandson of the like-monkey’s son Denkuro, and was a master craftsman who was unsurpassed in his work on the potter’s wheel. Daishichi Kuchishi was the grandson of Chinnosuke and the son of Chinkaro. He was known as the foremost expert in the art of open carving.

Yozan of the Imperial Household Ministry
Nakazato Yozan, also known as Sukeshiro, was already well known for his skill in painting and sculpture as well as his pottery, and on October 23, 1928, he was appointed as an official supplier to the Imperial Household Ministry.
Other Kagoro Kuchishi, Keiichiro Imamura, etc. There are few famous potters in this area, which is famous for producing high-quality products. At the height of the prosperity of this area, the number of kilns exceeded 300, and the annual production value was 300,000 yen, but due to the subsequent recession, the number of kilns decreased to 120, and recently it is said that it has recovered to 200 kilns. Currently there are 40 pottery kilns, 400 workers, and an annual production value of 100,000 yen.

Kihara Mountain
In describing the history of Kihara Mountain, it seems that the origins of this pottery were transferred from the neighboring area of Yoshimoto (also in the village of Orosose), and if we are to discuss Yoshimoto, we must begin by discussing the Imari lineage of Saga Domain. There are not a few people who believe that the kiln was first opened by Yoshimoto in the Hirado area, and then the kiln was divided into the Haramyo kiln, and then it expanded from Yanagi to Kihara. However, this is not a consideration that is based solely on the achievements of the Hirado domain and Kogane.

Haramyo and Yoshimoto’s kilns
If the style of Yoshimoto’s kilns is the same as that of the Hara Akira kilns, which are separated by only a few kilns, then it would be more geographically appropriate to see them as having branched off from the old Minamikawara Hara Akira kilns rather than the Hirado kilns. At that time as if he had come to the kiln that had already been opened in Yoshino to test-fire temporarily, and also his friend Koyamada Sahei came from Shiinomine to make pottery here. In short In short, many potters searched the mountains and forests around Yoshimoto, and when they saw a lack of resources, they gradually moved deeper into the Kihara area.

In the old documents of Kihara , there is a document that reads as follows

When Yoshimoto was burned down, the god of the mountain was taken to the area around Kihara twice a year, on the 15th of the second month and the 15th of the 11th month. Hara Myo-o, the god of Kihara Mountain, was transferred from Yoshimoto to the Seikoin Mountain Festival, which was held until the year 1848.
From the above document, it can be seen that Hara Myo-o, Yoshimoto and Kihara Mountain have had a close relationship since ancient times. is a former Saga domain with over 50 households in the village of Magaragawa, Nishimatsuura-gun. It is located one ri from Arita Station, and the boundary between Nagasaki Prefecture and the village is located at the southern end of the village, bordering Yoshimoto and Sakai.

Hara Myo’s kiln Valley
On the hilltop a few dozen meters east of the railway line is a valley called Kama-no-tani, which is the site of the Hara-mei kilns. It is said that there was a kiln here called Biku-yashiki, which was a branch of the Komizo kilns (see the article on the Imari-style Komizo kilns for more information on the Biku kilns), this kiln was small and stood at a height of around 40 ken until around the middle of the Meiji era, but it has now been completely demolished and most of the land has been turned into farmland.
The old ware includes many small dishes with a four-eyed pattern, such as those with a border, round shape, or green rim, in colors such as amber, gray, and greenish-blue glazes, as well as large dishes with a four-eyed pattern in light green glaze. There are also tea bowls with a tenmoku glaze teacups, but they are all small unglazed tallow-shaped cups, and the crude patterns applied with iron glaze inside are exactly the same style as those of Yoshimoto. In later years, rough-made porcelain was also fired, and the fact that all the plates are made with a snail-shaped pattern is the same as that of the small grooves.

Yoshimoto
Yoshimoto ‘s old kiln products include small plates with a thin blue-green glaze or a greenish brown glaze, as mentioned above, as well as large plates measuring 24 to 30 cm in diameter. All of these are unglazed, and the shapes are quite small, with some of the small plates measuring just 5 cm in diameter. In addition, one or two of the large plates one or two places are made into a high stand, is it due to the idea of making the fire spread to the bottom quickly? In addition, there are Tenmoku tea bowls and gray glazed tea bowls, all of which are unglazed high stands, and many of them are Moku-zuki ware.
There are high bamboo joints on tea bowls and water There are also tea bowls and water jars with tall bamboo-jointed stands, and some of these have shallow scoops that have become female hips. It is also worth noting that the techniques used to create the patterns, such as the use of iron glaze to create patterns that resemble grass, and the use of grooves on large plates and small plates, are exactly the same as those used at the Hara-yaki kilns.

The tomb of Yoshimoto tombs
There are also quite a few Korean tombs here, and although I have heard that there are still seven or eight, I was unable to explore the dense forest to find them, but many of them are from the Shoutoku era (1711-1716), so they have already been assimilated as if they had been there for several generations. In the old documents of Kihara, there are two people from the Ikeda family, two people from the Yokoiseki family, two people from the Higuchi family, one person from the Iwanaga family, one person from the Ishida family, and one person from the Yamamura family, who immigrated from Yoshimoto. And if we consider that If we consider that the names of the people who sponsored the Kihara Grand Shrine monument are listed in the same family name in 1696, the owner of the Yoshimoto grave must have been a Korean who had already matured.

The Korean grave of Maehira Korean tomb
There is a cemetery next to the Taishi-do shrine, which is called Maehira and is opposite the grave of Yoshimoto, and there is a monument called the Korean tomb at the base of a large oak tree there. It is about four feet It is a flat natural stone about 45 cm high and 25 cm wide, with large Sanskrit characters engraved on the top, and the names of Sozen and Myo-ei inscribed below, as if they were a married couple. The stone, which was pushed down as the trunk grew, is now leaning at an angle of about 45 degrees, but it is held fast in the roots and does not move at all.

The Willow Tree
The The neighboring mountain, which is four chō (units of distance) to the southwest of the original, is a willow grove, and the old pottery from this area is also similar to that of the original Yoshi’s kiln. There are tea bowls with a pale yellow glaze that look like old Hagi ware, and there are also tea jars with a simple black Tenmoku glaze. There are also dishes with a glaze that looks like candy or gray glaze, there are also dishes with a rim that is 8 to 10 cm in diameter, and large, bowl-shaped dishes with birds painted on them, which are similar to those made by Yoshimoto, and there are also several pieces that have been fired in reverse on a small stand. There are also deep dishes made of red clay , and there are also small plates with a thin green glaze and a white makeup, and in later generations, they produced porcelain with a blue and white pattern, and some of them were found to be very beautiful.
Kihara Mountain is is located in the mountains, about 10 chō (approx. 3.3 km) from Yoshimoto. There are the remains of old kilns in the area, including Jizōdaira, Shimo-gama, Tani-gama, Nishi-gama, Higashi-gama and Dō-no-mae.

Jizōdaira
Jizō There are large plates with birds caught in the knot design seen in the Yoshimoto and Yanagimoto kilns, as well as small plates with the same iron drawing on the candy glaze and tea bowls with the chigusa design. There are also sake bottles with a thread-cut bottom made in the same glaze , or there are seven-inch bowls with a design on the bottom made in the Keizu style. There are also small plates with a white slip on a brown clay body, which have been stripped of the underglaze and then glazed with a cobalt pattern, and all of these are unglazed.
Other works, such as tea bowls with a brush pattern in a variety of colors, including greenish brown, light brown, chestnut brown, and reddish brown, are considered to be later works. , such as those with stripes brushed on in light-blue, chestnut-red, or reddish-brown glazes, are considered to be later works, and later works include soft-paste porcelain with Toba-e patterns , and Joseon-style underglaze blue designs, etc., and although celadon is rare due to the nature of the raw materials, the glaze surface of the works is decorated with floral and bird patterns carved with needles or incised.

Kihara-dani Kiln
Dani Kiln There are tea bowls with dark purple glaze and white brush marks, tea bowls with chestnut-colored glaze and mottled brush marks, and tea bowls with gold-brown glaze and brush marks inside and out, as well as tea bowls with pink glaze and small cracks, and those with Koshu stripes. Also, unglazed items there are also white-glazed bowls with a striped brush pattern, and there are also semi-porcelain bowls with a thin blue glaze and a Wuzhou design.

Kihara Nishi-gama
Nishi-gama’s old ware There are small plates with a greenish-blue glaze and unglazed high-rises, and there are also tea bowls with a chestnut-colored glaze and a striped brush pattern. There are also tea bowls with a wave brush pattern and a snowflake brush pattern, and here too, there are plates with the bottom peeled off in a snakelike pattern and sanded before being fired.

Kihara East Kiln
East Kiln There is a deep brown bowl with a chestnut-colored glaze and a wave brush pattern on the inside, and there is also a brown glaze bowl with a lid that looks like stoneware, but which is actually a helmet-shaped lid without a glaze. There is also a thin gray there are also tea bowls with calligraphy written in iron glaze on semi-porcelain.

Kihara Shimo Kiln
Among the old wares from the Shimo Kiln, there are small plates with a blue ground and a crackled glaze, and various unglazed tall objects made from brown clay, but the more advanced products include dark green tea bowls with a round shape , with a small wave pattern brushwork on the outside and a mottled pattern resembling tree roots on the inside, the workmanship is extremely skillful and the result is completely in the style of Arikawa.
There are also tea bowls with a white wave pattern on a chestnut-colored glaze, reddish brown glaze, etc., with white rippled brushwork, or with a small rippled brushwork on a chestnut brown glaze, and a tea bowl with a rippled brushwork design inside. There is also a tea caddy with a small rippled brushwork design on a black tea glaze or there are also upright tea caddies with small wave brushwork in reddish brown or reddish brown glazes, and there are also tea bowls with striped or wave brushwork in greenish brown or reddish brown glazes.

In front of the hall
In front of the hall (also called “in front of the hermitage”) include unglazed, low-rimmed small plates with a blue or grey glaze, or small, fish-shaped salt and pepper shakers with a brush-like pattern on a chestnut-colored background. decorated with a brush-like pattern, and there are also incense containers in the same fish shape, and incense containers in the same hand-shaped long rectangular shape with inlaid patterns, all of which are fired to stoneware quality. In addition, there are also five-inch wells with a brush-like pattern.
There is also a cleverly crafted flat-shaped bowl, with a cleverly crafted wave brush pattern and plum white inlay, and a bowl with a chestnut brown glaze, with a fine wave brush pattern on the inside and outside, and a finely crafted wave brush pattern on the waist. There are also bowls with the same glaze there are also skillfully made tea bowls with small wave brush marks or standing wave brush marks.
There is also a barrel-shaped water jar 7 sun in height with green mizumeguri brush marks and cloud brush marks on the body, and there is a piece with a bold painting of a orchid in Koshu, and a piece with a pattern of a cloud blue glaze on the handle. There is also a piece with a lotus flower brush mark on black chestnut glaze lotus flower brush marks, or brown glaze with orchid flowers in Wuzhou, or wisteria flowers and egrets inlaid in white, such as the 18cm diameter weight-shaped cut green dish, are completely in the style of Genkawa. There are also other thin gray porcelain items, such as small plates with a rough finish with a snake pattern.
In addition, there are also old ware includes deep brown bowls with a Kezan landscape design in a gray glaze, as well as a 3-cm-high fire bowl with a Tenmoku glaze and a brush-stroke pattern of white and yellow leaves, and a 4-cm-high bowl with a four-eyed pattern in a chestnut glaze. There is also a 3.5-cm-high upright-shaped fire bowl with a brush-stroke pattern of white and black in a brownish-black glaze , with a white root-tie brush pattern, and a 3.5 cm tall, upright-shaped fire-lighter.

Kihara’s porcelain
Kihara’s brush patterns, which were so skillfully made, were unable to resist the tide of the times, and it was inevitable that the black curtains would be drawn down and replaced with a new curtain of white porcelain. At first, all of the kilns were all firing soft, light-gray porcelain, which was often made into thick, deep bowls with rough rims and plain landscapes painted on the underside. After that, they were allowed to use , and the application of the Amakusa material on one side, the hue should be seen to have been completely improved.

Koyamada and Yokoiseki
Kihara ware, needless to say, possessed a special skill in brushwork, and the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord of the Matsuura clan, were ordered by the people in charge of the pottery here, such as the wares of the lord had been the makers of porcelain for generations, so the development of porcelain as a product was very much a matter for later generations. And from the time when the local pottery In particular, the Nishi kiln was very active, producing a large number of items, including a 3.5-inch tea bowl with the name “Osaka Shinmachi Osasa Beni” written in Gozu, and a deep red bowl. From blackware to porcelain , and there are some old documents here that record the events of the time.
A single cup of sake cost 120 mon and gradually became a hundred and twenty monme. The vases, bowls, and incense burners were made from white porcelain, and the ash was made from local ash, but after that, the ash from the bark of the oak tree from Hyuga Province was used.
Also, at that time the quality of white porcelain was as precious as jade, and the Hiroto (deep-shaped Hiroto tea bowls) of the Satomi clan, the Kikka (coarse chrysanthemum-patterned tea bowls) of the Ikeda clan, and the Yokofuji (Yokofuji) cups of the Hori clan were all highly prized It was said that the cup was so valuable that it was bought up in a bidding war in the Osaka area, and that if you carried a cup of the same type with you on your way to Osaka, you would be able to replace the enormous sum of money you would have to pay on your way back. It is said that this cup was made of thin, delicate porcelain, and that each piece was weighed to make sure it did not exceed 2 monme (9g) when the clay was scraped off.

Kihara tea bowls
The Kihara kiln, which was converted to porcelain, continued to produce earthenware for many years, and the most common item was a teapot with a blue glaze, which is known as a Kihara tea bowl. Around the 10th year of Meiji, the method of stamping and dyeing was introduced, and tea bowls, small tea bowls, and chrysanthemum-patterned tea bowls were produced.

Okawachi-Nagare
It is said that the products of this area underwent a great change in appearance around 1884, when former government-employed artisans who had been working at the Nabeshima clan kilns in Okawachi drifted to this area.　In particular, the potter who trained in the techniques of the potter’s wheel was the current Yokoshi Gagu, who was the son of the famous potter Manpei of the Okawachi domain kilns.

The main line of the Yokoiseki family
The aforementioned Yokofuji was a descendant of Yokofuji Shichibei, who showed the use of Amakusa stone, and he was also good at haikai poetry, and in particular, he was well received by the lord of the Matsuura clan, and was in charge of Kihara Mountain. The stone monument in the cemetery of Imaji Zohhei states that he died on June 12th, 1802, but this is probably his grandson, Fujishichibei. His son, Fujijibei, died on January 20th, 1818, and there is a gravestone there. His son, Kasuko, is thought to be the person who died on July 5th, 1864, as recorded in the past records of Nihonmatsu Jōzenji Temple.
Kasuko’s eldest son was Kyukuro, and Kyukuro’s sons were Jotaro and Kunizo (Yuguchi Kuniyama). Jotaro’s son was Ushinosuke, who is the current Gagu. And because of some circumstances, Kasukesu made his second son, Shikakichi, the successor to the head of the family, and so the Matsura clan lord often stayed here as the main inn. And Shikakichi’s son is the current Monokichi.

Staying at the Honjin
There is a record that the feudal lord Matsuura Toshiaki stayed at the house of Yokoshi Kasukichi on the 14th of January on his way back from visiting the grave of his ancestor, Mine no Toshiyuki, at Shishigajo Castle (in the village of Gangi) in Karatsu, and stayed at the house of Imamura Toshitaro in Mikawachi on the 15th. Next, in November 1881, the former feudal lord Atsushi Matsuura stayed overnight at the house of Kikichi Yokoiseki, accompanied by his younger brother Yasushi. The following is a letter sent to Kikichi from a retainer at the time.

Omitted from the beginning: “From the 6th of the 1st month, the young lord and his retainer Yasushi accompanied the lord on a tour of his old fiefdoms, depending on the weather. At that time, they also visited Kihara Mikawachi-yama, where they saw the old Sakai boundary. They stayed at the house of a local resident, and rested there. I believe that it is possible to stay overnight. I will also accompany you. If there is nothing to prevent it, I will stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp. I will also ask you to stay at the main camp.
November 20th, 1881
Ando Toji, seal
To Mr. Yokoshi Kikichi

There is also another note attached.

1. Please prepare the tableware using the pottery that is not normally used.
   As for the food you eat, it is fine to just have tea with rice.
   As for the bedding, please make sure it is made of cotton and is clean.
   If you have any tea cakes or sweets, or even a little sake or side dishes, that would be fine.
   I have taken care of the above matters.

Names of the kiln-builders who sponsored the construction of the Grand Shrine
On the monument to the Grand Shrine, which is located next to the lower kiln, the names of the kiln-builders who sponsored the construction of the shrine in the Genroku era (1688-1704) are engraved. These people were Ikeda Izaemon, Maruta Magotayu, Yuguchi Mataemon, the same Matazaemon, Ishimaru Yaichibe, Yahei, Jūzaemon, Ishida Yahei, Iwanaga Den’emon, Kuda Heiemon, Yamaguchi Shinbei, Yokoiseki Sajūemon, Higuchi Kūmon, etc., and it is written that it was on April 11th, 1696. The two people on the left are probably the most representative potters of the modern era.

Ishimaru Rokuro, died on June 20th, 1911 at the age of 55
Yokoiseki Shikichi, died on September 6th, 1925 at the age of 86

The master craftsmen of Kihara
In the old days, Ishinoda Inosuke was a master craftsman of Kihara, and he traveled to the pottery mountains of Izumo and Izo to hone his skills, and always produced excellent works.
There was also a famous painter called Yamada Sojiro, who died in the Tobe Mountains of Iyo during the Tempo era, and there was also a master potter named Matsunaga Kichizo from the Sue Pottery Mountains of Chikuzen.

Yokoshi Gagu
In modern times, he is known as Yokoshi Gagu, and he is a master of imitating old pottery, with such skill that it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between his work and the real thing.
In short, Kihara’s porcelain, while not yet demonstrating the brilliance of the brushwork of the past, should devote itself to the study of design and patterns, and in particular, should strive to produce brilliant products, through the manufacture of everyday goods in the future. As for modern kilns, there are now 60 kilns in the mountains about a mile and a half from Mikawachi Station, including Ozaki Hisayuki and Motokishi Sento.

Enagayama
Enagayama is located in the next area, one mountain over from Kihara, and it is said that it was established in 1633, when it was separated from Kihara.

The old kilns of Enaga and Nishi
The old kilns here include the Ko-gama and Nishi-gama, and many old pottery fragments have been found in both. In general, they are similar to Kihara, and include examples with the usual gray glaze and amber glaze, as well as those with white spiral brush marks or striped brush marks, and others with decorative comb patterns.
Early examples of porcelain from the early days of the porcelain period include deep brown bowls with light gray underglaze designs of grass, as well as bowls with crude pine, bamboo and plum designs on a rough background, and round bowls with designs of mountains and water. There are also small dishes with a crackle pattern, and trumpet-shaped vases with a similar crackle pattern.

Fuel shortage in Oriose
In the Enpo period, the pottery industry flourished in this area, but the kilns in the mountains were having trouble finding firewood. In particular, the roads in this area were very bad at the time, so it was very difficult to transport fuel from other villages. People like Kihara suffered from the rising cost of firewood, and although they moved to the Enaga mountain area and started a factory in the Tenwa era, at the beginning of the Genroku era, a certain Kojima from Arita also moved there and started making pottery, and this area also began to suffer from a shortage of firewood.

Application for the forests of the three mountains
In 1692, the fifth year of the Genroku era, an application was made to the feudal lord, Matsuura Nobu, for the forests around the production area to be granted to the domain, and Mikawachi was granted as a temporary domain-use forest for firewood and lumber, with a total of over 10 cho of land in three locations: Arahira, Sasadani, and Sumikamidan. In the same year (1698), they applied for permission to use 50 cho of land in the mountains of Mikawachi, Kihara, and Ryozan.
The applicants for the Mikawachi-yama area at this time were: Ideginzaemon, the Sarayama magistrate; Imamura Josen, the Sarayama foreman; Tanaka Yohei, the painter; Shikata Sagoemon, the mountain foreman; Mikawachi-yama Shoya Kuchishirozaemon; Kaneda Tazaemon, the head of the five; Furukawa Jinzaburozaemon; and Takahashi Zenbei, the clerk.
As mentioned above, Enaga and Kihara were each granted 10 cho of land free of charge, but in order to prepare for the future, Kihara’s village headman, Ishimaru Yaichibe, consulted with Enaga’s village headman, Yokoi Chokomon , the second son of Nagashikomon, made a further request for the transfer of all the mountain forests in the area, citing the fact that he was related to the hereditary retainer of the Yama Bugyo (mountain magistrate) of the time, Tateishi Isakomon.
However, Isakomon did not agree to the request for the transfer of the three mountains, citing the reasons for his refusal the previous year. After that, Isakumon happened to come to survey the forests in this area, and Riukomon did not hesitate to take advantage of the situation, and he arranged a meeting time with the forestry officials, and held a banquet on the top of the mountain to welcome the group.

Omina Sake Party
When the party was in full swing, a girl from the village who was known as the “Komachi” (the prettiest girl in the village) came to the party with some firewood, and after obtaining permission from Isakomon, she paid a small fee and the three mountains achieved their goal, and Enaga and Kihara were left with no fuel until around 1882, so this episode remains in the fertile woodland of the mountain, which is still used as a place for drinking parties.

The largest production value in the San’yama region
Unlike Mikawachi, the porcelain of Eiwa was produced mainly for everyday use, and at the height of the industry there were over a hundred households and fifteen or sixteen kilns, but today there are only around eighty households. In terms of production value, even though the current economy is in a slump, it is still producing 15 to 20 million yen, and it is the most active production area in the three mountains. The types of pottery are the same as Kihara, and the potters who fired the kilns include Kiyosaburo Yamaguchi, Uhei Oguri, Ushitaro Tateishi, Kimiyoshi Tateishi, Mitsukyo Yamaguchi, and Katsuji Mori.

Nekoyama
Higashi-sonogi-gun’s Hiiu was the territory of the former Matsuura Tsunenobu’s Hiiu Dewamori Masaru, and later became the territory of the Hirado Matsuura clan. It is now incorporated into Sasebo City. About a mile to the east of Hiiu Station, in a sparsely populated mountainous area with around 20 farmhouses, there are the remains of old Nekoyama pottery kilns. It is also called Fujiwara ware after the local Fujiwara family, and although the kiln tools from that time are still scattered around, the only remains are the fragments of mortar bowls.
As mentioned above, there is a folk tale that Koga, who came from Hirado in 1622, discovered clay in Higashi-no-ura and then came to this mountain to test-fire it, and then moved on to somewhere else. and other kiln equipment, it seems that the kiln was in operation for around ten years, and after the death of Kokan, another Korean came from Hirado to open a kiln, and in later years they made jars and mortars. Furthermore, if you go to the graveyard here, there are five or six Korean-style graves with small stones piled up, but the details are not known.

Old pottery from Nekoyama
We searched the farmhouses in Nekoyama and found old pottery from the Hirado-style Mikawachi kiln, including large water jars and water bowls with a white wave pattern in the same color as the ground. There is also a 24cm tall sake bottle with a crystal pattern on the shoulder, which is made using a technique called “ame-yō murakake”, and although it seems to be a different type of pottery to the above, it is unclear whether it is related to the theory that the Kihara potters came to the area during the Genroku era to manufacture pottery.

Sasai no se
Sasamura in Kitamatsuura-gun was the territory of the former Matsuura clan’s Sasaumasuke, and later became the territory of the Hirado Matsuura clan, and was the domain of Sasakabe Koshirae. And, the fifth son of Toyohisa Matsuura, Gorochu, became the successor of the Koshira. The place called Ichinose was a farming village with 80 households, and at the time, they were firing porcelain and celadon using Amakusa stone as the raw material.

Fukumoto Shinsakemon
In the first year of the Horeki era (1751), a descendant of Fukumoto Yajikomon of Mikawa, named Shinsakemon, who was the second son of the family, opened a pottery in the area known as Yoshimaru (a general name for the Kamogawa-men area of Ichinose) together with his son Kikizo, and produced porcelain with underglaze blue designs. Together with this Shinzaemon, there were four other potters who had moved from Mikawa to this area: Kihei Shiihara, Katsusakemon Fukumoto, Jozakemon Yokoiseki, and Kubei Fukumoto. They built a kiln five ken in length, but not long after that they moved back to their hometowns, and the only one who remained was Shinzaemon’s family. The Sasabukimoto family’s lineage is as follows.

The Sasabukimoto Family Lineage
Fukumoto Shinsakomon Anaka, moved to the Yoshimaru-saryama area in the year of the boar in the Horeki era, died on the 11th of September in the 6th year of the Temmei era
Nisakomon Ando Shikizo, appointed to the position of official on the 11th of February in the 5th year of the Bunka era, died on the 14th of September in the 6th year of the Bunsei era
Shin-Uemon Anbu Shiko-suke, in May of the fifth year of Bunka, was appointed by Lord Shizukiyama (Matsuura Kiyoshi, the feudal lord) to make pottery for the lord, and was given the title of “Shikitei” (a title given to those who were in charge of making pottery for the lord). He received 17 paintings of Mt. Fuji from the lord, and stopped making pottery in the eighth year of Bunka. He died on the 14th of the 12th month of the 12th year of Bunsei, at the age of 49.
Nisuke died in December 1833
Shinkomon Anshun Hajime Churoku received 2 kans of silver for his work as a gunman for the coal mine.
In December of the same year, he was appointed to the position of overseer of the coal mine at the accounting office. He was given 3 koku of rice and a small stipend.
Tenpo 7, coal miners also received rice and a daily allowance for working on the same day as the rice was delivered.
In addition to the eldest son, the family name was changed to Henkin. Bunjin died on August 4th, 1863 at the age of 49.
Shinzou, Yasutaka, Hajitaro
Hojiro, adopted by Osato
Karoku, adopted by Omagari
Chujiro, adopted by Fukumoto
Hayashi Ichiro, died young
Shinichiro, died young
Teiji, also known as Dairoku, born in 1889, currently staying in Tomitaka-cho, Higashi-usuki-gun, Miyazaki Prefecture

:attached to the Kikinzuke-bako-ka-ka-kou-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-sho-go-

Minkichi’s serving dish
As recorded in the Mikawachi edition, Minkichi Kato of Owari Seto infiltrated this area and received instruction in the porcelain glazing method from Hizakomon Fukumoto, and when he had finally achieved his goal, he left the area. , and it is a so-called Oribe ware with a dark green glaze on a brown background, and is a small plate with a diameter of about 5 inches in the shape of a Japanese oak leaf with a child in the center. (One of the five pieces is damaged), and the history of the piece is written on the underside of the lid of the container.

Box inscription on the side dish
This chestnut-shaped side dish was made by a man called Tamikichi, who was born in the Osu Seto area and trained in pottery in the Sasai area. He was given this by the head priest of Myosenji Temple. Tamikichi stayed in the Mikawachi area and trained in pottery before returning to his home in Osu and starting his own pottery business.

Myosenshi Temple
The Myosenshi Temple mentioned in this document was a former temple located in the area now known as Sasamura Ukiba, and was a branch temple of the Toukouji (Soto Zen temple) in this area. And at the time of the Meiji Restoration, Myosenji Temple was closed down, so this item was probably a gift that Minokichi received at that time. Also, the name Mikawachi in Mikawachi City can be interpreted as meaning “Mikawachi and Ichinose”, and the word “toki” refers to porcelain.

Considerations on the production of the mukozuke
Next, the Kamo River in this city was initially used to fire pottery, but at the time, only porcelain was manufactured, so there is a question of how pottery was produced. If the reduction flame is replaced with an oxidizing flame and fired in a biscuit kiln, it is argued that many more relics of this type should be found. If we consider the circumstances of Minkichi at the time, it is worth considering whether he was indeed making the type of pottery he presented as being from Owari, and whether he had any particular reason for making black pottery at that time.
Therefore, if this is not the case, it is possible that he made it himself after returning to Japan and gave it to the priest of Tokoji Temple, who had looked after him, and that it then passed into the hands of Myosenji Temple, a branch temple of Tokoji, and that it was produced in the city of It is not the case that it was made in the city, but rather that it was a gift from that place, and there is no difference in the value of the fact that it is a rare piece of work by Minkichi.

About Mikawachi ware
Among the special products of Mikawachi, as mentioned above, there are pieces with openwork carving that resemble the outer lattice of blue and white porcelain, and there is also delicate craftsmanship that resembles artificial flowers. Around 1885, Kato Gensaburo of Seto produced openwork carving pieces such as square and hexagonal containers, tortoiseshell and seven-treasure-linked containers, and there was a period of active export. This was a fad that was popular for a while, but it did not have a lasting life. And now, with the invention of mechanical applications, it is not long before these techniques will be produced at very low prices. Also, in the case of his artificial flower techniques, they are only handicrafts that cater to a small number of enthusiasts.
There are two types of demand for purchased goods: one is due to a sincere need, and the other is due to mere curiosity. The former is a lasting phenomenon, but the latter is a temporary phenomenon, and the range of purchases is small, so there is no choice but to supply a small amount. Therefore, if it is possible to apply that special skill to everyday goods for the masses, it is natural that the production value will increase greatly. The Sanbaso monkey, which was produced and exported in large numbers around the beginning of the Meiji era, is one example of this.
One of the things that we admire about Mikawachi ware is its thin, delicate technique. If this production technique could be made into a low-cost product that could be supplied as ordinary Western tableware, there is no doubt that the demand for it would be enormous. Furthermore, Mikawachi-yaki is of a far higher quality than coffee sets made in Mino or hard-paste porcelain, so even if it is a little more expensive, there still seems to be room for demand. I can’t help hoping that they will apply the skills they have to create products that are as beautiful as trade goods, and that they will move into the realm of mass production.