Kutani Ware

Ishikawa Prefecture, 
Designated as Traditional Crafts in 1975

Kutani Ware is categorized as one of most typical colorful-wares. Significant fascination of Kutani is its coloration way called Uwae, which is traditional baking method with relatively low temperature (600℃ ~ 800℃). The coloration by the way makes the ware gorgeous and its characteristic elegantly expresses the harmony using red, yellow, green, purple and violet-bule.

The first porcelain was produced in Kutani area in 1655. When good quality clay was discovered in a mine in Kutani, Mr. Saijiro Goto, who had learned about porcelain tech in Arita, started producing Kutani ware with a kiln. However, their production hadn’t continued for100 year and they ceased.  The reason is not revealed yet and this is still mystery. We call the porcelain, made until the close, old-Kutani.

After that, the porcelain production become popular in Japan including Imari. In 1824 Kutani ware have been restart produced again by a new kiln sitting next to the old kiln that utilized in 1700s. In Meiji era, the feature of beautiful and fascinate coloration have caught on because of Vienna Expo in 1873, and a lot of Kutani wares ship out to oversea country as Japan-Kutani.