Ojiyama Pottery

Ojiyama Pottery was started in the first year of the Bunsei era (1818) at the end of the Edo period when the feudal lord of the Sasayama, Tadayasu Aoyama, invited a Kyoto potter named Kinkodo Kamesuke to work in Ojiyama (Kawaramachi, Sasayama City). Many masterpieces were produced for the next half a century, but the kiln disappeared along with the Sasayama domain due to the abolition of the domain system when the Meiji era began.

After the start of the Meiji era, local people continued to hoped to reproduce this beautiful pottery, and their hopes were met in 1988 when the Ojiyama Pottery Center was built in Ojiyama, the birthplace of the Ojiyama pottery. New Ojiyama Pottery is now being made and sold by young craftsmen.

Ojiyama Pottery is characterized by celadon glazes, cobalt decorations, white porcelain, and red overglaze. Perhaps the most famous style is found in its celadon pottery. This is because Kinkodo Kamesuke was a master of celadon. Ojiyama Pottery was a so-called clan kiln owned by the Sasayama clan. It was rarely sold to the general public, and it seems that the number of pieces of pottery produced was originally small even in the Edo period. The most important feature therefore might be that it is a ‘phantom’ (i.e., rare) form of pottery.

Basic information