The wide variety of pottery produced in Gifu Prefecture's Higashi-Mino (Tono region) is called "Mino ware".
Supported by a long history and tradition of 1,300 years, Mino ware accounts for about 60% of the national share of tableware production, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is representative of Japanese pottery.
Mino ware is used casually in daily life and blends in with daily life without being noticed.
Located in the southeastern part of Gifu Prefecture, the Toki River, which flows westward through the center of the prefecture, is a major feature of the area.
The ceramics (Mino ware) industry, which utilizes the ceramic materials produced in the Toki River basin, has flourished since ancient times, and even today it is the region's core industry, boasting the nation's largest shipments of Japanese and Western tableware, both for export and for domestic use.
Please consider commemorative gifts using“Mino Ware”.
We accept a variety of requests,
including letterhead sets and Japanese paper accessories,
as well as items such as the souvenir example.
In the Mino region, earthenware, Sue ware, and * ash glaze "Kaiyu" were fired from the Heian period, and in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, Yamachawan (mountain tea bowls), Koseto, ash glaze "Haiyu" and iron glaze "Tetsuyu" were fired.(*Heian period pieces are called ash-glazed "Kaiyu".) In the late Muromachi period (around 1500), a single-chamber kiln called an "ogama" was built near the top of the mountain, and ash-glazed and iron-glazed pottery began to be produced.
Later, ash glaze was improved to a glaze that did not flow during firing and became kizeto. The color of the glaze was drawn out from inside the kiln, and the black color was found, giving rise to Setoguro (Seto-guro). (It is also called "drawer black" or "Tenshoguro.)
In the Momoyama period (1568-1600) under Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the world of tea ceremony ceramics was born from the popularity of the tea ceremony by Sen no Rikyu, Oribe Furuta, and others, and "Haishino" was created by adding feldspar to ash glaze, followed by "Shino" made of feldspar alone. This was the first time in Japan that brush strokes could be used to create patterns.
Eventually, together with the "Renbo-shiki Nobori-gama" (climbing kiln), which utilized the slope of a mountain, pottery with innovative designs was born. This was the birth of "Oribe" pottery in Mino. The Momoyama period (1568-1600), which saw the production of such tasteful ceramics as "Kizeto, Shino, Oribe, and Setoguro," was a period in which representative Japanese ceramics were born.
In the Edo period, tableware for daily use began to be produced in large quantities, and by the end of the Edo period, white, hard porcelain began to be baked, which later became more productive and distributed throughout the country. Today, the city is a major producer of ceramics, producing more than 60% of all Japanese tableware produced in Japan.
Please consider commemorative gifts using“Mino Ware”.
We accept a variety of requests,
including letterhead sets and Japanese paper accessories,
as well as items such as the souvenir example.