THE POTTERIES OF SETO

I happened to find the following article quite by accident while doing research for several projects for our publishing company, Shisei-Dō Publications, here in Japan. The following article by Basil Hall Chamberlain[i] was part of his A Handbook for Travelers In Japan, (Also known as the Handbook to the Japanese Empire) first published in 1891 (this is from the 1894 revised editon) as part of the then extremely popular and famous travel guides published by John Murray[ii].
This brief article relates to the famous pottery region of central Honshū, which includes Mono, Tajimi, Ichinokura, and surrounding area, our home. Several references are made to places we noted in previous essays on this blog and we invite you to read them as well. For us it was fun to read about our area as recorded in the middle of the Meiji Era. We hope you will find this essay by Chamberalin both informative and entertaining.


ROUTE 31.

THE POTTERIES OF SETO.

The province of Owari of which Nagoya is the capital, and the adjacent province of Mino, have for many ages been flourishing centers of the porcelain industry, the most famous seat of which is at Seto, where Katō Shirozaemon, the first great master of Japanese ceramic art, set up his kiln about the year 1230 on his return from six years of diligent study in China. Thenceforth Seto became the headquarters of the manufacture of dainty little jars, ewers [pitchers], and other utensils for the tea ceremonies (cha-no-yu), so that the word seto-mono literally “Seto things,” has come to be employed in Japanese as a generic name for all pottery and porcelain, much as the word “china” is used in English. Seto has remained the chief porcelain manufactory of Japan. Many of the pieces now turned out – especially the monster blue-white vases – are intended only for the foreign market. This locality suffered terribly from the great earthquake of 1891; for though the houses remained standing, the kilns and entire stock were smashed.
Persons whose time is limited can witness the process of porcelain manufacture at Matsumora’s establishment in Nagoya. Those with a day to spare should visit Seto, 5 ½ ri (13 ¼ miles) from that city along a flat and excellent jinrikisha road.

Seto (no inns) is a general name for the four hamlets of Kita Shingai, Minami, Shingai, Gō, and Hora, situated on low hills that surround an almost circular valley. About eighty households are engaged in the manufacture of porcelain, and seventeen or eighteen in that of common pottery. The clay is found in the immediate neighborhood, the silica being brought from Sannagi in the northwest corner of Mikawa, about 3 ri distant. A large proportion of the common pottery that goes under the name of Seto ware comes from Akuzu, about 1 ri further up the valley to the east. The establishments best worth visiting are those of Katō Mokuzaemon, Katō Shigejū, and Katō Masukichi in Kita Shingai, and Katō Gosuke in Minami Shingai, the latter being noted for his translucent white ware, chiefly sake cups. The Tōki-kwan at Minami Shingai is a bazaar for all the wares of the neighborhood. There are numerous smaller houses, - indeed the villagers carry on no other trade. Katō Gosuke owns another and larger manufactory at Tajimi, a village about 2 ½ ri from Seto, not accessible by jinrikisha [rickshaw], here is produced the finest porcelain in Mino, with delicate decorations in pale blue, obtained from the native cobalt known under the name of konjō. A darker shade is derived from an impure cobalt imported from China, and called by the potters kyūgosu. Our word cobalt has been corrupted by them into koharu, and this term is employed to denote the pigment obtained from Europe.

In the near vicinity of Nagoya are various smaller villages devoted to the production of minor kinds of porcelain and pottery, such as the Ofuke-yaki, Yosamu-yaki, Fujimi-yaki, Toyoraku-yaki,, and Inugayama-yaki. Course earthenware is made at Taokonabe, 10 ri to the south of Nagoya, near Taketoyo.

NOTES

[i] While many companies have published wonderful travel guides to all places imaginable, the contribution of Murray’s, particularly to 19th century readers, was outstanding. The Murray family publishing dynasty was actually founded in 1768 by John Murray, a former officer in the Royal Marines, who never cold have imaged that six generations of his descendants (all named John Murray) would create one of the greatest of British publishing houses ever. The line of literary giants who passed through their doors and onto their presses included Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Walter Scott, Washington Irving, Charles Darwin, Herman Melville, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and on and on.
It was the third “John Murray” who launched the famous “Murray’s Handbooks” in 1836, the immensely popular series being the forerunner of the Lonely Planet” series of our time.
[ii] Basil Hall Chamberlain (October 18, 1850 – February 15, 1935) was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists in Japan during the Meiji Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contemporaries of E.M. Sato, And W.G. Aston as well as a close personal friend and confident of Lafcadio Hearn. He also is noted for some of the earliest translations of haiku into English, although he is best remembered for is popular one-volume encyclopedia Things Japanese, first published in 1890.

Copyright 2009 by Hayato Tokugawa and Shisei-Do Publications.