OkayamaArt & CraftsTakahashi
Fukiya Bengara Museum
The making of red iron-oxide pigment, which went into Kutani porcelain and Wajima lacquer alike.
Japan library380 entries
13,910 entries. Some places appear in more than one collection. Confirm visits with each facility.
380ShowingAll JapanArea12Themes
380 entries / page 11 of 16
OkayamaArt & CraftsManiwa
Katsuyama Bamboo Craft
Farm baskets with no ornament at all - the form held entirely by the strength of the weave.
Okayama
Ujobori Carving
Named for the castle's nickname: flowers and birds carved in relief on trays and boxes, finished in lacquer.
Kurashiki
Bitchu Washi
Recorded in 8th-century documents; a handful of workshops still make it.
Setouchi
Bizen Swords
The largest of Japan's five sword traditions; roughly half of all National Treasure blades were forged here.
HiroshimaArt & CraftsHatsukaichi
Miyajima Woodcraft
Said to begin with rice paddles shaped after a goddess's lute; the trade covers both turning and carving.
Miyoshi
Miyoshi Clay Dolls
Called shining dolls for their gloss; one family still makes them, using moulds from the Edo period.
HiroshimaArt & CraftsKumano
Kumano Brushes
Eight in ten Japanese brushes; the hair tips are never cut, so the point forms itself.
Kure
Kawajiri Brushes
Hair blended in water rather than dry; a brush town specialising in calligraphy alongside Kumano.
Fuchu
Fuchu Furniture
A wedding-furniture town where the trades divide the work and compete on the precision of the joinery.
HiroshimaArt & CraftsFukuyama
Bingo Kasuri
One of Japan's three great kasuri districts; its toughness made it workwear, and the town later turned to denim.
Fukuyama
Fukuyama Koto
Over sixty percent of Japan's koto; the sound is cut into the paulownia body as a pattern of grooves inside the lid.
Hiroshima
Hiroshima Butsudan
Gilded altars grown from a strongly Pure Land region, finished by six separate trades in sequence.
Yamaguchi
Ouchi Lacquerware
Made by the Ouchi lords for trade with Ming China: gold lozenges and autumn grasses on vermilion.
Yamaguchi
Tokuji Washi
Said to have been started to fund the rebuilding of Todaiji, and made here for over eight centuries.
YamaguchiArt & Crafts
YamaguchiArt & CraftsUbe
Akama Inkstone
Cut from a fine-grained local stone that grinds ink smoothly, its edges carved with dragons and pines.
Yanai
Yanai Stripe Cloth
Striped cotton that sold widely in the Edo period, lost, and reconstructed from surviving samples.
Hagi
Climbing Kilns of Hagi
Chambered kilns stepped up the hillside; the slope and the number of chambers decide how the ware comes out.
YamaguchiArt & CraftsYamaguchi
Ouchi Dolls
A married pair in Ouchi lacquer, their faces barely drawn - the form and the vermilion do the work.
YamaguchiArt & CraftsHagi
The Seven Changes of Hagi
Tea seeps into the crazing and the colour keeps changing - the maker does not decide when the bowl is finished.
YamaguchiArt & CraftsHagi
Korean Potters of Hagi
The families of the abducted Korean potters still run kilns here - a transfer of technique preserved as lineage.
Tokushima
Awa Indigo
Indigo leaves composted into sukumo; only a handful of makers remain, and most Japanese indigo dyeing still depends on them.
Tokushima
Awa Shijira Cloth
Woven at uneven tension and then shrunk, so the surface puckers and touches the skin less - a cloth for heat.