Kyoto Pottery: Where to Buy Ceramics in Kyoto

Setting out to buy pottery in Kyoto as a souvenir, have you ever been brought up short by how hard it is to tell which pieces are Kyoto and which are not? Or found yourself unsure where to go to see a range of it in one place and buy?

Arita has the town of Arita. Shigaraki has the Shigaraki valley. Kyoto has no single street with kilns along it. To be exact, it once did. Not any more.

This guide follows where to see pottery in Kyoto, and where to buy it, starting from how it came to be that way.

Kyoto has no pottery village

To begin with, no clay is dug in Kyoto. The kind of clay deposit Shigaraki or Arita sits on does not exist here.

So Kyoto potters bought their clay in from elsewhere. And they made whatever was ordered: tea bowls for the tea ceremony, tableware for court families, offering plates for temples. In Kyoto it was not the clay that made the region. It was the effort of the makers.

As a result the kilns never gathered in one place. They spread across the city, close to whoever was ordering. That said, there were still a few areas where kilns clustered.

Awataguchi, Yasaka, Otowa, Omuro. Some survive now only as place names. Awataguchi ware died out in 1984, and a kiln was revived in 1995.

Gojozaka and Chawanzaka

Of all those scattered kiln districts, the one that ended up at the centre was Gojozaka.

It runs from the Gojozaka crossing on Higashioji Street up toward Kiyomizu-dera as far as Kiyomizu-michi. It is the approach road to the temple. Kiyomizu Rokubei, Takahashi Dohachi and many other kilns gathered along it.

The name Kiyomizu ware comes from this slope. It is not the name of a technique. It is the name of a place.

Partway up from Gojozaka toward the temple, a second slope branches south: Chawanzaka, the teabowl slope. As the name says, it too is lined with pottery shops. In Kyoto, "the slopes where the kilns are" means these two.

Why the kilns moved to Yamashina

Walk Gojozaka today and you will not find a chimney. There are no kilns.

The reason was smoke. A wood-fired climbing kiln produces a great deal of it. Doing that in the middle of a city became impossible. In the 1960s the makers crossed the Higashiyama hills and moved to Yamashina.

What was built there is the Kiyomizu Ware Complex, in Yamashina Ward, Kyoto: a planned block holding workshops, kilns and wholesalers together. If you want the place in Kyoto where the kilns actually are, this is it.

So Kyoto pottery sits in an unusual position: the place it is named after (Gojozaka) and the place it is made (Yamashina) are two different places. That is what confuses people looking for somewhere to buy.

When to go

If you are buying pottery in Kyoto, there are two points in the year when both the prices and the range change completely.

In August the slope itself becomes the market. At the hottest point of a Kyoto summer, stalls line both sides of the temple approach. A parasol and water are not optional.

In October the Complex opens the place where the work is made. The people from the workshops stand at their own tables, so you can ask about a clay or a glaze and be asking the person who fired it. The two fairs are completely different in character.

Dates across the country are in the Pottery Fair Calendar, and how to work a fair on the day in how to visit a pottery fair.

What to look at in Kyoto pottery

Kyoto has no set clay and no set glaze. So what is Kyoto about it? The painting.

Colour is laid on top of the fired glaze and fired again at a lower temperature. This is overglaze enamel. That laborious process was refined in Kyoto because Kyoto had the buyers for it.

• Nonomura Ninsei　In 1650 he was the first to succeed with red overglaze enamel. The colour of Kyo ware begins here.
• Ogata Kenzan　He learned the technique directly from Ninsei. His brother was the painter Ogata Korin, which says everything about a city where painting and pottery ran continuously into each other.
• Okuda Eisen　The first to fire porcelain as Kyo ware. The moment a city with no clay of its own acquired the stone body too.
• Ninami Dohachi　Active in the 1800s. From the Takahashi Dohachi line, he raised the standing of Gojozaka.

Kyoto is also the birthplace of Raku ware: tea bowls formed by hand alone, without a wheel, which runs in exactly the opposite direction from the brilliance of enamel painting. That range is the character of Kyoto as a region.

What to check before you buy

• Look closely at the line of the painting　Overglaze enamel is painted with a brush. A transfer print holds one even width; a brush always has an entry and a release. That is where hand-painted separates from printed.
• Turn it over　The foot ring, and whether there is a mark. Kyoto pieces often carry the maker's or the kiln's name, so you can trace who made it.
• Set two of the same pattern side by side　If they are hand-painted they will differ a little. If you cannot find a difference, ask the shop why.
• Decide what it is for first　The range in Kyoto is enormous. Walk in without deciding what you want it for and you will walk for three hours and buy nothing.

Handling pieces at the shop in Okazaki

Gojozaka and Yamashina are the two this guide has been about, but they are not the only places in Kyoto to see pottery. Independent shops carrying artists' work are scattered across the city.

Nokaze is one of them. It is in Okazaki, in Sakyo Ward: the area around Heian Shrine and the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art.

Where a Gojozaka shop is a shop of the region it stands in, what Nokaze puts on its shelves is work by artists from across Japan. Kasama, Shigaraki, Tajimi, Tokoname, yachimun from Okinawa. Kyoto pieces are there too, but it is not a Kyoto-only shop.

And it is arranged so that you choose by the maker's name. If choosing by region is the traditional way to buy Kyoto pottery, this is the other way in: starting from who made it. Everything in this guide — the line of the painting, the mark underneath, two of the same pattern side by side — works just as well on those shelves.

Getting your pieces home

Finally, the most practical part.

• Buy at the end of the day　Walking a sightseeing route carrying breakables is a poor idea. Leave the pottery until last.
• Ask about shipping before you choose　Most shops on Gojozaka and Chawanzaka will send things. If it is going to be a load to carry, confirming that first lets you choose freely.
• Carry something soft　Even wrapped, pieces knock against each other inside a bag. One towel is enough.
• Take it into the cabin　Checked baggage gets thrown. Keep the one piece you care about with you.

Sending pieces abroad is covered in Japanese ceramics as gifts for people overseas, and buying online in buying Japanese pottery online.

Related reading

Kyoto ceramics

• Kyo Ware and Kiyomizu Ware: Kyoto's Refined Ceramics
• Uwa-etsuke: How Overglaze Enamel Painting Works
• Raku Ware: The Hand-Formed Tea Bowl, 15 Generations On

Compared with other regions

• Shigaraki Ware: Why Its Clay Sparkles After 1,200 Years
• Arita Ware: Japan's First Porcelain, 400 Years On
• A Short History of Japanese Ceramics, Jomon to Now

Before you buy

• Pottery Fair Calendar
• How to Visit a Japanese Pottery Fair: 9 Regions Compared
• Pottery Classes in Japan: Where to Try the Wheel
• Buying Japanese Pottery Online: What to Check First