Shigaraki Pottery Festival 2026 | Nine Days, Shop by Shop

The Shigaraki Pottery Festival runs from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 October 2026, in Shigaraki, Koka, Shiga Prefecture. Nine days.

This fair is built differently from those in other regions. Rather than tents filling one large site, the shops of the town of Shigaraki are themselves the venue.

So it is not a fair where you look at ware gathered in one place, but one where you move through the town from shop to shop. The list of participating shops and how they are divided by area is published on the official site.

Dates for the 2026 Shigaraki Pottery Festival

With nine days, you can pick a weekday. This is Shigaraki's single greatest advantage. Crowds concentrate on the weekend, so going midweek means you can talk with the shopkeepers unhurried.

Opening hours differ from shop to shop, though. If you have particular shops in mind, check their hours in the official listings before you set out.

How it differs from the spring makers' market

Shigaraki holds events in both spring and autumn. Spring is the Shigaraki Sakka-ichi, the makers' market; autumn is this, the Shigaraki Pottery Festival. The two are close to opposites in character.

The makers' market gathers artists into one place. 2026 was its 20th edition, held from 2 to 5 May on the Taiyo no Hiroba lawn at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park. Potters are at its centre, but makers working in wood, glass, leather and textiles are invited too, so it is a place to see selected makers rather than the ware of Shigaraki.

In spring you choose by the person; in autumn you choose by the town. One circuit of the lawn shows you everything at the makers' market, but the exhibitors are not limited to Shigaraki kilns. The pottery festival asks you to travel, and in exchange the standing stock of Shigaraki's shops is laid out as it is.

What going shop to shop actually means

At Mashiko or Seto, you arrive at the site and the rest is walking. Shigaraki is not like that.

The pottery shops, kilns and galleries scattered through the town each open for the fair at their own premises. The official site guides you through this by area. Deciding which area you are going to is the first step of this fair.

• Advantage: you see the standing stock as it is　Not a selection picked out for a tent, but a wide choice from what the shop actually holds
• Advantage: the weather does not matter　The shops are indoors, so you can visit easily even on a wet day
• Drawback: you have to travel　The distances between shops are not all walkable
• Drawback: there is no one place where everything is　Researching beforehand is what decides whether you enjoy it

Getting to Shigaraki, and how long it takes

Shigaraki sits among the hills. From any city, the last leg is one change plus 24 minutes on a local line.

What decides your total is the connection you wait for. The Shigaraki Kohgen Railway runs fifteen return services a day. Through the middle of the day the timetable is easy to hold in your head - Kibukawa departures at 24 past the hour, Shigaraki departures at 54 past - but the morning is irregular, at 6:50, 8:05 and 9:14, and miss the 9:14 and the next is 10:24. Choose to match your arrival on the Kusatsu Line.

Since this is a fair you travel between shops for, a car suits it better. If you come by train, narrowing to the shops within walking distance of Shigaraki station is the realistic plan.

Parking and road closures

The official site carries no notice of area-wide road closures. This is not a fair that shuts the town centre; it is one where each shop trades as normal.

There is no single large car park, so checking whether the shops you want have parking is worth doing first. Shigarakigushi station has free park-and-ride for around 100 cars. On days when the roads fill, leaving the car there and coming into Shigaraki by train is an option.

That said, some shops close on weekdays. If you have somewhere particular in mind, check its opening days in advance.

About Shigaraki

Shigaraki is one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, a region with over 1,200 years behind it.

In Shigaraki ware, the clay is the lead. Shigaraki clay carries a high proportion of feldspar and silica grains, and firing brings those grains up white. The white specks you see across the surface are not sand but stone that has fired and come to the surface.

When wood ash settles on that, it melts into the glassy natural ash glaze. Where the flame struck directly, the surface takes on the red-brown known as hi-iro. In recent years a great deal of studio work has come out of Shigaraki clay too, so for all its history, the range here is wide.

And then there is the tanuki figure, which Shigaraki is known for. As a good-luck piece, it is kept as a guardian at homes and shops. The tanuki story is in Shigaraki tanuki, and the history of the region in Shigaraki ware.

How to work the fair

• 1. Narrow to three or four shops using the official listings　The whole town is the venue, so it matters to fix where you are going first. Go without narrowing and the day disappears into travelling
• 2. Settle on one area　Rather than crossing the whole town, working through shops close together is the efficient way
• 3. Build in the Ceramic Cultural Park　The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park is the region's central institution. It is also where the spring makers' market is held. Taking your break between purchases in a place with that much nature and history is worth doing
• 4. Look at the surface before you choose　What to look for in Shigaraki is the stone and iron marking the surface, and the colour the natural ash glaze takes. Pick pieces up and enjoy them

What to bring

• Cash　Smaller shops are sometimes cash only
• The official shop list　The whole town is the fair, so move with it on your phone or with the map handed out around town
• Newspaper or a towel　Some shops wrap only lightly
• Something to layer　Shigaraki is in the hills, so it turns cold even in mid-October

Related reading

Learn about Shigaraki

• Shigaraki Ware: Why Its Clay Sparkles After 1,200 Years
• Shigaraki Tanuki: The Lucky Raccoon-Dog of Japan's Pottery Capital
• Japan's Six Ancient Kilns: All 6 Regions Compared

What clay and fire make

• Yakishime: Unglazed Pottery Fired to Its Limit
• Shizen-yu: Natural Ash Glaze Explained
• Keshiki: How to Read the 'Landscape' on a Pot

Before you go to a pottery fair

• Pottery Fair Calendar
• How to Visit a Japanese Pottery Fair: 9 Regions Compared
• Pottery Classes in Japan: Where to Try the Wheel
• Kodai (Foot Ring): The Part Collectors Check First