Yachimun: The Okinawan Pottery Shaped by the Island’s Clay and Sea

A thick, rounded form. Cobalt blue, amber brown, deep green. And fish drawn as though they might swim off the surface. Pick one up and there is a strange strength to it, as though the unhurried time of a southern island had been made into a piece of pottery. This is yachimun, the pottery of Okinawa.

It is a little different from the fine, composed pottery of the mainland. Precisely because it is not over-tidy, it accepts any food on a daily table. Yachimun has quietly become a ware loved in households across Japan. This guide covers the history of yachimun, the difference between arayachi and joyachi, its motifs and forms, and how to enjoy it today.

What Yachimun Is: "Pottery" in the Okinawan Language

Yachimun means "pottery" in the Okinawan language. It is not the name of a particular technique or brand but a term rooted in daily life, covering all the ceramics made in Okinawa.

From the era when Okinawa was still the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, the islands nurtured a ceramic culture of their own. China, Southeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula and mainland Japan — as a trading hub open to the sea, Ryukyu received technique and aesthetics from many places, and they melted together within Okinawa's own conditions to produce a distinctive ware.

Where mainland pottery moved toward the stillness of wabi-sabi, what yachimun holds is a bright, generous vitality wearing the colours of sun and sea. That difference is exactly what makes yachimun unlike anything else.

The History of Yachimun: From the Ryukyu Kingdom to Tsuboya, and On to Yomitan

An island ceramic culture born of trade

The source of yachimun goes back to the Ryukyu Kingdom in its great trading age, around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As Chinese and southern ceramics moved busily through the islands, pottery-making began in Ryukyu too. In the early period, the unglazed technique of nanban ware transmitted from the south took root, and large jars were made for storing water, liquor and miso.

The birth of Tsuboya ware

A major turning point came in the seventeenth century. In 1682 the Ryukyu government consolidated the several kiln sites scattered across the island at Tsuboya in Naha. That is where Tsuboya ware, Okinawa's great ceramic centre, was born. From then on Tsuboya remained the heart of Okinawan pottery for centuries.

The mingei movement discovers yachimun

In the twentieth century, yachimun came into the light in an unexpected way. In the 1930s and 1940s Yanagi Muneyoshi — who advocated mingei, the idea that beauty resides in pieces made by anonymous craftspeople for daily life — along with the potter Hamada Shoji and Britain's Bernard Leach, visited Tsuboya and praised its healthy beauty highly.

Among Okinawan potters, Kinjo Jiro became known for a style of incising fish and shrimp in vigorous lines, and in 1985 he became the first person in Okinawa designated a Living National Treasure. It was the moment when yachimun, previously the anonymous ware of daily life, was widely recognised as craft worth appreciating in its own right.

The move to Yomitan and the Yachimun no Sato

After the war, as Naha urbanised rapidly, smoke from the climbing kilns became a problem, and firing traditional kilns at Tsuboya grew difficult. So from the 1970s, potters including Kinjo Jiro moved their kilns to Yomitan Village, about 30 km north of Naha.

What emerged is the pottery village known today as Yachimun no Sato. Large shared climbing kilns such as the Kitagama were built at Yomitan, and a living ceramic community formed with workshops standing side by side. Carrying on the Tsuboya tradition, Yomitan has become the major centre of contemporary yachimun.

What Defines Yachimun: Arayachi, Joyachi and Southern Colour

Arayachi and joyachi

Yachimun also divides into two broad types.

• Arayachi　Plain, powerful ware fired hard at high temperature without glaze. A form of yakishime, it is used for large practical pieces — water jars, liquor jars, miso jars — and for shisa guardian figures. Its appeal is a primal beauty in which the texture of the clay lives on directly.
• Joyachi　Glazed ware, and the centre of everyday tableware. Plates, bowls, funerary jars — most of the beautifully painted pieces that come to mind when you hear "yachimun" are joyachi.

Bold painting and motifs

A large part of the appeal of yachimun is its bold, generous painting: unhurried lines that keep the momentum of the brush exactly as it moved. The representative motifs include the following.

• Gyomon (fish)　A symbol of abundance. Kinjo Jiro's vigorous fish are especially famous.
• Karakusa (scrolling vines)　A winding vine motif expressing vitality and prosperity.
• Chrysanthemum and deigo　Flower motifs, carrying a southern generosity.
• Tenuchi, incising and itchin　Itchin draws in relief by squeezing slip from a dropper-like tool, while other techniques run dots and lines around a turning piece. The warmth of handwork lives in them.

Glaze and colour

Colour is another part of yachimun's character. Deep indigo from cobalt, amber brown from iron, green from copper and chrome (a green glaze called oogusuya), and white slip and manganese black. These melt together over a thick body and produce a warm, rich surface that suggests the sky, sea and earth of a southern island.

Thick, generous forms

Yachimun is not thin and fine like mainland porcelain. It is rounded and substantial, with real weight in the hand. That thickness produces both the space that sets off food and the durability to withstand daily use. Even a form that is not quite even, slightly distorted, is loved in yachimun as generosity of character.

Types of Yachimun

Yachimun includes distinctive forms that grew up alongside Okinawan life.

• Makai　The Okinawan word for a bowl. Used as a rice bowl, or as a larger bowl for Okinawa soba and yushi tofu.
• Plates and small dishes　The five-sun plate is a yachimun staple, taking anything from hors d'oeuvres to everyday side dishes.
• Dachibin　A crescent-shaped portable flask, designed to be carried at the hip. A beautiful form particular to Okinawa.
• Karakara　A pouring flask for awamori, characterised by a round, endearing shape.
• Shisa　Guardian lion figures protecting a roof or gate. Made in both arayachi and joyachi, they are the symbolic ceramic of Okinawa.
• Jishigaami　Funerary urns once in use. Richly decorated, they are also important cultural property reflecting Okinawan views of life and death.

Visiting Yachimun Country

If you travel to Okinawa, touring the pottery areas is well worth doing.

Yachimun no Sato in Yomitan is the centre of contemporary yachimun, where many workshops and shared climbing kilns are gathered. You can move between workshops and galleries and choose pieces directly from their makers. Tsuboya Yachimun Street in Naha is a stone-paved street close to Kokusai-dori, with old kiln remains and the Tsuboya Pottery Museum, where you can feel the history of the ware.

The Yomitan Yachimun Market and the Tsuboya pottery festival are also held every year. They are valuable chances to choose a piece while talking directly with its maker, and worth timing a trip around.

Using and Caring for Yachimun

Yachimun is sturdy and very well suited to daily use. Joyachi is glazed and easy to handle, so it works casually on an everyday table. Arayachi, and pieces with crazing across the surface, absorb water, so passing them through water before first use prevents odours and oil soaking in.

Dry them thoroughly after use. That is what prevents mould and keeps a piece usable for years. For care in more detail, please also see the guide below.

• How to Care for Japanese Ceramics: A Practical Guide

Bringing Contemporary Yachimun Into Daily Life

Once the equipment of Okinawan daily life, yachimun is now familiar in select shops and cafés across Japan and is drawing international attention. The reasons for its popularity are ease of use and generosity.

A design with the space to accept any dish, a range that handles Japanese and Western food alike, and the warmth of handwork that gives every piece a different face. Within a busy daily life, yachimun brings a reassuring brightness to the table, and something of the time of a southern island.

Younger makers keep emerging: some carry the traditional motifs forward, others attempt contemporary colours and forms. Rooted in the mingei spirit of trusting clay and fire and making for daily life, yachimun continues to evolve.

Related Guides

More on the culture and history of Japanese ceramics

• A Short History of Japanese Ceramics, Jomon to Now
• Mingei: The Folk Craft Movement That Changed Pottery

More on Japan's pottery regions

• Japanese Pottery by Region: A Buyer's Map
• Mashiko Pottery: Where Japanese Folk Craft Still Lives

How to choose Japanese ceramics

• How to Care for Japanese Ceramics: A Practical Guide

How to buy Japanese ceramics

• About Us｜Japanese pottery & culture
• Buying Japanese Pottery Online: What to Check First
• New Arrivals