Karatsu Pottery |

Have you ever been to Kyushu island which is located south west in Japan?

“Kyu” of Kyushu island means nine. There used to be nine provinces in Kyushu Island back in Edo period. Now the island consists of seven prefecture and Saga prefecture is one of them next to Fukuoka prefecture.

In Saga prefecture, there are spots of scenic beauty, excellent hot springs, delicious beef whose quality is equivalent to Kobe beef (for much lower price) and famous potteries, Karatsu Pottery.

There are almost 70 potteries in Karatsu city in Saga prefecture. Karatsu pottery was produced in 1580 in Azuchi Momoyama period. Hideyoshi Toyotomi brought the pottery technique from Korea after the Mongolian Invasion (1274 & 1281) and that boosted the production quantity to spread Karatsu pottery to Kyoto and Osaka which was the capital of Japan back then.

Tea masters also loved Karatsu pottery and the pottery were used for tea ceremonies in many places.

When Edo period was over, Karatsu pottery lost its protection by the government and rapidly slowed down. However, it was come back by a living national treasure, Muan Nakazato (1895-1985).

Using coarse cray, Karatsu pottery shows its simple but powerful figures. The art of Karatsu potteries complete when foods or tea are placed on the potteries.

There are some kinds of Karatsu potteries;

Madara Karatsu (with cloudy straw ash glaze, it has small blue or black dots.)