Mashiko

Mashiko, in Tochigi Prefecture, is a much younger pottery tradition than Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns, tracing back only to the 1850s, when local potters began using the area’s iron-rich red-brown clay to make everyday objects like water jugs. It stayed a modest, practical craft until the 20th century gave it an entirely different kind of reputation.

That reputation change came from Shoji Hamada (1894 to 1978), who set up a kiln in Mashiko in 1930. Hamada, together with philosopher Yanagi Muneyoshi and potter Kawai Kanjiro, is credited with coining the term mingei (folk craft) itself, the movement that also came to celebrate traditions like Tamba ware for their honest, anonymous, everyday utility. Hamada’s presence drew other mingei-aligned potters to Mashiko and turned it into one of Japan’s best-known living pottery towns, work that led to his recognition as a Living National Treasure in 1955. A later Mashiko potter, Shimaoko Tatsuzo, developed a distinctive rope-pattern inlay technique called jomon-zogan and was himself designated a Living National Treasure in 1996. Mashiko pottery today is typically round and approachable in form, glazed with locally sourced stone and scrap iron powder rather than imported materials.