Enshū's Seven Kilns (遠州七窯 ''Enshū chō'' or ''Enshū nana gama'') is a list of
Japanese pottery
is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and Japanese art, art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Types have included earthenware, pottery, stoneware, porcelain, and Blue and white porcelain, blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exception ...
kilns whose products were considered amongst the favourites of the
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or lit. 'Hot water for tea') is a Culture of Japan, Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called .
The term "Japa ...
master
Kobori Enshū
was a Japanese aristocrat, garden designer, painter, poet, and tea master during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Biography
His personal name was Masakazu (政一). In 1604, he received as inheritance a 12,000-''koku'' fief in Ōmi Province at K ...
(小堀 遠州 1579–1647), who lived during the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
.
History
The teamaster Enshū used a number of
Japanese tea utensils
are the tools and utensils used in , the Japanese way of tea.
Tea utensils can be divided into five major categories:
*
*
*
*
*
A wide range of utensils, known collectively as , is necessary for even the most basic tea ceremony. Genera ...
and corresponded about it with other friends, connoisseurs of tea, and the lords of the provinces where the kilns were located. It is assumed that Enshū also gave works in commission, thus helping in the establishment of some of the newer, less-known kilns of that time and also establishing a long-term relationship with existing ones. A list in itself did not exist but was compiled after this death based on his correspondence and the knowledge which kilns he preferred to be a patron of.
The earliest mention of his list is from a late Edo period book from 1857 called "Historical Investigation into Domestic Ceramics" (''Honchō tōki kōshō'').
He favoured seven pottery styles for tea ceremony:
*
Asahi ware, later
Buzen Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northeastern Kyūshū, corresponding to part of southeastern Fukuoka Prefecture and northwestern Ōita Prefecture. Buzen bordered on Bungo Province, Bungo to the south, and Chikuzen Pro ...
*
Agano ware from
Buzen Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northeastern Kyūshū, corresponding to part of southeastern Fukuoka Prefecture and northwestern Ōita Prefecture. Buzen bordered on Bungo Province, Bungo to the south, and Chikuzen Pro ...
*
Akahada ware from
Yamato Province
was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...
*
Kosobe ware from
Settsu Province
was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .
Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Settsu's ...
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Shitoro ware, later
Tōtōmi Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa Province, Mikawa, Suruga Province, S ...
*
Takatori ware from
Chikuzen Province
was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyūshū, corresponding to part of north and western Fukuoka Prefecture. Chikuzen bordered on Hizen to the east, and Buzen east, and Bungo to the southeast. Its abbreviated form name was (a ...
*
Zeze ware
is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally from Ōtsu, in the former Zeze Domain in Ōmi Province.
External links
* http://zezeyaki.jp
Culture in Shiga Prefecture
Japanese pottery
Ōtsu
{{ceramics-stub ...
from
Ōmi Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...
See also
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Six Ancient Kilns The Six Ancient Kilns (六古窯 Rokkoyō) is a category developed by Koyama Fujio (小山富士夫 1900–1975) in the post-war period to describe the most noteworthy ceramic kilns of Japan.
The six kilns are:
* Bizen ware (備前焼, Bizen-yak ...
*
List of Japanese ceramics sites
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enshu's Seven Kilns
Japanese pottery
Japanese pottery kiln sites