Hōraku ware (豊楽焼) is a type of Japanese pottery historically from

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

Owari Province was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces w ...

, central Japan. The first ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' character 豊, which means "abundant", can be compounded and pronounced as "Hō" or "Toyo", therefore it is also known as ''Toyoraku'' ware. Use of that kanji is common in the region, where cities such as

Toyohashi is a Cities of Japan, city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 377,453 in 160,516 households and a population density of 1,400 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . By area, Toyohashi was Aichi Prefec ...

Toyokawa is a Cities of Japan, city in the eastern part of Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 183,930 in 72,949 households, and a population density of 1,141 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Toyokawa, famou ...

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

, and Toyoake can be found.

History

Production started in the later

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 ...

when it was founded by Rikei Katō (1708–1796), a ceramist who lived in the Owari domain. His successor, Toyohachi (?–1801), continued the style under that name. Some source state he worked in the central

Ōsu is an area located in the Naka-ku, Nagoya, Naka ward of Nagoya, central Japan. Ōsu is a historic area which has many small shops offering everything from Japanese traditional food to handicrafts. A large department store is OSU301. It is pop ...

area of Nagoya, south of the temple

Banshō-ji Banshō-ji (万松寺) is a small temple located in Ōsu in central Nagoya, Japan. Lord Oda Nobuhide (1510?-1552) built this Sōtō Buddhist temple in the then village of Nagoya in 1540, and invited the priest Daiun to open it. Katō Kiyomasa ( ...

. However, that conflicts with the family memoir, which states that he lived in Fujimigahara, and that the third generation moved in 1753 from Fujimigahara to central Nagoya, which is also confirmed by a reference in the ''sen-cha'' text called "''Sencha Soshinan''", published in 1779. Toyoraku's third generation, Daiki Toyosuke (大喜豊助 1779–1864), took up the family name Daiki, which was to continue. He served as a master of his craft in the Owari domain. In addition to Unge ware, Oribe, ''aka-e'', ''shimitsu'' and ''fukai'', etc., he also used natural

mottling Mottle is a pattern of irregular marks, spots, streaks, blotches or patches of different shades or colours. It is commonly used to describe the surface of plants or the skin of animals. In plants, mottling usually consists of yellowish spots on ...

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

to produce a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

ized effect. The tea handbook ''Sencha haya-shinan'' of 1801 mentions Toyosuke as an expert of teaware, with the following words of praise: "Except for ''kibisho'' (''kyūsu'') teapots, it is unnecessary to go seek for masters in the capital." The seals were "Toyaka" (豊禾) and "Toyosuke" (豊助). The fourth generation, Toyosuke IV (四代豊助 1813–1858), moved back to Nagoya and worked in Kami-maezu (上前津) in today's Naka-ku. He also produced ceramic ware in Owari domain. He specialised in making elaborate ceramic pieces by applying ''maki-e'', to make them resemble

lacquerware Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Before ...

or wood. Some of his works were done in the

Raku ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of '' chawan'' tea bowls. It is traditionally characterised by being hand-shaped rather than thrown, fairly porous vessels, which result from lo ...

style, from which it received its name. The fifth generation, Toyosuke V, died in 1885. The sixth generation, Toyosuke VI, lived from 1848 to 1917. He apparently made tea wares and sculptural pieces to the order of

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

in 1876, and also exhibited domestically and abroad, winning a prize at the

Exposition Universelle (1878) The 1878 Universal Exposition (, ), also known as the 1878 Paris Exposition, 1878 World Fair, or 1878 World Expo, was a world's fair held in Paris, French Third Republic, France, from 1 May to 10 November 1878, to celebrate the recovery of Franc ...

in Paris. From 1896 he began actively exporting wares to the United States. In his late years, he turned his attention to the workshop specialty of Raku-type ware. His son became the seventh head of the workshop, but died prematurely from illness. Therefore his second son became the eighth and last generation head of the workshop in Taishō 3 (1915).Toki Daijiten vol. 4, p. 262)

References

External links

* https://asia.si.edu/object/F1901.182a-b/ {{Japanese ceramics Culture in Nagoya History of Nagoya Japanese pottery

History

See also

References

External links