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 art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptional ...

kilns whose products were considered amongst the favourites of the

Japanese tea ceremony The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is se ...

master

Kobori Enshū was a notable Japanese artist and aristocrat in 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 Komuro, present Nagahama, Shiga. ...

(小堀遠州 1579–1647), who lived during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

History

The teamaster Enshū used a number of

Japanese tea utensils are the tools and utensils used in , the art of Japanese 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 is a type of Japanese pottery , is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-whi ...

, later Buzen Province *

Agano ware Agano may refer to: * Agano, Niigata, a city in Niigata prefecture, Japan * Agano River, a river in the Horuriku region of Japan * Agano, Saitama, a village, now part of the city of Hannō ** Agano Station, a railway station Hannō, Saitama * Agan ...

from Buzen Province *

Akahada ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally from Nara Prefecture focused on primarily Tea Ceremony An East Asian tea ceremony, or ''Chádào'' (), or ''Dado'' ( ko, 다도 (茶道)), is a ceremonially ritualized form of making tea (茶 ''cha'' ...

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 Setts ...

* Shitoro ware, later

Tōtōmi Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa, Suruga and Shinano Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The or ...

Takatori ware is a stoneware ceramic type made in Fukuoka Prefecture. History The Japanese ceramic known as Takatori ware was founded by Korean potters brought to Japan at the end of the sixteenth century in the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598). Fr ...

from

Chikuzen Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today part of Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyūshū. It was sometimes called or , with Chikugo Province. Chikuzen bordered Buzen, Bungo, Chikugo, and Hizen Provinces. History The original provinci ...

Zeze ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally from Ōtsu, in the former Zeze Domain in Ōmi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nicknam ...

from

Ōmi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nickname is . Under the '' Engishiki'' classification system, Ōmi was ranked as one of the 13 "great countr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enshu's Seven Kilns Japanese pottery Japanese pottery kiln sites

History

See also

References