Tamba Pottery: The Timeless Art of a Japanese Village

Tamba–a remote and mountainous area lying to the northeast of Kyoto and Osaka–is the centre of an ancient tradition of pottery that is still vigorous today.

To Westerners, familiar with the elaborate enamelled porcelains of Japan that have become famous throughout the world, the robust, unpretentious beauty of Tamba pottery presents a side of Japanese ceramics that has yet to be fully appreciated. The village of Tachikui is the last pottery village in Tamba. Here the craftsmen still maintain the unmistakable Tamba tradition; their skills reach back to the origins of Tamba pottery in Japan’s “middle ages,” some seven hundred years ago. This book not only presents the ware, techniques and life of this unique farming and pottery making community but also opens insights into Japanese ceramics as a whole.