1. Kabazaiku
Objects of art in cherry bark: Kabazaiku
Kakunodate is an ancient feudal city located in the heart of Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. The city's landscape is renowned for the blossoming of its many weeping cherry trees and somei yoshino (cherry blossoms). Kakunodate artisans create art objects from mountain cherry bark, called kaba zaiku. The word "kabazaiku" is believed to originate from a long poem in the Japanese poetry collection Manyoshu, in which mountain cherry trees were described as "kaniha," a word later transformed into "kaba." Finely peeled and polished bark is called "muji kawa," while bark with its original expression is called "shimofuri kawa." The more these objects are used in daily life, the more their color becomes vibrant and retains the luster of the mountain cherry tree.
2. Yamagata Imono
The Yamagata Cast
Many of the chagama (large cast-iron kettles) essential for the tea ceremony are made in Yamagata. It is said that the art of cast iron was developed in Yamagata during the mid-Heian period (794-1185) by blacksmiths serving the army, who were looking to produce a lightweight and manageable material. It was in Yamagata that they found the earth and ores suitable for such production. Characterized by a remarkably fine, elegant finish and a regular shape, Yamagata cast iron is used to forge superb vases, teapots, cauldrons, and decorative objects.
3. Wajima Nuri
Wajima lacquer
Characterized by its layers of lacquer applied successively by hand and the beauty of its intricate decoration, sometimes inlaid, with mother-of-pearl and gold finishes known as "maki-e," Wajima lacquerware is made in the city of the same name in Ishikawa Prefecture, but it is considered one of the finest throughout Japan. A layer of fossilized clay (chinoko) is applied beneath the lacquer, ensuring its durability. Creating Wajima lacquer requires meticulous handwork, with more than 20 different operations before the lacquer is applied and between 75 and 124 steps in total until the finished product is complete. Besides teaware, bowls, trays, and numerous other everyday objects are produced using this technique.
4. Echizen shikki
Echizen Lacquer
Echizen lacquer is a traditional craft originating in the city of Sabae in Fukui Prefecture, dating back to the 6th century (the end of the Kofun period), making it the oldest lacquerware in Japan. Its defining characteristics are its durability, achieved through swift and expert lacquering, luminous reflections and deep shadows, and a flamboyance befitting exceptional objects. Over time, Echizen lacquer techniques have diversified to meet the demands of larger-scale production: today, 80% of Japanese lacquerware comes from Echizen, and some pieces showcase a new and more avant-garde style.
5. Mino yaki
Mino ceramics
Although its history dates back to the 7th century, it is said that it is its lack of identifiable characteristic or style that precisely characterizes Mino-yaki ceramics. Indeed, Mino ceramics take on many aspects with more than 15 recognized styles. Like Kiseto (yellow seto), Setoguro (black seto), Oribe or Shino-yaki, this diversity of styles developed during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1603) and the numerous works thus produced, judged to be of great quality, were incorporated among the essentials of the tea ceremony. More generally, it is the expressiveness in the fluidity of the glazes and the curved and irregular lines which give the charm and uniqueness of the Mino-yaki style.
6. Seto-yaki
Seto ceramics and porcelain
It is in Seto (Inland Sea region), where quality soil abounds, that richly glazed ceramics and porcelain have been manufactured for over a thousand years in one of the six oldest ceramic production sites in Japan. As the country's leading production region, the very term Seto-mono (literally "things, objects of Seto") has become synonymous for the Japanese with pottery in general, so much so that it is said that it There's nothing we can't produce in Seto.
7. Tokoname-yaki
Tokoname ceramic
The city of Tokoname is located on the Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture, known for its mild climate and generous nature. Tokoname ceramics still come today from furnaces recognized as being among the six oldest ceramic production sites in Japan and its manufacturing technique has been perpetuated since the Middle Ages. It would be the oldest among these six production sites (Echizen, Seto, Shinano, Shigaraki, Tamba and Bizen). Thanks to the quality of its soil and the high-end technique used to make kyûsu teapots, it is said in Japan that anyone can make good tea when equipped with a Tokoname teapot.
8. Takayama
Chasen from Takayama
The chasen, matcha whisk, is essential when preparing matcha tea. It is an artisanal and traditional item using techniques passed down for more than 5 centuries dating from the Muromachi period (1336-1573). Even today, more than 90% of chasen are made in the village of Takayama, located in the municipality of Ikoma in Nara Prefecture, nicknamed “the village of chasen”.
During the manufacturing process, the bamboo harvested in winter is purged of its resin, allowed to dry in natural light and cut very finely with a blade to create long, thin pistils measuring 30 to 70 micrometers at their tips. All steps are carefully carried out by hand. The chasen is finally held using a wire at the base of the pistils and then the final finishing touches take place, including adjusting the pistils. There are more than 100 types of chasen in Takayama alone, whose number of pistils (or stems), shape, material used, and use vary depending on the school of tea ceremonies or the type of matcha made. (light usucha tea or thick koicha for example).
9. Kyo yaki
Kyoto ceramics
It is accepted that the history of Kyô-yaki ceramics dates back to Japanese antiquity, but it would be more reasonable to say that it really differentiated itself and established itself as a style in its own right from the time Azuchi-Momoyama at the beginning of the Edo period (from the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century) which corresponds to an increase in the production of ceramics and tea objects linked to the rise of the practice of the tea ceremony in Japan. Kyoto was then the capital and cultural center of the country, so much so that all the famous artisans converged there, bringing with them their own techniques and aesthetic sense. Diverse and original but always refined creations were therefore the prerogative of the Kyô-yaki style. Even today, both the turning and the enamels are made by hand with the finesse characteristic of the ancient capital which preserves centuries-old traditions and techniques.
10. Karatsu Yaki
Karatsu ceramics
Karatsu ceramics are made in northern Kyûshû, straddling the prefectures of Nagasaki and Saga. Its charm lies in its simple rusticity but not devoid of refinement, which reminds us of the soft warmth of the earth, as well as in its varied ornamental patterns. Many pottery items, including teaware, have been made in the Karatsu-yaki style since the sixteenth century. It is said about them that if the ceramist does 80% of the work, the remaining 20% is the responsibility of the user. Thus, the object will be truly completed once used for the first time in cooking or for making tea, consecrating the principle of “yô no bi”, that is to say beauty in use – and in 'wear.