| schema:description | "In response to the ceramics promotion policy of the Hakodate Magistrate, Adachi Iwaji, a potter from Mino province in central Honshu, began manufacturing Hakodate ware with a team of over 40 artisans in what is now Yachigashira, Hakodate in 1859. Using local clay, they brought pottery stone and blue gosu (zaffer) pigment from Honshu. Today, all the extant examples of Hakodate ware are sometsuke blue and white porcelain, mostly tea cups, tea caddies and sake cups painted with scenes of the Hakodate area, Ainu customs, and other motifs with a strong local flavor. However, the industry did not survive for long, and Iwaji returned after a few years to his native Mino. This tea cup is a superb example, one of the few remaining, of Hakodate ware. Bearing the inscription "Made in the first year of the Man'en era," it is also rare for identifying its year of production. ...(more)" |
