--- title: "Mashiko: the pottery town in Tochigi" description: "Mashiko is a town of about 20,000 people in Tochigi Prefecture where pottery has been made since about 1853: its kilns, its fair, Hamada Shōji's house, indigo vats and a gate of 1492." url: https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/mashiko-town language: en published: 2026-11-11 category: "Places in Japan › Tochigi" tags: ["Tochigi", "MashikoWare", "Crafts"] author: "Oginoya Editorial Team" publisher: "Oginoya Co., Ltd." translations: zh-TW: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-tw/articles/mashiko-town ko: https://kama-meshi.com/ko/articles/mashiko-town zh-CN: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-cn/articles/mashiko-town zh-HK: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-hk/articles/mashiko-town th: https://kama-meshi.com/th/articles/mashiko-town de: https://kama-meshi.com/de/articles/mashiko-town fr: https://kama-meshi.com/fr/articles/mashiko-town es: https://kama-meshi.com/es/articles/mashiko-town --- # Mashiko: the pottery town in Tochigi ![A street lined with an old two-story building with a tiled roof and a stone storehouse beside it, tall trees behind, and people walking along the sidewalk](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/mashiko-jonaizaka-toko-2023.t0pp2tub_ZfPgQf.webp) Mashiko is a town of about 20,000 people in southeastern Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, where pottery, [Mashiko ware](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/mashiko-ware), has been made since about 1853. Potteries and pottery shops stand on the hills east of the town center, and a pottery fair, first held in 1966, takes place in spring and autumn. The town also keeps the house and climbing kiln of the potter Hamada Shōji, an indigo workshop in business since the Edo period (1603–1868) and a temple gate built in 1492. ## A town at the foot of the Yamizo Mountains Mashiko lies in the north of the Kantō Plain, at the western foot of the Yamizo Mountains. The city of Moka adjoins the town on the west, and the hills in the south reach the border of Ibaraki Prefecture. The town covers 89.40 square kilometers, and on November 1, 2026, it counted 19,735 residents. In the Middle Ages the center of Mashiko was the castle town of the Mashiko family. ## Kilns and shops on the eastern hills The potteries are spread mainly over the hills of Jōnai and Sayado, on the east side of the town center, and the shops, the potters' association and the prefecture's ceramics technology center are gathered in the same district. Mashiko had 349 pottery businesses in 1992 and 208 in 2019. Mashiko ware was designated [a national traditional craft](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/japanese-pottery-regions) in 1979. ## Climbing kilns and the earthquake of 2011 A climbing kiln, *noborigama*, is a row of chambers built one above another up a slope, from a few to more than ten. The heat of the fire in the lowest chamber is used in each chamber above it. Two climbing kilns of the pottery Iwashita Seitō, built in 1893 and 1918, are cultural properties of the town. The kiln of 1918 has ten chambers, was used until about 1975, and is the largest surviving climbing kiln in the Kantō region and the regions north of it. [Hamada Shōji](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/mingei-and-hamada), the potter who settled in Mashiko in 1924, built a climbing kiln of eight chambers in 1943 and fired it several times a year until his death in 1978. Hamada's kiln stands at the Mashiko Sankōkan Museum. It collapsed in the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. Rebuilt, the kiln was fired in 2015 for the first time in about 40 years, and it has been fired every three years since, with potters from the nearby pottery town of Kasama joining those of Mashiko. The earthquake damaged kilns, workshops and equipment in Mashiko. St Ives is the town in Cornwall, England, where Hamada built a climbing kiln with the potter Bernard Leach. People in St Ives raised money for Mashiko's recovery, and Mashiko and St Ives became friendship cities on September 20, 2012. ## A fair twice a year The Mashiko pottery fair, *tōki-ichi*, began in 1966. It is held twice a year, in the Golden Week holidays of late April and early May and around November 3. About 50 shops take part and about 800 tents go up. The fair is spread over the town, centered on Jōnaizaka and the Sayado district. ![People crossing at a crossroads where a street lined with shops leads away, with a blue road sign reading 笠間 Kasama on a pole and a thatched roof at the left](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/mashiko-jonaizaka-fair-2023.C7PVkrVI_Z1qLhcI.webp "The Jōnaizaka crossroads during the spring pottery fair, April 2023.") On sale are [things for daily use](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/ceramics-as-souvenirs), such as teacups, chopstick rests, plates and coffee cups, and art pieces such as jars and flower vases. At the tents a visitor can talk directly with up-and-coming potters and with the craftspeople of the potteries. ## Two museums The Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art stands in a complex called Tōgei Messe Mashiko. ![A museum entrance with walls faced in gray stone under a wide projecting roof, and exhibition posters in a case on the wall](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/mashiko-ceramic-art-museum-2014.DsGATj-9_ElXeo.webp "The Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, April 2014.") The museum's first gallery shows work by potters of Mashiko and by potters connected with them, among them Hamada, Shimaoka Tatsuzō, Kawai Kanjirō and Tomimoto Kenkichi. Its fourth gallery shows work by Bernard Leach and by the potters who worked at Leach's pottery in St Ives in its early years. In the grounds stand the thatched house that Hamada bought in 1930, which was moved to the complex in 1989, and a climbing kiln that Hamada used, which was also moved there and rebuilt. The Mashiko Sankōkan Museum, which Hamada opened in part of his home in April 1977, shows Hamada's own work and the things he collected. ## Indigo vats and a gate of 1492 The Higeta indigo workshop, in the Jōnaizaka district, is a dyer's shop that has been in business since the Edo period. Its thatched house was built between 1789 and 1801, and 72 vats are sunk into the earthen floor. The vats are Tokoname ware, and each holds 180 liters. The vats are set in groups of four around a fire pit, where sawdust and rice husks are burned to keep the indigo at the temperature it needs to ferment. Saimyōji, a temple of the Shingon school in the hills in the south of the town, is said to have been founded in 737. The two-story gate, thatched, was built in 1492, and the three-story pagoda, 17.9 meters high, was built in the sixteenth century by a lord of Takadate Castle from the Mashiko family. The gate, the pagoda and the shrine cabinet inside the main hall are Important Cultural Properties. ![A wooden temple hall with a broad roof among trees, with stone steps and stone lanterns in front of it](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/mashiko-saimyoji-main-hall.CgoA71Vg_2gXrT6.webp "The main hall of Saimyōji.") ## Kasama and Mashiko Kasama, in Ibaraki Prefecture, lies across the hills of the Yamizo Mountains from Mashiko. Ōtsuka Keizaburō, who is regarded as the founder of Mashiko ware, learned to make pottery at a kiln in Kasama before he built his kiln in Mashiko. On June 19, 2020, the Agency for Cultural Affairs recognized the story of Kasama and Mashiko as Japan Heritage under the name Kasamashiko, a word made by joining Kasama and Mashiko. In 2020 more than 600 potters were working in Kasama and Mashiko. The cultural properties that make up the story include Saimyōji, the Higeta indigo workshop, and the climbing kilns at Iwashita Seitō and at the Mashiko Sankōkan Museum. ## The railway and the kamameshi pot The Moka Railway runs from Shimodate in Ibaraki Prefecture to Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture and stops at Mashiko Station. In 1994 C12 66, [a restored steam locomotive](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/steam-locomotives-today), began pulling the SL Moka on the Moka Railway. The pot of [Tōge no Kamameshi](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/what-is-kamameshi), the station bento that Oginoya put on sale at Yokokawa Station on February 1, 1958, is [an earthenware pot](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/the-kama-pot) of Mashiko ware. More than 170 million Tōge no Kamameshi have been sold. ## References - [Kotobank, "Mashiko"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%9B%8A%E5%AD%90-634125) - [Kotobank, "Mashiko ware"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%9B%8A%E5%AD%90%E7%84%BC-136113) - [Kotobank, "Hamada Shōji"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B5%9C%E7%94%B0%E5%BA%84%E5%8F%B8-14645) - [Kotobank, "Saimyōji"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A5%BF%E6%98%8E%E5%AF%BA-68250) - [Kotobank, "Noborigama" (climbing kiln)](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%99%BB%E3%82%8A%E7%AA%AF-112447) - [Town of Mashiko, "Population"](https://www.town.mashiko.lg.jp/page/page000171.html) - [Town of Mashiko, "Geography of Mashiko"](https://www.town.mashiko.lg.jp/page/page000165.html) - [Town of Mashiko, "Mashiko Pottery Fair"](https://www.town.mashiko.lg.jp/page/page000110.html) - [Town of Mashiko, "Friendship cities"](https://www.town.mashiko.lg.jp/page/page001699.html) - [Town of Mashiko, "Kasamashiko recognized as Japan Heritage" (2020)](https://www.town.mashiko.lg.jp/page/page002737.html) - [Mashiko Town Board of Education, "Cultural properties of Mashiko"](https://www.town.mashiko.lg.jp/cultural_property.php?mode=list) - [Mashiko Town Tourism Association, "Mashiko Pottery Fair"](http://blog.mashiko-kankou.org/ceramics_bazaar/) - [Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan Heritage Portal Site, "Kasamashiko"](https://japan-heritage.bunka.go.jp/ja/stories/story087/) - [Kasamashiko Japan Heritage council, "The story"](https://kasamashiko.style/story/) - [Kasamashiko Japan Heritage council, "Saimyōji"](https://kasamashiko.style/point/detail/7/) - [Kasamashiko Japan Heritage council, "Higeta indigo workshop"](https://kasamashiko.style/point/detail/10/) - [Kasamashiko Japan Heritage council, "Climbing kilns at the Mashiko Sankōkan"](https://kasamashiko.style/point/detail/27/) - [Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, "Collection"](https://www.mashiko-museum.jp/exhibitions/collection/index.html) - [Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, "Former residence of Hamada Shōji"](https://www.mashiko-museum.jp/facilities/hamada/index.html) - [Shoji Hamada Memorial Mashiko Sankokan Museum, "About the museum"](https://mashiko-sankokan.net/top/about/) - [Shoji Hamada Memorial Mashiko Sankokan Museum, "Climbing kiln project"](http://www.mashiko-sankokan.net/noborigama-project/about.html) - [Tochigi Prefectural Industrial Technology Center, "Tochigi tableware" study group report (March 2021, PDF)](https://iri.pref.tochigi.lg.jp/content/files/yougyou/katsudouhoukokusyo_F1.pdf) - [Tochigi Prefectural Tourism and Local Products Association, "Spring Mashiko Pottery Fair"](https://www.visit-tochigi.com/plan-your-trip/things-to-do/2234/) - [Mōka Railway, "The SL Mōka"](https://www.moka-railway.co.jp/slmoka-intro/) - [Oginoya, "Tōge no Kamameshi (ceramic pot)"](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/bento/kamameshi/) - [Oginoya, chronology](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/tougenokamameshi/history/) - [Oginoya, "How Tōge no Kamameshi was born"](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/tougenokamameshi/tanjouhiwa/) Image credits (resized for display): - [FukuroWaraw / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2023%E5%B9%B4%EF%BC%88%E4%BB%A4%E5%92%8C5%E5%B9%B4%EF%BC%89%E6%98%A5%E3%81%AE%E7%9B%8A%E5%AD%90%E9%99%B6%E5%99%A8%E5%B8%82%E3%80%8C%E9%99%B6%E5%BA%AB%E3%80%8D%E4%BB%98%E8%BF%91.jpg), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), 2023 - [FukuroWaraw / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E7%9B%8A%E5%AD%90%E9%99%B6%E5%99%A8%E5%B8%82%E5%9F%8E%E5%86%85%E5%9D%82%E4%BA%A4%E5%B7%AE%E7%82%B9%E4%BB%98%E8%BF%91.png), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), 2023 - [Abasaa / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mashiko_Museum_of_Ceramic_Art.JPG), Public domain, 2014 - [Dustindye / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saimyoji_Temple_3.jpg), Public domain