Hasami ware is porcelain made in Hasami town, Higashisonogi District, Nagasaki Prefecture. Since they opened in 1599, they have produced the largest quantities of blue-and-white porcelain in Japan. However, they have been overshadowed by the famous Arita ware, which was located a mountain away. They are not well-known, but it is said that many of Arita ware products were in fact Hasami ware products. It is also believed that most of the porcelain that was excavated from ruins since the Edo period in the 18th century was Hasami ware.
In the beginning, they used to produce celadon porcelain, but eventually they started using gosu porcelain and making simple dark blue floral patterns against white backgrounds. Unlike Mikawachi ware, which is located in the same prefecture, Hasami ware has been producing large quantities of tableware in a huge multi-chambered climbing kiln for the general public since the Edo period.
The products that had especially great success from Hasami ware were the Compra bottles made for exportation and the Kurawanka bowls. Even today, Hasami ware are well-known for tableware production. Their porcelain tea bowls and tableware varieties have a large share in the national market, yet their drive to supply tableware to facilitate and enhance their users’ lives has not changed until now, 400 years later.
The name of the Kurawanka bowls originated from the words of the merchants in the Edo period who used to get closer to ships along the Yodo river in Settsu with their small boats saying, “Mochi kurawanka, sake kurawanka”, meaning “How about some mochi? How about some sake?”
Compra bottles are similar to sake-warming bottles. They are made of blue-and-white porcelain, and are also known as “kanbin.” They used to be exported through a broker called Compra Trading Company, which dealt with many Dutchmen and Portuguese people, hence the name “Compra bottles.” There are two types of Compra bottles with Dutch writing on them; one that says JAPANSCHZOYA (Japanese soy sauce), and one that says JAPANSCHZAKY (Japanese sake).
From 1650 until the end of the Meiji era, when Nichiran Exports were at the height of their prosperity, they used to fill them with soy sauce and sake, and export them on a large scale from Nagasaki and Dejima to Southeast Asia and the Netherlands through the Dutch East India Company.
