Mizuno ware is pottery from the Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture) and has been active from the mid-Edo period to the present. It is said to have originated in 1765 when Okabe Jobei bought the rights from Yamagawa Tokuzo, who had originally been creating pottery in Yamanita in Hondo Village in Amakusa County in Higo Province, and started firing pottery after moving the kiln to Mizunodaira in the same village.
At the beginning, he was firing pottery without any glazes, but he gradually began to use glazes to create Shodai ware-style vessels. By the time of the 2nd generation Tomijiro, Namako-yu glazes were used to fire a wider variety of ceramics, including tea sets, sake vessels, tableware, and bonsai pots. During the Meiji era, the village chief of Kido bestowed the mark of “Mizunodaira.”
Since then, Mizunodaira ware has become a specialty product of the land, and tableware, coffee mugs, and other daily products are mainly being produced at present.
Since it is also the place where the famous Amakusa porcelain stone is produced, porcelain is also fired, but mainly pottery is fired.
