The first generation Sasaki Niroku (1857-1935), who had been engaged in the production of roof tiles for generations, was deeply impressed at seeing Matsumoto Kisaburo’s dolls in Tokushima in 1883, and aimed to become a puppeteer there, but in 1887 he moved into ceramics and went around to kiln sites in each region for training. After that, he returned to his hometown and built a kiln to make Niroku-ware that was hand-carving realistic depictions of motifs of things like crabs, tigers and landscapes into ceramic receptacles and producing ornaments of people and lions etc., with amazing natural colors. Since then his representative work has been shown in exhibitions in Japan and overseas, and has received such awards as the silver award at the St. Louis World Fair in 1904, and the bronze award at the Japan-British Exhibition in 1910. He also gained high praise for the work he presented as a gift at the enthronement of the Showa Emperor in 1928.
Even after the death of the first generation Sasaki Niroku, the second and third generations have continued, and now the fourth generation has inherited the tradition.
