It is said to have begun when the 21st Gundai of Takayama in Hida, Toyoda Fujinoshin built a joint government/private-owned kiln in year 11 of the Bunsei era(1840) in order to make ceramics self-sufficient.
Inviting potters from nearby Kutani and Seto, they mainly produced porcelain and developed the Seto-style and Kutani-style known as Hida Aka-e and Hida Kutani.
However, at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, the support and protection from clans disappeared, and craftsmen such as potters and ceramic painters were separated and forced to abandon the kiln for a while. Though in year 11 of the Meiji era (1878), Miwa Genjiro and others who owned the Mozumi mine, established a pottery company called Tokensha (currently Hokokusha) and revived the industry. They sold unglazed ceramics in the Kanto region to companies such as Hyochien.
Genjiro aimed for it to be established as a local industry by summoning new skilled artisans to Hida, and even making the craftsmen devote themselves to study at the Seto and Arita kilns.
Shibukusa ware is pottery and porcelain made in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture. They currently have two potteries; Hokokusha and Shibukusa Ryuzo kiln.
