Legal

Terms & Conditions

Last updated September 2026.

Who you are buying from

Japanese Ceramics is operated by [legal entity name], of [registered address], company registration number [company registration number]. If you need to reach a person about anything on this page, write to contact@japanese-ceramics.com.

The pieces

Almost everything in this shop exists once. The photographs on a listing are of the actual piece you will receive, and when it sells the listing goes with it.

Every piece is second-hand and most are old. They were made by hand, often decades ago, so variation is part of them rather than a fault in them: glaze, colour, surface and weight differ from piece to piece, and kiln effects are never identical twice. Age shows too. Expect the marks of a life already lived, and read the condition note on the listing, which describes every flaw we can find and photograph.

Screens render glazes differently, so a piece may look warmer or cooler in your browser than it does in the hand. None of that counts as a defect.

We attribute a kiln, an era or a maker only where we have reason to, and we write "unknown" where we do not. An attribution is our honest opinion after handling the piece, not a certificate of authentication. If you need one, buy from an auction house that issues them.

Prices, tax and currency

Prices are in US Dollar (USD). [State here whether prices include Japanese consumption tax, and how export orders are treated.]

You can change the currency shown at the top of any page, but those figures are guidance only, converted at a daily reference rate. Payment is always taken in US Dollar. What actually leaves your account depends on your own bank's rate on the day and any foreign transaction fee it charges, so it will rarely match the converted figure to the penny. We record the rate you were shown alongside your order, so a later question about it can be answered with the exact figure and moment.

Shipping is calculated at checkout, before you pay. Import duty and tax in your own country are separate and are not included: see Cancellation, Refund & Shipping.

How an order is made

Putting a piece in your basket does not reserve it. Because each piece is unique, two people can occasionally reach the same one within moments of each other; if the piece you paid for has already gone, we will tell you and refund you in full.

Your order becomes a contract between us when we send you an email confirming it, not when you pay. Until then we may decline it, for example where a piece has sold, where the price or description was shown wrongly, or where we cannot ship to your address.

A piece marked price on request is not offered at a published price. Sending an enquiry is not an order, and there is no contract until we have agreed a price with you in writing and you have paid it.

Payment

Card payments are taken by our payment provider on its own pages. Your card number is entered there and never reaches this website, which does not see it and does not store it. The provider tells us only whether the payment succeeded.

Where we offer payment by bank transfer, the piece is held for you for 5 working days from the order. If the transfer has not arrived by then the order lapses and the piece goes back on sale. Bank charges on a transfer are yours.

Shipping, duty and customs

We ship worldwide from Japan. The cost is quoted at checkout for the address you enter, and the carrier and expected transit time are shown to you before you pay.

Import duty, VAT, GST and customs handling fees in the destination country are yours to pay and are not included in what you pay us. They are usually collected by the carrier before delivery. We declare the value of the contents honestly on the customs paperwork and cannot mark a parcel as a gift or understate what it is worth.

The full shipping terms, including what happens to a parcel that cannot be delivered, are on the Cancellation, Refund & Shipping page.

Cancelling, returning and damage

In short: you can cancel any time before a piece is dispatched, a piece can be returned within 7 days of delivery at your own postage cost, and anything that arrives damaged, or in a condition we did not describe, is our problem to put right. The full terms, which are the ones that apply, are on the Cancellation, Refund & Shipping page.

Your account

You do not need an account to buy, but if you make one, keep your password to yourself and tell us at contact@japanese-ceramics.com if you think someone else has it. You are responsible for orders placed through your account. We may suspend or close an account used fraudulently, and we may cancel orders placed on it.

Photographs and words

The photographs, descriptions and articles on this site are ours. Every piece was photographed and written up here, which is work, so please do not republish them or use them in a listing of your own without asking us first.

Care, use and liability

Care notes are given on each piece's page: whether it is suited to food, to the dishwasher, to the microwave or to an open flame varies by clay body and glaze, and we tell you per piece rather than in general. Please follow them, because we cannot take responsibility for a piece damaged by use it was not made for.

Beyond that, our responsibility to you is limited to the price you paid for the piece and its shipping. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited, and nothing in them takes away rights the consumer law of your own country gives you.

Which law applies

These terms and any sale under them are governed by the law of [country whose law governs the sale], and the courts of [city or court] have jurisdiction over any dispute. If the consumer law where you live gives you rights or a longer cancellation window than this page does, that law applies to you and we are not trying to contract out of it.

Changes

We may change these terms. The version that applies to your order is the one published here on the day you ordered, and the date it was last changed is at the top of this page.

If something goes wrong

Write to contact@japanese-ceramics.com with your order number and we will answer. We would much rather hear from you than have you take it up with your card provider first.