?-1786
male
fujina pottery
Mid-Edo period potter of Fushina ware in Izumo Province (Shimane Prefecture). His name was Yoshikata. The Tsuchiya family is said to have originated from Matsumoto in Shinshu (Nagano Prefecture), and his father was a potter named Dokiya Zen’emon who ran a pottery business in the town of Yokohama in Matsue. In 1756, under the orders of Matsudaira Muneyoshi, the 6th lord of the Matsue domain, he became a potter at Rakuzan (Mt. Rakuzan) in order to revive Rakuzan ware. In 1780, Matsudaira Fumai, the seventh lord of the domain, ordered Fushina ware potters to produce his favorite wares, but they were unsuccessful, so Zenshiro I moved from Rakuzan to Fushina village, where he worked as a pottery instructor for Fushina ware. Rakuzan and Fushina ware are collectively known as Izumo ware, and Zenshiro I can be considered the founder of Izumo ware. His son, Masayoshi, Zenshiro II, was also engaged in garden ware at his villa in Osaki, Edo, the San-no-Maru Palace, Rakuzan, Tamatsukuri, etc. He was awarded the name “Unzen” and a gourd-shaped seal by Fumai, and since then the Tsuchiya kiln of Fushina ware has used this seal for generations.
