• Japan Through My Eyes
• Japan - No Problem
• Travels to the South: A Trip to the Other Japan
• Omiyage - Art of Gift Giving
• Ukiyoe: "The Floating World" Revealed
• Seto: Japan's Porcelain City

Seto - Japan's Porcelain City

by Shawn Shepard

Strangely enough, it was tableware that propelled me all the way across the Pacific to Japan. One evening in New York, I was taken to a Japanese restaurant where I was nicely impressed with outstanding food and décor. But I was truly awed by the restaurant's incredible tableware.

It was delicately hand-painted in luminous colors, but that wasn't the whole story. It was the absolute purity of the white in these wonderfully subtle forms that completely enchanted me. I had to know more.

Although I arrived in Tokyo (more on that later), my long interest in Japanese crafts and craftsmen sent me immediately to Seto-city, long known as a capitol of ceramic and porcelain-making in Japan.

As you probably know, the artistry of Japanese food doesn't end with either its preparation or service. What the food is served on must be beautiful too. The historic city of Seto is located near the center of Honshu, Japan's main island, which I reached by bullet train by way of Nagoya.

It was here that I began my fact-finding mission. I visited Seto Gura, a museum that exhibits the history, background and culture of Seto porcelain. Indeed, I learned that Seto is one of the six oldest pottery factories in Japan, having been established over 1,000 years ago.

I felt as though I was time traveling as I walked through the panoramic replicas of 1950's buildings and kilns. I was able to see and feel how the Japanese craftsmen in another time came to build the Seto heritage.

It was at the Nagae gallery that I learned porcelain isn't pottery but created from beautifully crafted molds created by great artists like "Genkei Shokunin" (mold designer) Katsuhiko Nagae. The mold designer has to make a mold imagining. There is no formula or manual.

As Mr. Nagae says, "Only experience helps. You have to discover something very important that the design doesn't show on paper. If you can find it and make the mold, you are an excellent mold designer."

These molds allow the Nagae company to make dishes and bowls for ordinary tableware, restaurants and homes with no loss of beauty or quality.

From Seto-city, I returned through Nagoya, the third-largest city in Japan, which drips with ancient feudal 16th century history. Two of the country's most popular warrior (samurai) heroes, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought here.

From Nagoya, it was back to Tokyo via bullet train, where I immediately visited the Nagae shop (www.nagae-seto.jp) at Kotto-Dori. Although kotto means 'antique.' Kotto-Dori is a street filled with hip fashion boutiques as well as the antique shops it was named for.

Opened just last year, the Tokyo Nagae shop is an architectural bow to minimalist and sophisticated design, I bought a chawan (rice bowl) that, for me, characterized the craftsmanship, tradition and beauty of Japan's unique porcelain and incredible artistic detail surrounding Japanese food service.

Most restaurants and hotels at one time used commercial tableware products, however Mr. Nagae pushed a new idea. Why not order specially made tableware - unique to each restaurant?

It was an idea whose time had come.

As a matter of course, Mr. Nagae discusses the design with the owners of the restaurant and/or hotel - and even the cooks - and then creates original tableware specifically for them. Nagae does it all. He comes up with the original designs, creates molds and completes the products.

Now, as a statement of artistic originality, many restaurants and hotels throughout the world use Mr. Nagae's work. 

"We have to keep challenging ourselves. Not only as a mold designer but also as a part of the Seto manufacturer. My duty is to pass on our valuable art and techniques to the next generation and to the world," Mr. Nagae said.

It was then that I gave him his biggest tribute. "You have been successful, Mr. Nagae. The tableware I saw at a restaurant in New York brought me all the way here to you."

Mr. Nagae smiled happily. I knew that I couldn't have told him anything more complimentary.