This workshop invites participants into the intimate world of kutani-style pottery painting, a practice that values restraint, attention, and the materiality of tradition. The experience takes place inside Maikeigama Kiln, a heritage wooden structure nestled in the hills of Yamanaka Onsen, where master potter Eiju Yaguchi continues a lineage of ceramic craft stretching back generations.
Guests are welcomed into the warmth of the kiln’s interior, where natural light filters across timber walls and shelves lined with tea ceramics. Under the gentle guidance of the artisan, participants paint a small sake cup from the kiln’s signature “Birds Resting” series using traditional mineral-based pigments and fine brushes. The process is quiet and expressive. Motifs often reflect the surrounding forest or the flowing lines of Kakusenkei Gorge, but each guest is free to follow their own rhythm.
After painting, guests are offered a bowl of freshly prepared matcha in the kiln’s adjacent tea room, adding a ceremonial pause to the experience. The painted cups are then glazed and fired by the artist, and made available for collection the following day.
This is not simply a craft session. It is an immersion into place—into a kiln that breathes history, into gestures shaped by generations, and into the still, tactile pleasure of making.
