NipponCraft: 2014/09

September 27, 2014

New Sake Set Added

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

We have added some more Sake sets (sets of Tokkuri bottles and Sakazuki cups). We have selected simpler designs for the bottles and cups as they look more traditional. Please click each of the photo to jump to the item's shopping page.
These sets are porcelains made at Toki City (Gufu Prefecture) where various kinds of porcelain tableware are produced for hundreds of years (presumably from 1,300's). The surrounding region is called Minou, and more than half the porcelain tableware consumed in Japan very year are produced in this region. The porcelains produced in the region has a nickname of "Seto-Mono". "Seto" is a city located in the adjacent prefecture of Aichi, and this city used to be a major production area. Even after the major production area moved to Minou (some north of Seto), these porcelains are named after the city name.
In Toki city, an exhibition center of porcelains welcomes visitors who look for Seto-Mono of many kinds. Not only for exhibiting, the center sells the porcelains with a direct price from potters as this center is established and run by the funds from 100 potters doing business in the city. If you visit the center, a map of potters' locations is provided for free. However, the region is distributed widely, the roads are narrow, and it is not easy to reach each potter. Especially visiting of summertime is quite tiring, which I did. No bus tour, no rent-a-cycle, no parking lots near potters, so it was quite a challenging to visit each potter. I would recommend you to shop at the center if you ever have a chance to visit the city.

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_1198.html

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_1195.html

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_1183.html

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_1182.html

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_781.html

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_778.html

Here are just bottles for Sake.

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_1184.html

http://www.nipponcraft.com/goods_en_jpy_1186.html

Thank you for visiting our blog!

September 18, 2014

New Macchawan Tea Cups Added

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

We have added new Macchawan (抹茶碗) or Japanese traditional tea cups. "Maccha" stands for green tea powders of a traditional tea ceremony, and "Chawan" stands for tea cups. All together, "Maccha-Chawan" is abbreviated to "Macchawan".

These distorted shapes are of antique style from 16th century. They are intentionally designed in these ways, not kids' works! At a traditional tea ceremony, a tea master strives to express his mind and attitude to guests through the choice of Macchawan. However, for a daily tea time, we recommend these different shaped tea cups for enjoying oriental style and green power tea.

We will introduce how to make green tea and the style through this blog in a couple of weeks.

These products come from Minou (美濃), the south of Gifu Prefecture (close to Nagoya industrial zone), and Minou is the most major region where porcelains and Chawan are produced.

New Lineup