Niigata as Pottery Production Area

Beginning from Jomon pottery, pottery has been produced in Niigata area for more than 10,000 years.

Yet, the area is not recognised as a place of pottery production. One would hardly name any famous pottery in the area.

Actually, about 150 years ago, there were more than 80 kilns in the prefecture. Over a million pottery bottles for Shochu spirits were sent to Hokkaido. With the advent of railroad networks and the usage of wares made of materials other than pottery became dominant, the potters gave up their works. Some of them shifted to the production of roof tiles or pipes and many of them abandoned the kilns.

The exhibition is about the now lost pottery production within the prefecture in the early modern period.