EXHIBITION

ASAHIYAKI has been handcrafting teaware in Kyoto for over 425 years, making it one of the oldest ceramic producers in Japan 

At 3daysofdesign, Asahiyaki will launch Osaa - a tableware collection designed by Finland-based Kaksikko in collaboration with three restaurants in Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Kyoto.

The collection will be presented at Admiralgade 26, where the pieces will be brought to life through an exhibition, alongside food and tea events by the participating restaurants; So /s/ Kawahigashi & Admiralgade 26.

The name “osaa” comes from the Finnish word for “a part” or “a fragment” that does not yet form a whole. The time captured in clay, the contemplation of form, the memory of taste — each is an osaa. 

The history of ASAHIYAKI · 16 generations of ceramics

Asahiyaki is located in the Uji region of Kyoto Prefecture which is known as the center of tea culture, Just across the Uji River from the  Byodo-in Temple, also perched at the foot of Mount Asahi.

Its earliest working-kiln was constructed about four hundred years ago, on the cusp of the shift from the Momoyama (c. 1585-1605) to the Edo Period (c. 1605-1867), by the first-generation kiln-master, Tosaku I.

During this era, the supremely-influential Tea-master Sen-no-Rikyu (1522-91) brought to perfection the  tea ceremony , and his later successor-but-one to that position, Kobori Enshu (1579-1647), began to make his first youthful but noted appearances in Tea-circles.  

He established an enduring relation with the increasingly-productive Tea-growers of the Uji area, and contributed significantly to establishing the Uji tea as the nation’s first choice for green tea.  

Enshu was who officially bestowed on Tosaku the kiln-soubriquet ‘Asahi’.  And this is why Asahikaki has traditionally been numbered among the ‘seven Enshu kilns’ [Enshu nanagama].

for more history →