In 1860, Maeda Toshika 14th Lord of Daishoji Han established the Bussan Office
in order to expand the local business. He bought the Miyamoto kiln which was
located in Echutani in Yamashiro village, which had been closed few years
ago. He lend the necessary money to Mifuji Bunjiro and Fujiake Yasoki rom
Yamashiro in order to restore the Miyamoto kiln.
However they did not succeed very well. Maeda called Kisaki Manki and also
get advice from Tohoshiba Yama who was the leader of the Han renovation. They
decided in 1862 to call a specialist, Eiraku Wazen the 12th from Kyoto, who
was a famous potter.
The period at end of Edo, beginning of Meiji was very confused, and only a
few years later, in 1865, Wazen came to Yamashiro with his brother in law
Nishimura Sozaburo.
Wazen was very active at Kutanihon kiln and made a lot of pottery. At the
same time he worked also in the kiln of his student Kisaki Manki.
He stayed 5 years in Yamashiro and in 1869 returned to Kyoto. Even so he stayed
only for a short period but he produced potteries in many different styles
such as Iga , Nanban, copies of Korean wares, Kinrande, Gosuakae which is
a Chinese style red paint, Manteki or Chinese style and some-tsuke.
Wazen was certainly one of the best potter, but as far as management of Kutanihon
kiln and expansion of business are concerned, he did nothing special.
The year when Wazen returned to Kyoto, Kutanihon kiln was sold to Tsukatani
Sen .
The names used for Wazen production are made at Kasugayama by Zengoro, made
by Eiraku at Kasugayama, made at Kutani by Eiraku.
Stamps such as Kasugayama or Eiraku were also used for making of wood boxes
as well.Eiraku came from Kyoto with a master in wood boxes. At that times,
there were many boxes which are marked with burning stamp as Chin Sai.
Today Eiraku the 16th is continuing in Kyoto to make the original traditional
wares of his family. Therefore since 400 years, many ceramics have been made
and bear the seal of Eiraku potters. Also many different styles have been
produced. There is one particular Kutani type of ware which has been largely
produced and copied such as sake cup or small table wares, small plates etc.
These wares have a red ground glaze with gold designs which is often combined
with sometsuke or under the glaze blue and white decoration. These wares have
been produced until recently.