Kintsugi in Kyoto begins with Kiyomizu ware, the bowls worth mending

Kintsugi in Kyoto is easiest to understand from the object upward. The gold repair needs a ceramic to hold, and the city has made ceramics for centuries. The Kyoto Museums Association says Kyoto's pottery goes by the collective name Kyo-yaki, with traditional craft wares sold as Kyo-yaki or Kiyomizu-yaki.¹

JNTO is more generous with the name. About 400 years ago, it writes, Kiyomizu ware was created at the base of Kiyomizu-dera temple, and the name is now used for all pottery made in Kyoto.⁶ It is a kind of stoneware, and because of its fine appearance it is often mistaken for porcelain.⁷ That is worth knowing at the shelf, where a label and a first look can disagree.

That matters to anyone buying a bowl to mend, or breaking one to learn on. A piece of Kyoto ware has a pedigree of kilns, glazes and tea-room habit behind it, so a gold seam on it joins a long tradition of treating the damaged cup as the better one. The next sections follow the pottery from its slope to its present homes, and say where you can still see and buy it today.

Chawan-zaka means, roughly, teacup slope, and it earns the name. The Kyoto City Tourism Association says the streets and alleys between the Kiyomizu temples are filled with souvenir shops for ceramics and other items, because Kiyomizu-yaki was developed there.¹⁵ On Chawan-zaka, close to Kiyomizu Temple, the KONDO Museum shows ceramic works by Yuzo Kondo, a National Living Treasure for his blue and white sometsuke ware.²⁰

The Kyoto Ceramic Center was built in Gojozaka, where Kiyomizu ware originated, to make Kyoto ware more accessible and familiar to the public.²¹ It displays and sells ceramics by Kyoto ceramists, from famous masters to young potters, and hosts demonstrations by them.¹⁶ Stop here for a calm, priced look at what a good bowl costs before you wander the souvenir shops.

A note on labels: JNTO writes that Kiyomizu ware was historically made by unnamed artisans and created for export, while 17th-century Kyo-yaki was signed by artisans and produced for domestic use.²² If you want a signed piece, look at the base; if you want a plain bowl to mend, an unsigned one is fine. Ask the shop which is which, and ask what it is made of.

The kilns had to leave. JNTO says the Kiyomizuyaki Pottery Complex was established in 1962, and the Kyoto City Tourism Association explains that as the residential population grew, the kilns had to move south over the hill behind the temple into Yamashina.^3,9 Even though the potters' kilns no longer burn at the complex, many companies and artisans' shops remain.³

Nearly 70 shops and companies that sell Kiyomizu ware are based at the complex.¹⁷ From Kyoto Station, take the Tokaido-Sanyo Line to Yamashina Station and then a bus, which JNTO says takes about 30 minutes.³⁴ Gallery Rakuchu-Rakugai in Yamashina shows Kiyomizu styles from ceramic artwork to delicate tableware, and at the Unraku-gama kiln you can see production with a phone or email reservation in advance.^37,38

Aim for October. The Kiyomizuyaki no Sato Matsuri pottery festival takes place each year over the third Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the month, with ceramics on sale at steep discounts, pottery demonstrations and local delicacies.^4,19 The Kyoto City Tourism Association adds that Yamashina's festival has over 100 tents of hand-crafted pieces.¹⁸

The Kyoto City Tourism Association treats Gion and Kiyomizu as one area, noting that Kiyomizu-yaki was developed there and that the streets between the temples are filled with souvenir shops.¹⁵ Our Gion workshop sits in the same part of town. The Viator record lists the class as 1.5 hours, with an English-speaking guide and a group of up to 16.

The record also says you repair a ceramic bowl or plate using traditional urushi lacquer and gold powder, and that a plates upgrade is available. That makes the class a fair match for a traditional kintsugi workshop in Kyoto, with the caveat that the record does not say which steps are prepared beforehand, so ask on the day. The class begins at $18 per person.

A neat day follows: a morning at the bench, then lunch, then an easy afternoon on the pottery slope with a sharper eye for what makes a bowl worth mending. You will recognize a seam when you see one, and you will notice the shape of a foot ring, the weight of a rim and the pull of a glaze. Buy one small bowl, and bring it home whole or, perhaps one day, mended.