Komatsu City Nishikigama Exhibition Hall

The Kutani Studio of Three Generations of Tokuda Yasokichi

The Komatsu City Nishikigama Exhibition Hall (小松市立錦窯展示館, Komatsu Shiritsu Nishikigama Tenjikan) is the former home and studio of the Kutani potter Tokuda Yasokichi in Daimonji-machi, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, whose main house, kiln shed and stone storehouse were registered in 2019 as three Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main house and kiln shed to about 1933 and the stone storehouse to about 1965, all renovated in 1998 and owned by Komatsu City.

Komatsu City notes that it was the birthplace of the third Tokuda Yasokichi, a Living National Treasure, and the studio where the first three generations painted overglaze Kutani ware. The buildings date from 1933, after the great Kyonan fire.

Layout of the Premises

According to the Agency, the main house faces west across a forecourt to the street: two storeys, gabled and pantiled, with an earth-floored area on the south of the ground floor and four rooms including the shop and reception room on the north. The seven upper rooms served as the overglaze painting workshop.

The kiln shed south of the main house is a two-storey gabled building facing the street. Inside is a stone-paved floor; the east side rises open through both floors with two overglaze kilns, large and small, and the west holds firewood below and storage above.

The stone storehouse in the southeast corner, a former store for finished pieces, is a single-storey gable-entry building of Kannonshita stone, with a torii-style frame and iron door at the entrance. Its fluted and chamfered stonework is carefully made, giving the back of the premises a firm finish.

The Life of a Kutani Workshop

The Agency values the main house as a modern Japanese-style residence conveying the life of a Kutani workshop, and the kiln shed as a rare surviving example of its kind.

With painting rooms upstairs in the house, the overglaze kilns in the shed and finished pieces in the stone store, the stages of Kutani overglaze work can be read in the layout of the buildings.

Komatsu City notes that it stands in Daimonji-machi, where old Komatsu townscapes survive, and now displays the kilns, fine Kutani pieces including Ko-Kutani, and works by successive Tokuda Yasokichi.

Visiting the Nishikigama Exhibition Hall

Komatsu City says it is open as an affiliated facility of the Komatsu City Museum; check opening days and admission on the exhibition hall's website.

Enquiries: Komatsu City Museum, 0761-22-0714.