Former Fukko Pottery Works

Former Fukko Pottery Works: A Hasami Porcelain Factory from the 1920s

The Former Fukko Pottery Works (旧福幸製陶所, Kyū Fukkō Seitōsho) is a disused porcelain factory site in Isekigo, Hasami-cho, Nagasaki Prefecture, where an office, a forming workshop and a painting workshop built around 1926, together with the owning family's 1928 main house, were entered on the national register as four Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on February 23, 2012.

Hasami ware is the everyday porcelain of this small inland town on the Saga border, made here for more than 400 years and long sold as cheap, sturdy rice bowls. The kiln behind the Fukko works, Kōzan Tōen, was founded on Nakaoyama in the Kyōhō era of the early 18th century. Nagasaki Prefecture records that the Fukushige family, who ran it, fired pottery in Nakao until the end of the Taishō period and then moved to this site in the early Shōwa years; the people who now manage the site credit the move to Fukushige Takejirō, the eighth head of the house. The name is read Fukkō, not "Fukukō".

The Former Fukko Pottery Works kept firing for ten generations until it closed in 2001. Saikai Toki, a Hasami ceramics company, took over the grounds and turned the old buildings into cafés, galleries and shops without stripping out their frames. The complex is known today as Nishinohara (西の原), and it draws many of the visitors who come to Hasami.

How Work Moved Through the Former Fukko Pottery Works

Hasami built its output on a division of labour: shaping, mould-making, decoration and firing were usually handled by separate workshops. What made the Former Fukko Pottery Works unusual, according to its present managers, is that every stage happened on one plot. Besides the office and the two workshops there was a glaze refinery and a climbing kiln (noborigama). Only the four buildings are registered; the refinery and the kiln are not part of the listing.

The managers describe the route a piece took. It was thrown or shaped in the forming workshop, bisque-fired in the climbing kiln, painted or glazed in the painting workshop, then fired again. Finished ware left from a shipping room by horse-drawn cart.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs entries fill in the buildings themselves. The forming workshop held clay stocks and the shaping benches; the painting workshop was where shaped pieces dried and were decorated. Both are long timber sheds with their ridges running east to west, both 7.7 metres deep, and both carry Truss roof frames. The office stands on the street, and the Fukushige house occupies the neighbouring lot. Nagasaki Prefecture presents all four as a single ensemble of a Hasami kiln owner's house and factory.

The Four Registered Buildings of the Former Fukko Pottery Works

The four buildings were registered together in the 72nd round of registrations, each under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. All four have tiled roofs. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives these figures:

• Office: timber, single-storey with a partial 2nd floor, building area 124 m², owned by Saikai Toki Co., Ltd.
• Forming workshop: single-storey timber building, building area 309 m², owned by Saikai Toki Co., Ltd.
• Painting workshop: single-storey timber building, building area 213 m², owned by Saikai Toki Co., Ltd.
• Fukushige Family Residence Main House: timber, single-storey with a partial 2nd floor, building area 406 m², privately owned according to Nagasaki Prefecture

On May 28, 2012, the Former Fukko Pottery Works was also listed as a townscape asset by Nagasaki Prefecture. The works and the Fukushige house are counted among the component properties of the Japan Heritage story "Hizen, the Birthplace of Japanese Porcelain", which links the pottery towns of the old Hizen province.

Visiting the Former Fukko Pottery Works (Nishinohara)

The grounds of the Former Fukko Pottery Works are open as a shopping and strolling area, and the exteriors can be seen from the paths between the buildings. Three of the four registered buildings, the office and the two workshops, house businesses, so you can step inside as a customer during opening hours. Hours and closing days differ from shop to shop; many close on Wednesdays.

The Fukushige house is a private home and its interior is normally closed. An exhibition was held inside it in October 2025, and occasional events like that are the rare chance to see the rooms.

By car, the site is about 5 minutes from Hasami-Arita Interchange on the Nishi-Kyushu Expressway, or about 15 minutes from Ureshino Interchange on the Nagasaki Expressway. Two shared car parks serve it: 40 spaces next to the grounds and 20 across the road, with a town car park about 2 minutes' walk away for busy days. The nearest railway station is Arita on the JR Sasebo Line, about 15 minutes away by taxi.

We could not confirm a photography policy for the shop interiors. If you want pictures inside the buildings of the Former Fukko Pottery Works, ask the staff first.