Three small towns, a few minutes apart by car, hold the entire story of Haremono. Seto is where our founder grew up. Wake is where one of our artisans still works from his family's workshop. Imbe, in Bizen City, is where the tradition itself began. None of it makes sense without the others.
Imbe: Where Bizen Ware Began
Bizen ware traces back over a thousand years to Imbe, the district of Bizen City regarded as its point of origin. It is one of Japan's oldest ceramic traditions, and unlike most, it has never adopted glaze. In the late 16th century, the tea master Sen no Rikyū embraced Bizen ware's natural, unglazed character in the tea ceremony, and that same understated character still defines it today.
Hozangama, one of Imbe's kilns, has been run by the same family for nineteen generations. The kiln's own mark, a fan-shaped stamp used to identify its work, has been traced to a large jar from the late Muromachi period, making it one of the oldest documented kiln marks still in use.
Bizen ware has been made in Imbe for so long that the kiln marks outlive the memory of who first carved them.
Wake: A Quieter Neighbor
A short drive from Imbe is Wake, close enough to share Bizen's clay, firing tradition, and unhurried pace, but distinct enough to hold its own workshops and families of makers. It is hill-bound, quiet country, the kind of place where a family pottery can run for three generations without needing to explain itself to anyone passing through.
This is where one of Haremono's artisans, Yutaka Nakai, still works from the same workshop his father built, a family business now three generations deep.
Seto: Where Haremono Began
Haremono's founder, Hiroki, grew up in Seto, a small town in Okayama minutes from Bizen. Compared to the ceramics around him, Bizen ware always felt different: its natural texture and raw character set it apart from anything else he saw growing up.
He later saw Bizen ware treated more as art than something to use, admired but rarely touched. That distance between the tradition and daily life is what Haremono was created to close.
Why the Region Matters
None of these three towns could tell Haremono's story alone. Imbe gave the tradition its history and its kilns. Wake gave it a family still practicing that history today. Seto gave it a founder who grew up close enough to see what Bizen ware could be, and far enough to notice what it wasn't yet: something people actually used.