Ichiyama

Who is Ichiyama?

We have not found a public company history, workshop website or association listing for a maker or brand called Ichiyama. What we do have is our own product record: one Ichiyama listing states plainly that the piece is made in Toki, in Japan's Mino ware district, the pottery region of eastern Gifu Prefecture that also gives us Mino ware. We are naming that gap rather than filling it, since a maker's own account is the source this page would normally lead with, and here it does not exist for us to check.

What glazes turn up across the range?

Two named glazes recur in the listings we carry: Kiseto and Yohen. Kiseto is one of the historical glaze families with roots in the Momoyama-era Mino kilns, generally described as a pale, yellow-toned surface; our Mino ware hub covers the style in full, and our own Ichiyama Kiseto bowl carries that same pale surface on a handled, shallow shape. Yohen is different: it names a kiln-altered finish rather than a fixed colour, and as our own listing for the Yohen plate puts it, the kiln changes the glaze differently in every firing, so no two pieces land the same. Cracked-glaze, striped and hand-painted checkerboard finishes fill out the rest of what we carry.

What does Ichiyama sell today?

The plates and bowls we carry from Ichiyama are stoneware and porcelain tableware sized for everyday use rather than display. The Chrysanthemum Cut Plate is hand-painted with fine blue lines over a bluish-white body and a rust-coloured rim, the piece our production claim comes from. The Kiseto Handled Bowl takes that pale yellow glaze onto a shallow bowl built for salads and snacks. The Yohen Gray Plate carries the kiln-altered grey finish described above. The Tokusa Shallow Plate uses the tokusa striped pattern on a flat shape meant for showing food rather than mounding it. The Old Dyed Checkered Plate carries a traditional Japanese checkerboard motif on a dinner-sized plate. What is actually in stock shifts as pieces sell through, so treat this list as a sample rather than the whole range.

How do you look after it?

Our own listings carry the care instructions piece by piece rather than one rule for the whole range: most say Ichiyama pieces are dishwasher and microwave safe, but the hand-painted Chrysanthemum Cut Plate is hand wash only and kept out of the microwave, since painted overglaze work is more easily worn by both. When in doubt, wash a piece the gentle way, by hand in warm water, and avoid moving it straight from a fridge into a hot oven or microwave, the kind of sudden temperature change that can crack a glaze on any ceramic.