​To strengthen Tajimi City's efforts to attract inbound tourists, the Tajimi Inbound Project team (TIP) was formed in collaboration with the Tajimi Tourism Association, Tajimi City and local businesses). Tajimi is a pottery town well known in Japan for it’s Mino ware ceramics. The TIP  team is aiming to develop exciting travel experiences and share them with foreign travellers. Discover these fantastic establishments, including eateries, museums, kilns, and shops, that are thrilled to welcome visitors from all around the world. We have included a customised Google Map for your convenience.
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Koubeigama Kiln & Ceramics Museum

​Kobeigama Pottery, founded in 1804, has been producing ceramics and porcelain for generations. Takuo Kato, the sixth generation's potter, was designated a living national treasure by the Japanese government. Well, would you believe it? Two stars were bestowed upon the Mino Ceramic Village and museum by the Michelin Green Guide!
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Mino Ceramic Art Museum

​A wide variety of Mino ceramics, including Shino, Oribe, Setoguro, and Kiseto, as well as pieces by contemporary artists and Tajimi's Living National Treasures, are on display at Tajimi's Mino Ceramic Art Museum. The museum also offers a more relaxed tea experience, with a selection of bowls featuring both traditional and contemporary styles. About four or five times a year, the museum hosts both permanent and special exhibitions.

Mosaic Tile Museum, Tajimi

Upper floor of the tile museum

​There are workshops, special exhibitions, and a collection of up to 10,000 tiles kept by local volunteers at the Mosaic Tile Museum. The museum's crown jewels are the unique Terunobu Fujimori-designed structure and the breathtaking upper-level exhibition space. You just must visit these! On Mondays, the museum is closed. The museum will be open on Mondays for national holidays and closed the following weekdays. The museum is closed on December 29 and January 3, the following year.
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Toshin Mino Ceramic Art Museum

​The Tōshin Mino Ceramic Art Museum opened in May 2015 as part of the Tōshin Manabi-no-Oka. Tōno Shinkin Bank built this facility to foster local human resources and promote Mino ceramic art culture. It features a circular building built around a native longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) tree. We invite you to take your time and appreciate the masterpieces of Mino ceramics. Admission is free.
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IRISE antique

​The shop sells antiques from France and other European countries, as well as Japanese antiques and other items purchased on trips to various countries. The gallery space 'roots' on the second floor regularly holds exhibitions of works by artists from a variety of genres. Several times a month, various restaurants use the kitchen on the first floor to serve delicious meals and cakes.
Opening times are subject to change; for specific opening days, check the Instagram profile.

THE GROUND MINO

The ceramics shop in Ground Mino

​The Ground MINO is a studio village that focuses on soil expression through various areas like stores, restaurants, galleries, and laboratories. It offers a variety of activities, including a ceramics studio, a shared kitchen, and a photo studio. The shop offers Mino ceramic artists' works and seasonal themes. The KURA Art Space showcases clay-based art, while the Ceramics Studio produces original vessels. The event terrace hosts monthly events like the "Soil, Nature, and Life Marché," and the MA-RU Drop Pit collects unwanted ceramics and porcelain for new users.
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Azuchi-Momoyama Touji no Sato Voice-Kobo

​Azuchi-Momoyama Touji no Sato Voice-Kobo (The Azuchi-Momoyama Ceramic Village Voice Studio)  offers a pottery making experience in a relaxing atmosphere surrounded by the park's seasonal scenery. The workshop offers hands-on courses in potter's wheel, hand-building, and mould making, with about twenty different glazes available. Staff members handle shape and glazing, making pottery an easy experience for beginners. The studio also offers an introduction course for serious pottery learners, allowing them to express their individuality through experimenting with different forms and techniques. Ticketed courses are also available, and the facility also hosts seasonal event courses and wood-fired kiln firing events.
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​Utsuwa Store Takagi (Marumo Takagi)

Maruma Takagi's hot and warm series changes colour with the temperature of the liquid poured into the cup. Here "hot" cups that change from no colour (bottom) to coloured (top).

​Marumo Takagi Pottery, whose "Cold and Warm" series—"tableware that changes with temperature"—became famous, has a directly operated store here.
They are spreading the beauty of dinnerware from Tajimi City, the birthplace of Mino ware.
All of Japan's pottery, not just Mino ware, is part of their inventory.
From everyday dinnerware to artwork by living national treasures and young, active artists, they have it all.

KAMAYA

​"Beautiful living."
Since 1877, three row houses on Honmachi Oribe Street, which was lined with Mino ware merchant houses from the Meiji era to the early Showa era, have seen the changing times and have been reborn as Kamaya Tajimi. Kamaya Tajimi is home to shopkeepers who deal in goods that enrich people's hearts and minds in their daily lives. Their aim is to create a facility where visitors can experience the delicate flow of time in their daily lives through the products and the interaction with the shopkeepers.

Nanayosha

A sampling of porcelain accessories from Nanayosha

​A shop directly managed by Nanayosha (porcelain accessories). You can also try your hand at making accessories. Visitors can also enjoy factory tours. During the factory tour, you can see the tile production site and the dry press moulding production process. (Reservations required)
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Michisakari

The Michisakari shop in Kasahara, Tajimi

This brewery's dry "Karakuchi Michisakari" struggled after World War II, whereas sweet sake was popular. Company employees and outsiders suggested "making it sweeter.". Others advised us not to change the flavour. We thought, "Let us make dry, soft, easy-to-drink sake." Since then, they have worked hard to make this drink. A water-like sake with a characteristic sake flavour and relaxing effect. This sake is excellent!
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Tajimi City Cultural Atelier Gallery Voice

​Gallery Voice has a mission to highlight ceramic artists through exhibitions. The artists who work with clay are able to convey their perspective and way of life.
Also, the gallery aims to spread information about art and craft. Be a place to gather people of different backgrounds and interact with artists through symposiums and lectures.

Tajimi Station Information Centre

​​Tajimi's town walking events start here. The information centre provides comprehensive tourist information. It distributes sightseeing pamphlets and maps of the area, sells Tajimi souvenirs, the local mascot "Unagappa" goods, and more.
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Hiraku Building
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Home to the Tajimi Tourism Association. Hiraku Building is a facility located in Nagase Shopping Street, a 5-minute walk from JR Tajimi Station, Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture. The building was formerly a shop selling jewellery, glasses, and watches. Tajimi Machizukuri Company renovated it and turned it into a brand-new building with a bookstore, coffee shop, shared office space, and rental rooms. The building was named "Hiraku Building" ("Open Building") in the hope that the future of the city and the possibilities of its visitors will "open up" from this location.
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Yama No Hana

​Yama No Hana stocks a range of ceramic objects, from durable tableware to fine art sculptural ceramics. The pieces have been curated so you may enjoy the abundance of individual artisans styles, the variety of manufacturing methods, and the quality of ceramics that come from Tajimi. Yama No Hana aims to connect people to ceramics, tableware to lifestyles, and makers to users. They hope to create a space where these interactions can unfold organically, allowing people to engage with the historic ceramics.
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Ichinokura Sakazuki Art Museum

​In addition to approximately 1,500 delicate sake cups from the late Edo period to the Showa period, the museum also exhibits works by local master ceramic artists Arakawa Toyozo, Kato Toukarou, and Kato Takuo.
The spacious museum store displays and sells the works of 100 artists, including ceramics, woodwork, and metalwork. The "Gallery Sora" holds special exhibitions. At the Koubei Kiln Pottery Museum, you can try pottery making, painting, and mosaic tile making. Check out the restaurant with stone oven pizza!

Honmachi Oribe Street

​During the Meiji and early Showa eras, the economic centre of Tajimi was Honmachi Street, which was lined with wholesalers of Mino ceramics. The Mino ceramics were transported all across the empire in rickshaws and horse-drawn carriages. In 1900, when the railway between Tajimi and Nagoya was constructed, ceramic traders would travel across the country with large suitcases filled with sample Mino porcelain, expanding the market dominance of Mino ware. Warehouses and merchants' homes from bygone eras can be discovered even now.
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​Suigetsu-gama kiln

Ceramic pieces in the Suigetsugama shop

​Toyozō Arakawa (1894–1985), a man of immense legendary fame in Japan, established the Suigetsu Kiln in 1948. He built kilns to make this Japanese dinnerware, which is meant to soothe the heart. Mino was the traditional name of the province where Tajimi is located, and Arakawa was honoured by the government as a living national treasure for her discovery that Shino and Oribe glazed art from the Momoyama and early Edo eras in Japan had been created there.
The Suigetsu Kiln has been using the same production methods since 1946, and they're now recognised as valuable cultural assets of Tajimi City.

HO-CA Pottery Retreat

A student from Singapore getting ready to fire her pieces

​Guests may stay at the Home of Clay Arts (HO-CA) and learn about pottery making at the same time. Travellers from far and wide flock to the studio for its multicultural vibe and the laid-back, creative environment where everybody can be themselves.
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Romantei Uoseki

​For over a century, the proprietors of this eel restaurant in Tajimi, the ceramics town, have taken great delight in grilled eels. The eel meals are grilled in the traditional Kansai style without steaming, which gives them an incomparable texture and taste. Members of the Imperial family have enjoyed our fragrant and crispy eel, and some people even think this is the natural flavour of eel. For a century, guests have delighted in Uoseki's grilled eel dishes, Shiroyaki and Kabayaki. Ponzu, a kind of Japanese citrus juice, elevates the taste and highlights the natural flavour of the eel.
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Kokeizan Eihoji Temple

​Built in 1313, Kokeizan Ehoji is a temple of the Nanzenji school of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. The Kannon-Do hall, home to the Goddess of Mercy, and the Kaisando-Do hall, where statues and tablets of founding monks are kept, are recognised as national treasures. The garden, famous for its stunning autumn colours, was created by the founder, Musō Soseki, and is a hidden gem in the area. It is a place of national beauty. Musō Soseki was a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and teacher, a calligraphist, poet, and garden designer. The most famous monk of his time, he is also known as Musō Kokushi, an honorific conferred on him by Emperor Go-Daigo.