about Ako, Hyogo
Ako (赤穂市) is a city located in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
The city was officially founded on September 1, 1951.
The city faces the Inland Sea and salt production was its main industry during the feudal period. Other industries are fishery and tourism thanks to a famous act of vengeance by the Forty-seven Ronin in 1703, featured in the Chushingura.
During the Edo period, Ako was a capital of Ako han. Ako was a small han of 50,000 koku but rich thanks to salt production.
Ako salt is famous for its high quality. Among the former daimyo of Ako was Asano Naganori, the master of the Forty-seven Ronin.
Ako's castle still stands in the center of city today.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unka-Yaki is unique, unglazed pottery created by Koukoku OSHIMA in Ako city in the late Edo period (160 years ago).
The style represented in these pieces is in the most classical sense typical of Japanese pottery.
The beauty of Unka-Yaki is in that the surface design resembles the beauty of an early evening sky.
Because Koukoku OSHIMA had no students and the amount of works he produced were limited, his beatiful work has not seen in public for 100 years.
But we(AKO-SETOUCHI-GAMA) re-created Unka-Yaki in 1987.
and Hyogo Prefecture gave us The "Traditional Crafts, Hyogo" award in 1993.
