Onishi Seiwemon Museum

Highlight

This tea arbor on the 7th floor displays an assortment of tea utensils cored around the hot-water kettle

The more you look the greater the magnetism

This part of Sanjo-dori, known as Kamanza, or kettle trade guild, has been associated with metalworking since the Heian period. The Onishi family, starting with Jorin, has been producing tea ceremony kettles for approximately 400 years, as one of the ten crafts associated with the House of Sen style of tea ceremony. In the studio adjacent to the museum, kettles are still being produced today.
The collection reaches to some 800 items, including original designs like Ashiya-gama and Tenmyo-gama, production equipment like working plans and wooden molds used by successive generations, ancient documents related to the tea guild, and various tea ceremony instruments. These are exhibited in rotation in accordance with planned exhibition themes.
Open twice a year in spring and autumn, the museum also stages tea ceremonies and other related events, which enable visitors to grasp an awareness of the unique allure of kettle surfaces that have been elaborately wrought and organically enhanced by time.