Old Journal

Umeshu: Getting To Know Japanese Plum Wine

Fruit wine is a popular alcoholic beverage that has won the hearts of many people. Not to be left out, Japan's own offering - Umeshu - ranks as the second most favored souvenir for foreign tourists...

Japanese Spring Motifs to Know

In Japanese culture, the start of a new year is eagerly awaited with great anticipation and heralded in through the vibrant colors and growth of the season of renewal - that is, the season of Japan...

What is Kutani Sometsuke Style?

Sometsuke is a style that paints a canvas only in indigo pigments. The beauty of this style, which does not rely on a range of colors, is different from that of traditional Kutani ware, and attract...

What is Kutani Akae-Saibyo "Iidaya" style?

Akae-saibyo–red dots and lines with intricate detalization–has an eye-catching, detailed beauty. The artful charm of fine akae-style, with its superb, inimitable technique, is known as the Iidaya-s...

What is Kutani Yoshidaya Style?

Yoshidaya style’s charm is its use of translucent pigment and delicate painting style, as well as its refined, extremely skillfully-drawn pictures. It is painted and covered with yellow glaze–the e...

Musubi Kiln’s Office Tea: Satisfying Our Sweet Tooth with "Table-Style Sado"

For our third office get together, we decided to change things up and try a modern, casual variation of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, otherwise known as “table-style sado”. This style is per...

Ask the Staff: Places to Visit in Spring

Spring in Japan is a season of new beginnings. Children start the school year, companies look for new hires, and cherry blossom trees come into full bloom–coloring cities and parks in a beautiful p...

Hinamatsuri: A Special Day for Girls 

Learn more about the Japanese holiday Hinamatsuri, also known as Peach Festival, which is celebrated on March 3 to wish for the well-being and happiness of young girls.

Interview with an Artist: Kaichiro Yamada - Designer of Hutlery

Tsubame Shinko Industrial is a metal cutlery manufacturer in Tsubame City, Niigata Prefecture. Their refined and elegant cutlery rest brand, Hutlery–a portmanteau that combines the Japanese word fo...

Dining with My Daughter

I still vividly remember those few months when my culinary repertoire was limited to mashed veggies, yogurt and oatmeal with cut bananas. And those sessions of pure frustration of trying to get my ...