Hagi is a quiet, quaint town with a history of Samurai, Feudal Lords and the culture and art which is often associated with castle towns. Our day begins with good fortune of being both a Sunday and the beginning of Cultural week in Japan! So as we tour the Shoin-jinja we are able to enjoy many families dressed in kimono as they stroll along the Shrine grounds dedicated to Shoin Yoshida, the scholar and Shomon shrine dedicated to his students. This is a beautiful place but certainly seeing so many visitors dressed traditionally adds a magic to the day. We are able to visit the Kagetsuro (teahouse) which was designed by Fuhaku Kawakami, the founder of Edosenke school of the tea ceremony. 
After strolling along wonderfully preserved streets we find ourselves inside the residence of Tsunahiro Mori, the second lord of the Mori clan. This is one of the largest among these beautiful Samurai homes with perfectly simple yet intricate gardens. Our next stop is the Daishoin Temple, built by Tsunahiro Mori as a family temple dedicated to Hidenari, the first Mori lord. All of the even-numbered lords were subsequently buried here with the odd numbered buried at Toko-ji Shrine, considered the greatest temples of the Obaku-school in Japan. Both have over 500 stone lanterns leading up to the graves and both have been designated as national cultural properties. As beautiful as these places are it is now time to enjoy the Hagi Uragami Museum. Established by Toshiro Uragami this collection includes about 5,000 ukiyoe prints and about 400 ceramic pieces. Of course the collection is wonderful but it is enhanced again by visitors dressed for cultural week in traditional kimono. There are some wonderful books in this museum store and as much as we try to resist adding the weight to our travels we seem to always add a few books along the way and today is no exception. 
After seeing so many wonderful ceramics our desire to search for a few of our own it peeked. Hagiyaki (pottery from Hagi) is perhaps what this lovely town is now best know for. Hagiyaki have been beloved by tea masters for a long time, originated between 1592 and 1598 when Hideyoshi Toyotomi fought several battles in Korea. The tea ceremony played an important role in politics in those days as the great tea master Sen-no-Rikyu (some times referred to as the father of tea in Japan) completed “Wabi-cha” his philosophy of tea. Wabi-cha was very popular among the feudal lords and Korean teabowls were highly prized. Later Terumoto Mori brought two potters; Lee Jak Kwang and Lee Kyung to Hagi from Korea. The potters built a kiln and produced teaware for the Mori clan. Lee Kyung was given a Japanese name, Koraizaemon Saka in 1625 an appointed as the official clan potter, in 1663 two others were designated, Kyusetsu Miwa and Hanroku Saeki. Saka’s kiln, called Matsumotoyaki, made pottery only for the lords of the clan while Matsumoto’s divided kiln, in Otsu County, called Sounoseyaki, made pottery for everyone else.
Kyusetsu Miwa having studied under Saka and then refining the style further in Kyoto was designated as a national living cultural treasure. After the Meiji era Matsumotoyaki and Sounoseyaki both were simply called Hagiyaki and today remains highly collectable in Japan and beyond.
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