Mt. Fuji incense holder

At a glance

- Mino-yaki ceramic (美濃焼), Gifu, Japan's largest ceramic region with 1,300 years of tradition
- By Wada Kazufumi, fourth-generation head of Craft Keizan; 2020 Traditional Culture Succession Merit Award recipient
- Each piece hand-glazed; colour, form and surface vary naturally

Light an incense cone, and the smoke rises from the peak. It takes a moment to notice, and then you smile.

This incense holder is shaped as a miniature Mt. Fuji, made in Mino-yaki (美濃焼) ceramic by Craft Keizan in Gifu Prefecture. Mino is Japan's largest ceramic-producing region, responsible for roughly half of all tableware made in the country, with a continuous craft history stretching back over 1,300 years. Within that tradition, Wada Kazufumi works as the fourth-generation head of Craft Keizan, a ceramicist whose work has been recognised at national exhibition level and who received the Prefectural Traditional Culture Succession Merit Award in 2020 for his role in keeping Mino's craft alive. Each Fuji is hand-formed and glazed individually; the turquoise and sky tones pool and settle differently on every piece, so no two mountains look quite the same.

Practical enough to use every day. The kind of thing guests notice on the shelf and ask about.