Japan's ceramic capital — Karatsu ware, a seaside castle, and Korea just over the horizon
Karatsu is a small port city in northern Kyushu facing the Korea Strait — one of Japan's most celebrated pottery centres, famous for the rough, earthy Karatsu-yaki ceramics that have been prized by tea masters since the 16th century. The city is also home to Karatsu Castle, a clifftop fortification with fine views across the bay and back to the pine forest of Niji-no-Matsubara (Rainbow Pine Forest), one of Japan's three finest coastal pine groves. Korea is literally visible on clear days.
Karatsu's name means 'Tang port' (the Chinese Tang dynasty) — it was the main gateway to the Korean peninsula and China throughout Japan's medieval period. Korean potters brought to Japan after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea (1592–1598) established the Karatsu ceramic tradition, producing the distinctively rustic, functional ware that Sen no Rikyū and subsequent tea masters preferred over more formal Chinese imports. The Karatsu domain prospered under the Ogasawara and Mizuno clans through the Edo period.