Nambu Tekki ironware is a specialty of Iwate Prefecture in Northern Japan. I took these photos for a travel story last summer.
This is the oven where they heat the pots and give them a special anti-rust layer of oxidised metal. The technique dates back to the Edo period.
This was also inside the foundry. Hot hot hot. Wish I had gone in winter. I was told that all the restaurants nearby serve salty ramen – to replace salts in the buckets of sweat the workers must produce.
Making Nambu Tekki pots
This guy was taking a well earned break.
Although the company (Oigen) uses modern aluminum casts to produce their own pots they also lend their facilities to local artisans. These two guys were making pots using traditional clay molds.
These are some of Oigen’s colorful teapots.
Nambu Tekki Ironware, Aug 2008 – Images by Tony McNicol
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