Most styles of Japanese pottery are named after the city where they are made, such as Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture, while others bear a family name, such as Raku. However, one style of pottery is named after a place that had nothing do to with its production.
Korean bowl of ko-Mishima style, 15th-16th-century Yi Dynasty
Edo Period chawan with calendar motif
Mishima Oke, an o-meibutsu from the 15th-16th centuryMishima is a city in Shizuoka Prefecture that boasts splendid views of Mount Fuji and is known chiefly as a gateway to Hakone and the Izu Peninsula. As far back as 1636, there was a certain calendar published at the Grand Shrine of Mishima (Mishima Taisha) written in little squiggly kana lines. Because the "rope curtain" designs of 15th-16th century Korean Punch'ong stoneware resembled the lines of the calendar, works of this pattern came to be known as Mishima.
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