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Tsuboya Yachimun Street

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

TsuboyayachimunNahashisaclimbing kiln

Okinawa · Naha

26.2137°N, 127.6906°E

Tsuboya Yachimun Street is worth visiting even if you don't plan to buy anything — the process is the point.

In 1682 the Ryukyu kingdom consolidated its scattered kilns into one district in Naha, and Tsuboya has been making pottery ever since. The street is about four hundred metres of low buildings, shisa on every roof and gatepost, kiln shops, and workshops that still throw and glaze on the premises — one of the few parts of central Naha with a pre-war grain to it.

The last standing climbing kiln, the Nan-ya, is at the eastern end. It has not been fired since smoke regulations ended wood-firing in the city — which is why most of the potters moved to Yomitan in the 1970s — but it is preserved and can be walked around freely, with a café beside it selling Okinawan sweets. The municipal pottery museum at the top of the street explains the whole history for ¥350.

What to know before you go

Cost

Street free | Tsuboya Pottery Museum ¥350 general, free for university students and under | Nan-ya kiln free to view

Time to allow

1.5–2 hours

Workshop hours

Street open at all times | Museum and shops keep their own hours

Closed: Varies by shop

When to go

Year-round

How to reach the workshop

Access notes

Tsuboya, Naha. About a short walk west from Asato Station on the Okinawa monorail via Route 330, from the Tsuboya bus stop, or by car from Naha Airport. The street is free to walk. The Naha City Tsuboya Pottery Museum at Tsuboya charges ¥350 for general admission, free for university students and under, with a 20 per cent discount on presentation of a monorail day pass; phone. The Nan-ya climbing kiln can be viewed freely.

Beyond the guidebook

**See the Nan-ya kiln.** The last surviving climbing kiln in Tsuboya, no longer fired, freely viewable at the eastern end with a café alongside. It is the reason the potters left for Yomitan. **Go into the museum first.** ¥350, free for students, and it explains the 1682 consolidation and the difference between the glazed and unglazed traditions before you start looking at shop shelves. **Look at the shisa.** Tsuboya makes them and the street is the best place in Okinawa to see the range, from crude roof guardians to elaborate paired figures. **Compare with Yomitan.** Tsuboya is the old urban district; Yachimun no Sato is where the wood-firing went. Seeing both makes the split legible. **Seven minutes from the monorail.** Asato Station, and it connects to Kokusai-dori, which makes this the easiest genuinely old quarter to reach in Naha.

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