An Illustrated Japan / Saga / Culture & Tradition

Arita Tonbai Walls

Also written: 有田のトンバイ塀 · 有田的耐火砖墙

A backstreet lined with distinctive walls made by packing discarded refractory bricks (tonbai) and ceramic shards into red clay. This historic streetscape is a popular reminder of Arita’s long pottery heritage.

Saga Kyushu-Okinawa Culture & Tradition

About this place

Arita Tonbai Walls represent an ingenious reuse heritage in Arita, Saga, where discarded refractory bricks (tonbai) and broken firing supports from noborigama climbing kilns are mortared with reddish clay into lanes winding behind the Arita Uchiyama Preservation District of Important Traditional Buildings. Since the early 17th century, when Korean potter Yi Sam-pyeong discovered porcelain stone at Izumiyama, Arita has burned countless kilns, generating vast amounts of heat-resistant bricks each time a kiln was rebuilt. Instead of discarding them, craftsmen stacked them into walls topped with shards, creating patterns that shimmer with flecks of blue celadon, white and iron-brown. The best-preserved lanes lie behind the Arita Ceramic Art Museum (1874) and on the way to Tozan Shrine with its porcelain torii, where morning shadows highlight the rugged yet warm surfaces and a small brook gurgles beneath maples. Walking this backstreet circuit of about 400-plus metres feels like a gallery of sustainable architecture, recounting 400 years of industrial life, now popular among photographers and pottery enthusiasts who notice the eco wisdom and have boosted awareness of the town's zero-waste ethic. The walls embody the pottery town's unique townscape distinct from shopfronts of Arita Porcelain Lab Café where goodoufu set meals are served.