Eiraku Family has made furnaces and tea bowls for tea ceremonies through the generations. The current generation is the 17th. From the first to ninth generations, they named themselves Nishimura and mainly made furnaces. From the tenth generation, they have called themselves Eiraku and make tea bowls in addition to furnaces. Their long history was not a smooth sail. Now the family is very well known for making tea bowls. However, there were times they suffered a financial crisis along the way. One time they started to make plates and other utensils in quantity. (for them, quantity meant less than 70-80 of the similar works) If one can find them, they are glorious.
Here is one example. It is a plate with a hand-painted flower design with its signature red color. It is simple, stunningly beautiful. The creators were the artisans led by a master craftsman, the head of the family. Unlike their very fine tea bowls, we can feel the hand and pulse and heart and breath of those artisans.
To live with and use them is a pleasure.