Tozan Shrine

Tozan Shrine sits on a hillside above Arita's old porcelain district and is dedicated in part to Sueyama Myojin, worshipped locally as a guardian deity of the ceramics industry, reflecting the town's identity as the birthplace of Japanese porcelain since the early 1600s. What sets the shrine apart from typical Shinto shrines elsewhere in Saga is that several of its structures are made from porcelain rather than stone or wood: a large blue-and-white porcelain torii gate stands at the shrine's approach, and a pair of porcelain komainu guardian dogs, along with porcelain lanterns, flank the grounds, all produced by local Arita kilns rather than the granite typically used elsewhere in Japan. The shrine grounds are compact, built up a short flight of stone steps overlooking rows of traditional kiln-town houses and old brick chimneys below, giving a good vantage point for photographing Arita's historic Uchiyama district. A visit takes only 20 to 30 minutes, making it an easy stop combined with a walk along Arita's main pottery shopping street or a visit to the nearby Kyushu Ceramic Museum. The shrine is busiest during the Arita Ceramics Fair in late April and early May, when the surrounding streets fill with pottery stalls, but is otherwise quiet, especially on weekday mornings when the porcelain torii gate can be photographed without other visitors in frame.