Location: Otsu
Top Things to do in Otsu
What to do and see in Otsu, Kinki: The Best Specialty Museums
Ōtsu (大津市, Ōtsu-shi) is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Ōtsu is known as the main port of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. It briefly served as the capital of Japan from 667 to 672 AD during the Asuka period (538 – 710). The city is home to numerous sites of historical importance, notably the temples of Mii-dera, Ishiyama-dera, and Enryaku-ji and the Hiyoshi Taisha shrine. Enryaku-ji is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)". Ōtsu was incorporated as a city on October 1, 1898.
Restaurants in Otsu
1. Lake Biwa Cultural Center
2. Otsu Festival Hikiyama Exhibition Pavilion
3. Zezeyaki Museum
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The Zeze-yaki Museum was established in 1987 by the potter Shinjo Iwasaki for public display of his family's collection of Zeze-yaki and other Shiga-area pottery and tea ceremony utensils from the Edo period and later. Zeze-yaki is a style of pottery for tea ceremony use, which was made from the seventeenth century on the grounds of Zeze Castle and was revived in the 20th century. It is characteristically very thin with blackish tinges from iron glazing. The museum has a permanent display of old Zeze-yaki and changing exhibits of other tea ceremony pottery and utensils. There is a garden and tea-house on the grounds, and visitors are invited to receive tea prepared and served, with a sweet, in the ceremonial manner. New Zeze-yaki tea-ware is regularly fired in a kiln on the grounds and available for purchase, and there is a shop outside the museum selling Zeze-yaki dishes and cups for ordinary use.
