The Denrankan ceramic conduits a familiar sight around town for the people of Tokoname. They are re-used for all sorts of purposes they were never intended for, such as umbrella stands, pedestals, and wheel wedges. Among them, Denrankan House stands out from the rest for sheer size and its extraordinary exterior. It was built by the president of Japan’s only ceramic electrical conduit manufacturing company. The tubes would originally have been buried out of sight underground. They are strong and cheap to install, and widely used both in Japan and abroad. Kataoka explains, “They were exhibited this way because he wanted to show people they existed, and what they looked like.” Denrankan embodies that passion for the underground supports of Japan’s infrastructure.”

The lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright’s former Imperial Hotel is now on public display at the Meiji Mura open-air museum in Aichi Prefecture. In addition to its terracotta and Oya stone, the yellow sudare-renga decorative bricks are used as a surfacing material. The sudare-renga, with their gentle color, were made at a special factory set up in Tokoname for the Imperial Hotel project. The makers knew nothing whatsoever about brick-making at first and started from zero. Reflecting on that challenge, Kataoka applauds “their resolve to see the job through regardless, in spite of their inexperience.” The hotel was opened on the very day of the Great Kanto Eathquake but suffered only minimal damage. Learning from that, the combination of ferro-concrete, tiles and bricks continued to spread in Japanese architecture, and Tokoname’s output grew.