Cho Kenko
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Chô Kenkô's grave-mound, in Midori-ga-oka Park near Miebashi, in Naha
- Died: 1638/7/12
- Other Names: 一六 (Ichiroku), 仲地麗伸 (Nakachi Reishin)
- Japanese/Korean: 張献功 (Chou Kenkou / Jang Heon-gong)
Chô Kenkô is the Japanese reading of the name of a Korean potter who came to serve the royal court of the Ryûkyû Kingdom.
He was among a number of Korean potters abducted from Korea and brought to Kagoshima during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Korean Invasions in the 1590s. In 1616, he and two other Korean potters similarly abducted, known in Japanese as Ikkan 一官 and Sankan 三官, were invited to journey to Ryûkyû, to share ceramics techniques there. Ikkan and Sankan later returned to Satsuma, but Chô Kenkô remained in Ryûkyû, taking on the name Nakachi Reishin, and being granted a residence in Wakuta village.
His tomb can be found today in Midori-ga-oka Park, near Miebashi Station in Naha.
References
- Plaque at Miebashi Station
- "Chô Kenkô," Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia 沖縄コンパクト事典, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.
