Simply Native

13/10/2026

Field 1.0 SAMIDORI is now available. 🍵

Our first ever single-cultivar matcha: Samidori, grown on the field in Kyotanabe by Uejima Noriyasu of Uejima Sourokuen.

Planted five years ago, this is the field’s very first harvest.

We’ve spent the past week sharing it with friends who know their matcha, the same words kept coming back: aromatic, deeply nutty, sweet and savoury, and a green so vivid you’ll want to look before you drink. We may be biased, but it could be one of the best bowls we’ve tasted this year.

Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered. To everyone else: it’s yours to try now, while it lasts.

One field, one cultivar, one first harvest. Link in bio.

11/10/2026

In Imbe, a small town in Okayama, brick chimneys rise above the rooftops, and red pine sits stacked in the yards, drying for half a year before it meets the fire.

This is where Bizen-yaki has been made for centuries. There is no glaze, no paint and no pattern added by hand. There is only local clay, wood fire and time.

And yet a single kiln can give you a whole vocabulary of colour. Potters have names for each one. Goma 胡麻 is ash that melts into glossy speckles like scattered sesame. Botamochi 牡丹餅 is a soft round mark left where a small piece rested on a larger one. Hidasuki 緋襷 is a streak of flame-red where rice straw once wrapped the clay. Sangiri 桟切り is the smoky ash-blue and grey of pieces buried in charcoal. Each one depends on where a piece sat in the kiln, how the flame moved and how the ash fell. The potter can guide it, but never fully decide it.

At Shibaoka Tosendo, the Shibaoka family has worked with this clay since 1912. Behind the gallery are two kilns. In the courtyard, clay is wedged by hand, the same way the current generation potter watched his grandfather and father do it as a child.

What we have with us now are hidasuki and sangiri: one warm and bright, the other quiet and deep. Hold one and you can feel the fire in it. The surface is matte and slightly rough, it warms in your palm, and it softens with every use.

No two pieces are the same, choose the one that feels like yours. We’re enjoying Field 1.0 Samidori here in the beautiful, slightly iridescence Bizenyaki Chawan.

With us at Goulburn Street and online.

06/10/2026

29/09/2026

We’ve been missing Com-ion.

Since it opened, we’ve spent quite a bit of time there. Lunches at HiTOHi, coffee by the river, looking through ceramics, catching up with friends, workshops.

Com-ion sits in a 110-year-old machiya in Higashiyama, bringing together HiTOHi, ほとり (Hotori), TOKINOHA and Soil work.

HiTOHi is one of our favourites. We’ve spent many day and nights there, enjoying food cooked over an open fire and slowly working our way through their sake list.

At Hotori, we always end up at the window, right by the Shirakawa River. Coffee, ducks swimming past, and nowhere else we particularly need to be. We also particularly loves the little pantry selection there (which stocks a few pieces from Amami!).

Then there’s TOKINOHA, which is especially close to us. With deep roots in Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-yaki tradition, TOKINOHA is thinking not only about preserving the craft, but about where it goes next. Supporting the next generation of ceramic makers is a big part of what they do.

TOKINOHA is part of the Simply Native collection, and we’re excited to be bringing more of their work to Australia from early 2027.

And then there’s Chiyumi (spot her in slide 5), our dear friend and one of the people behind Com-ion. She has an amazing eye, and many of the much-loved antiques at Simply Native have been sourced by Chiyumi through her travels around Japan and visits to antique markets.

For those staying in Kyoto a little longer, Soil work is the coworking space within Com-ion. It’s a pretty special place to work, surrounded by all the things happening around you.

Workshops, food, ceramics, people making things, eating, working and catching up. It doesn’t feel like somewhere made for tourists, and that’s probably what we love most about it.

If you find yourself wandering around Kyoto, drop by. Grab a bite, sit by the river, browse the ceramics, join a workshop, get some work done, or stay for a while.

Maybe we’ll see you there 😉

📍 Com-ion, 382-1 Horiikecho, Higashiyama, Kyoto

17/09/2026

Gessho 月照

Meaning “moonlight”, Gessho is Ryuouen’s seasonal matcha, available only from August through October.

Extremely aromatic, with so many layers unfolding. A gentle, intentional bitterness comes first, quickly transforming into deep umami and a lingering sweetness.

Traditionally served as an usucha, a few of us are also enjoying it as koicha, served in the Kuro Raku bowl. Raku ware has a particularly close relationship with tea, traditionally hand-shaped and fired individually for the tea ceremony. The deep black glaze of Kuro Raku creates a striking contrast with the vivid green of matcha, while the simple, intimate form is particularly suited to holding and drinking tea.

There’s something fitting about enjoying Gessho in the darkness of a Kuro Raku bowl this moon viewing season.

09/09/2026

We were looking for an artisan to make us a giant chasen.

That’s how we met Masaki Ariyama.

Through Yukino’s friends in Japan, we were introduced to Masaki in Takayama, Nara, the birthplace of the Japanese tea whisk.

Not long ago, making chasen wasn’t something Masaki had planned to do.

His grandfather had spent more than 50 years making tea utensils under the name Meichikuen. The name disappeared from active production after the family workshop closed in the mid-2000s.

Now, Masaki is bringing Meichikuen back on his own terms.

He is learning from his father, and from Tango Tanimura, the 20th-generation chasen master of Takayama.

When we first visited in January, Masaki was still learning kezuri, one of the most important stages of chasen making. You will see his father here completing this step.

Today, he can complete the entire process himself.

It takes him a full day to complete one piece.

We’ve been lucky enough to watch this unfold from quite close by.

A family craft that went silent for a while, and is now being picked up again, one chasen at a time.

This month, we’ve begun to share Masaki’s work at Simply Native, with 3 of his handmade black bamboo chasen available each month.

And yes, the giant Chasen will make appearances here and there, or you could come see it at our shop.

23/08/2026

We taste, compare, and taste again.

Thoughtfully sourcing for select hospitality partners across Australia, our wholesale collection has grown from a long and ongoing search for matcha, specialty tea powders and ingredients we believe are worth sharing, each selected for its character, balance, and how it shows up in the bowl.

Here’s a curated selection from our wider collection for our retail customers too, Matcha and Hojicha chosen not simply by grade, but by flavour, season, producer and the pleasure of drinking them.

17/08/2026

We held a private incense making workshop over the weekend.

Working with fragrant woods, herbs and spices, everyone created their own incense by hand - blending materials, experimenting with scent, and shaping each piece.

It was especially beautiful to see how differently everyone approached the making. Beyond the traditional cone, there were delicate forms, unexpected shapes and little ideas that made each creation entirely their own.

It’s been some time since we last held this workshop, but we’re very happy to say it’s returning.

Workshop dates coming soon - please register on our website for notification.

香を結ぶ Ko o Musubu
Binding fragrance together.

14/08/2026

Choose a scent.

Remember, or imagine yourself wandering from the three streams of Kiyomizu-dera’s Otowa Waterfall, said to offer blessings of longevity, wisdom and love, into the quiet bamboo paths of Sagano, or along the narrow streets of Nishijin, where the sound of the loom meets the sweet scent of osmanthus at dusk.

Travel a little further, like we have here, burning Sakae 1966. A scent inspired by Sakae, Nagoya, in a time of optimism, change and new beginnings.

Founded in Kyoto in 1594, Kungyokudo 薫玉堂 is Japan’s oldest incense manufacturer, with more than four centuries of incense-making tradition.

Exclusively available at Simply Native in Australia.

#薫玉堂

21/07/2026

SOUND ON 🎐

Morning with Dainichi-gama, Yamashina Kyoto.

The gentle, almost wind chime-like cracking you hear is the sound of the glaze itself. As each piece cools after firing, the glaze naturally contracts, creating the delicate crackle effect and giving every vessel its own character.

During our visit, we spent time with Yotaro and his father Shigeo (and Haru), watching them work side by side in their studio. Yotaro was shaping a giant vessel for an upcoming project, alongside seasonal and permanent pieces we continue to develop together.

Creating a vessel of this scale requires an incredible level of skill and intuition. Despite its size, the finished piece needs to feel balanced and effortless with the wall thickness, curve of the body, and weight of the base all carefully considered. Much of this judgement comes not from measurement, but from years of experience and an understanding of the clay that lives in the hands of the maker.

One of the most fascinating parts of Dainichi-gama’s process is their relationship with ash. What appears to be piles of black ash side by side from materials gathered, grown, and experimented with over time transforms through the heat of the kiln into unexpected colours, textures and surfaces.

Sunflowers grown by the family, cedar trees, and even ash from tea experiments each reveal their own unique expression after firing. The final glaze carries traces of its origin, preserving a connection between nature, craft and the vessel itself.

Our favourites are the sunflower and cedar ash glazes, each with a warmth and depth that feels impossible to recreate.
Watching father and son work together was a beautiful reflection of their shared respect for clay, fire and experimentation. Shigeo continues his own explorations with natural materials, while Yotaro brings his own perspective through the pieces we develop together.

A glimpse into the making process behind Dainichi-gama.