Early pottery making on the northeast coast of the Sea of Japan is studied and five main points are made: 1) the Suzu kilns technology started as a hybrid of local and foreign techniques; 2) from earliest times the Suzu potters fired clay in large, tall kilns and manufactured pottery in fixed shapes and quantities including three main types and religious ware; 3) the Suzu technology spread to adjacent areas along the coastline in early medieval times; 4) individual potters were dependent upon feudal lords of the class equivalent to Shokan as they owned the land and organized trade but imposed no direct taxation on the potters; 5) the way this trade was organized and developed in western Japan is compared and contrasted with its equivalent on the eastern coast. -- AATA