I have a confession to make: I have a serious weakness for Japanese ceramics. Before coming to Japan, I used to spend hours in the Oriental pottery room of the local museum. So I was in heaven today visiting Okawachiyama, “village of the secret kilns”, hidden away in the mountains of Saga.
The ceramics and the scenery rival each other in beauty
There are thirty kilns within easy walking distance. Each has their own shop, often selling pottery at considerable discounts. I’m not going to admit exactly how much heavier my luggage is now than it was when I arrived here...
Who could resist a shop like this one? Certainly not me!
The history of ceramics in Okawachiyama began three and a half centuries ago, when the shoguns established kilns there to manufacture pottery exclusively for their own use. The site was chosen because it is surrounded on three sides by mountains, making it easy for the shoguns to control the technology - that is to say, the potters, who were well-paid but were forbidden from leaving the valley.
Okawachiyama as it was in the Edo Period...
... and as it is today
Today’s potters can come and go freely, of course, but they remain equally dedicated to their craft. I went to Hataman kiln to learn about the painstaking process by which they create “Imari ware”, named after the port from which the porcelain was shipped far and wide.
Before painting the dishes, they are checked for cracks using a pink dye, which disappears when fired
Iro-Nabeshima ware, the classic Okawachiyama design using red, yellow, green, and blue, is painted by hand and fired at least three times, sometimes more.
First, the white undercoat is applied. These pieces are so thin that it’s hard to believe they’re porcelain.
Next, the outlines of the designs are painted onto the dishes in blue
Finally, the colours are added. This vase is the annual Okawachiyama display piece, due to be presented to the Prime Minister! I wouldn’t fancy working under that pressure...
Nowadays, most kilns use gas or electricity rather than wood, but they have all kept their brick chimneys as distinctive symbols.
Some of the disused chimneys now have plants growing out of the top!
Although they share traditions going back many centuries, each kiln has its own distinctive style. Some produce classical designs - besides Iro-Nabeshima, there is the blue and white Nabeshima-Sometsuke, and the celadon Nabeshima-Seiji, the glaze for which is made from local stone. Other kilns have adapted these techniques to produce dishes suited to modern interiors.
Many of the designs are inspired by the plants and flowers that grow in abundance in the valley
Contemporary designs, like these pumpkin plates, would look just as good in Western homes
In Okawachiyama, pottery really is everywhere you look.
From bridges...
... to roadside shrines
Inspired by all this artistry, I decided to try painting a piece for myself! You don’t need to make a reservation, and it takes less than an hour. You can choose what kind of item to paint. I decided on a wind chime.
Finished and ready for firing! I probably won’t get a job at a kiln any time soon, but I had fun.
Goodbye, village of the secret kilns! I hope I’ll be back someday...
After a day of refined elegance in Okawachiyama, I returned to my ryokan for more of the same. The ryokan, Taishoya in Ureshino Onsen, deserves a blog post of its own to do it justice...
This is just the first course of dinner! The dishes are all local porcelain.
My rooms (yes, I have more than one!) look out over a traditional Japanese garden complete with moss and stone lanterns.
The garden in front of my window. It’s like a temple, only better because you are allowed to walk in it!
From the hot spring bath, you gaze out at carp swimming at eye level, so that it feels as though you are in the pool with them. And the rooms are beautiful both as a whole and in every tiny detail. It seems to me that they have a lot in common with Japanese ceramics.
Even the smallest aspects of the rooms are exquisite. I love this matchbox.
This is my office for today’s blog! I would happily move in here for good...
One of the largest online hotel and ryokan booking sites in Japan