For anyone who doesn't know, Mashiko is a town about an hour to fourty five minutes away from Utsunomiya by car. It is known for it's pottery which is also known nation-wide. Mashiko pottery is made using a wide variety of ways and comes in many colors. The kilns they've been using are the famed climbing kilns or noborigama.
Dome after dome crest hills waiting to be fired.. or they used to.
The earthquake cracked the foundation of the kilns and now entire sections of them lie in piles of bricks and rubble. Talking to shop owners lends to stories of whole shelves of produce raining down. As well as the kilns falling to bits in the ensuing aftershocks. Walking into kiln houses as far as it is safe looking at the rock piles and the dust streaming through the air; You really can't help but feel the loss of these treasures. These kilns are so old that the knowledge of how to make them again just like they were.. was lost some time ago. In the same vein it would take a lot of capital to attempt to raise them again in a new incarnation.
Even with the broken treasures, Mashiko continues on like a forceful train. They still had their bi-annual pottery festival last month. The main street was filled with tents as well as every side street and parking lot. Every tent sported different style pottery and if are savvy enough you can start to pick out your favorite artists just based on the work they do. Most of the restaurants usually serve their food on locally produced wares too, so that is a good way to see some.
If you aren't used to being in town the prices can seem random and extreme. Plates can cost anywhere from 500yen to 30000yen depending on the artist and where you buy it. I know there is a particular set of cups I'm keen on but they run around 6000yen a piece, so the two cups and the wine bottle cost around 25000yen all together which is a bit out of my range.
The variety of colors and styles that Mashiko offers it's patrons differs from store to store, as do the styles, sizes, colors, motifs, and almost everything else. There is a type of pottery here to suite every taste.
More pictures of examples to come since I'm displeased with the offerings of the image search I did for Mahiko-yaki. The cups and bowls are really just too varied, I hope I'll be able to give you a bit of a view of some of the different styles available, from traditional to very modern.
Mashiko also has a famous indigo dye shop, which still does things in the old tradition in town. That is always worth seeing. More on that to come too. There is really so much to this small town I look forward to showing it to you bit by bit.
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