We returned to this beautiful shop to collect my little banner and for Mikaela to be dressed in a kimono from the Heian period. It was the type only worn by aristocrats or princesses. Here are a few photos:
Onta Pottery Village
Onta, nestled into a narrow green gorge among the hills of eastern Kyushu, has been a pottery village for the whole of its recorded history. Every one of its 300 residents, it seems, either produce pottery, work in pottery shops or run accommodations for pottery buyers from out of town.
Pottery here is a tradition passed down from father to son, practised in ways that have changed little over time. The same basic tools used to make pottery in Onta today were used a hundred years ago. Visit Onta on a sunny day and you’ll see front yards filled with drying pots and plates. And the clear mountain stream that bisects Onta is still used to pound clay via a kara-usu.
A kara-usu is a sort of see-saw with a large bowl on one end and a pounding hammer on the other. Water from the Onta stream pours into a bowl, lowering it until the water spills out. When that happens the large hammer on the other end of the see-saw comes crashing down into a mound of clay. Then water refills the pot and the process begins again.
What little activity there is around Onta during the day shuts down after sunset. At night the village is completely silent except for the babbling of streams and the gentle thud-thud-thud of the kara-usus. It is completely quaint and other worldly. (http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/kyusu-japan/pottery-onta)
Mik and I explored the museum and the ten little shops and of course bought some little pieces.
Tsuetate Spa Children's Day
Finally we went to an onsen at Tsuetate. 5 May is Children's Day and the photo shows hanging Koinobori, given by families to represent their child. It was dark by the time we were there but I have one photo.
Mik and I had our own spa bath at Tsuetate before seeing the koi. The water was really really hot!
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