July 22, 2010

• July 22, 2010 Arita

   We have now arrived in Arita from Imari.  It was a pleasant ride on a one car train on a single track. 

  

  This is a rock on display in front of Arita Station, and it is the main ingredient of the clay used in Arita Ware. Note the light color which makes the white porcelain possible.

  

  We have arrived at Arita's Porcelain Park.

  

  This is a reproduction of the Dresden's Zwinger Palace.

  

  The right half of this building is used as a museum and the left half is a wedding hall.  The thing that was interesting about this place was its construction.  It was a long hall with large windows on both sides that would let in plenty of light in the time before electricity came into use.  Let's have a look inside.

  

  Oh, a bunny dish!

  

  The exhibition hall

  

  An interesting bowl

  

  These large decorative vases were popular in Europe.

  

  Next we took a taxi to the main street in Arita.  Our chaffeur was a real darling.  Dotter mentioned her interest in shards and he said that really good ones could be found in the rivers.  He even took us to a potter who was kind enought to go wading with her and find her some of the best shards around!  His grandfather had even made some of them!!

  

  

  LOOK! This is a genuine vintage insulator made by Koran-sha!  It only weighed half a ton, so we decided not to try taking it home.

  

  

  Many thanks to our taxi driver!

  

  

  And many thanks to the kind potter, too!

  

  Sad to see him go, sniff.  THANK YOU!

  

  Stopping for a rest near a graveyard

  

  Dig and scratch as we might, this shard does NOT want to be dislodged. 

  

  Peeking in the window at the Fukagawa dish factory.

  

  Here is an artist hard at work.

  

  

  Porcelain dishes awaiting the next step, whatever that is... Painting?  Firing?

  

  

  We were peeking in the windows to the right.  Let's keep walking in the direction of that pink building.

  

  This is the Fukugawa building, where beautiful porcelain is made.  The taxi driver told us that Arita is not doing so well economically because the town never really developed any other industries.  I would sure say that this building could use a new coat of paint.

  

  Works by Fukagawa

  

  Ditto

  

  Ditto

  

  And ditto again

  

  After all the sharding one needs some refreshment.  This is the place at Fuda no Tsuji that lets you pick your own cup from a selection of lovely crockery.

  

  • 08:41
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