Academic inheritance(10)
Onta Ware and Bernard Leach
English studio potter Bernard Leach promoted Japan’s Mingei (folk arts) Movement along with Yanagi Soetsu and others. Leach stayed in Onta for three weeks in 1954. Works from that time still exist in Onta Pottery Museum and the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo. During his stay, they say, he taught a design for a pitcher coupler, and pitchers with that style of coupler are still being made in Onta.
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Village of Onta Ware
In this village next to a stream deep in the mountains, there are 10 potter’s workshops where the skill of pottery has long been passed down from father to son. Visitors can tour ceramics studios, a climbing kiln, a mortar for pounding potter’s clay and more.
Folk pottery festivals are held every year in May and October.
Location: Sarayama, Motoe-machi, Hita-shi, Oita
Website: Hita City (Japanese Only)
http://www.city.hita.oita.jp/shisetsu/bunkazai/6681.html
Transportation: 30 min from JR Hita Station to Sarayama by car
50 min from Hita Bus Center to Sarayama by bus
25 min from Kyushu Odan Expressway Nagasaki-Oita Line Hita Interchange to Sarayama by car
Parking: Available