Japanese Ceramics Cultural Project

Japanese Ceramics Cultural Project

As I mentioned in previous blogs, part of my internship was completing a cultural project - studying some aspect of Japanese culture that interests me - which for me was focused on Japanese ceramics.  I ended up making pottery in a little studio near my first host family's house for the first 5 months of my internship. This was a little difficult because the two old men who owned the studio, though they were really nice, didn't speak any English and I hardly spoke any Japanese at that point, so my way of learning was kind of like "metakatsu", by just watching what they did and repeating it (and relying a little on my previous knowledge of ceramics as well). 
Here is a brief overview of the process and some of the things I made:

My instructor centering the clay on the potter's wheel

Making a bowl on the wheel

Dipping the fired pottery in glaze

Glazed pottery before the final firing

My vases after the final firing

This is a Japanese style tea cup.
I think my instructors liked this piece best.
They said it was very Nihon-poi (Japanese taste).

The design on the plate below was made by indenting patterns into the wet clay, covering in white glaze, and then wiping off the excess. It is a style that I first saw in Japan but learned after some investigation that it, like some other aspects of Japanese culture and even parts of the Japanese language itself, originally came from Korea. The flower pattern represents the white chrysanthemums that are native to Korea. Since this was my first plate and I didn't understand exactly what my instructors were trying to tell me about making plates, I made it too thin in the middle and it ended up cracking. I wasn't too upset about it though, and I even embrace the imperfection because like I learned in Hippo,  'mistakes' are really just a reflection of the learning process.

One of the things that interests me about pottery is its connection with the culture of food, which is important in many societies but from my experience perhaps holds even greater significance in Japan. I can recall many conversations centered around discussions of food, from which I learned lots of Japanese words to describe different textures of food that don't exist in English. Or there is the tradition of returning from a trip to a different area of Japan with boxes of beautifully individually wrapped candy or snacks in some flavor specific to that region (pears from Niigata , baked corn from Hokkaido) and giving them out to everyone in the office or family. Presentation is very important, as with the packaging or for example in the tea ceremony, where the vessel holds as much significance as what is contained within it.

One of the differences I noticed a lot between Japanese and American meals are that in Japan each place setting has lots of little separate dishes (one for rice, one for soup, one for fish, one for salad, one for soy sauce, etc.) whereas in the U.S. we generally only have one big plate and maybe a bowl. A lot of attention is paid to the form and aesthetic of each of these dishes that perform a specific function in the meal. Though the bowls for rice and soup are almost the same size and shape, as I learned through trial and error from my first host family, you cannot serve rice in a soup bowl!

Another thing thing that impressed me a lot in Japan in general was the smallness of lots of things in comparison with American sizes and the efficient use of space in a lot of things (apartments, cars, futons, etc.). Where space is a more rare commodity, things are designed to make the most out of what is there;  they roll up, fit together, have multiple uses, etc.

So one of the things I made in the ceramic studio was a set of tiny bowls that encapsulate some of those seemingly very Japanese attributes for me. I decorated them in styles and colors that reflected other Japanese pottery and art that I saw. You will notice that one of them has a picture of Hello Kitty painted inside which, though perhaps not traditional, is a valid icon of Japanese culture and decorative art.

As I was researching Japanese art I came across a BBC series caled In Search of Wabi Sabi. In it, a British man travels to Japan seeking to understand the true meaning of wabi sabi. He first comes to Shibuya and asks people on the street if they can tell him what wabi sabi is. After becoming somewhat frustrated not feeling he has come any closer to an answer, at the end of the segment he turns to the camera and says, "I feel like I need to get out of here and find some way to get acquainted with the real Japan." This comment stood out a lot to me - the notion that parts of Japanese culture, or any culture for that matter, are more real than the rest - and I do think that it is a notion exists across cultures and is one that people should be wary of.

Of course there are aspects of Japanese culture that are more traditional, but I don't think that makes them any less real or Japanese than things that are perhaps more modern. It's important to keep in mind that cultures are multifaceted and always evolving and that which was once modern is now tradition. In fact one of the things that I find the most interesting about Japan is the mix of traditional and contemporary culture that coexists, while seeming to maintain a very Japanese identity.  

Though my cultural project was focused on ceramics, it was by no means the only aspect of Japanese culture that I learned about. Every day I encountered and experienced new aspects of Japanese culture, some of them traditional and some of them modern, and through them I came to a better understanding of the real Japan, which encompasses them all.

This is Japanese culture (Mount Fuji)

And so is this (Tokyo Sky Tree)

This is Japan culture (Maiko style makeup and kimonos)

And so is this (Kawaii style Puricura photo booths)