The day after hitting Fukuoka, I headed to Arita, famous for its porcelain fair. It’s in Saga Prefecture, but geographically it’s closer to Sasebo. It’s pretty deep in the hills, so I wondered if anyone would even be there, but even though I got there at 8 a.m. I had a hard time finding parking. -_-;;
To explain Arita briefly: it all started when Korean potters taken to Japan during the Imjin War (the Japanese invasions of Korea) settled there and began making porcelain, and for about 400 years it has been famous as one of Japan’s top sources of fine porcelain. There are plenty of other pottery towns around here besides Arita, and apparently their histories are much the same. As a Korean I have somewhat mixed feelings about it, but whatever the case, being able to pick up good porcelain cheaply can only be a good thing.
The morning scene
There aren’t many people yet, but by around lunchtime this long market street, which takes a good three hours to walk there and back, is packed.
There are even fun monster figures like this
I was tempted to splurge, but I held back.
Fish plates
They were a bit pricey.
The really fascinating ginga-yu (galaxy glaze) porcelain
I don’t know if it’s true, but apparently one ended up in the Louvre or somewhere like that. It was gorgeous, and priced accordingly. While I stood there trembling, I spotted some sake cups being sold off cheap, so that’s all I brought home.
A liquor stall
It’s not just pottery shops; there are stalls like this too. As you can see, everything is half price. It was so cheap I bought two bottles. One of them has already vanished somewhere..
At first I liked cute plates like these…
but after one lap around, my eye definitely got pickier.
This is the work of a female artist.
It was a bit expensive, so I just looked.
Food stalls
A festival wouldn’t be complete without food stalls. But nothing looked tasty, so I just passed.
Cute bowls like these too
After a while I got lazy and stopped looking at them.
Aosumi-nagare
Each one is painted so beautifully, piece by piece. I bought some to use as rice bowls, but just looking at them without using them fills me up, so I suspect I’ll only ever admire them. Sob. Is this what a pottery collector’s mind is like?
Being the countryside, there are railway tracks like this too.
You need a car to haul home a big load, but there are also people who just come along for a relaxed day out.
It’s filling up now.
I made it halfway and turned back the way I came.
Away from the market, it’s just a quiet country town.
The sun was blazing, and I got a bit sunburned.
I walked and walked and still couldn’t see the end
Why is it so long, sob.. There were nice things for sale here and there, and I’m a little sorry I couldn’t look around properly.
A set of owls
This is a designer’s work.
Really pretty, and not as expensive as I’d thought. Not cheap either, though. Sigh.
These ornaments were cute too, but…
the mouse was especially cute, but I hardly keep ornaments these days. Besides, mice aren’t exactly a well-loved animal..
A vase
It was so pretty I nearly died… but flowers and I aren’t exactly close, you know. I don’t like things that smell, for a start. So there’s no way I’d need a vase. Sob. I swallowed my tears and walked on. Come to think of it, it might have made a nice souvenir.
This shop’s plates were simple and pretty.
They’re by a potter named Terui So, and the soft bluish tint was so lovely that by the time I came to my senses I was already impulse-buying.
This is a decorative piece I spotted along the way.
Unless it’s an artist’s piece, you can haggle down to about half the price on the tag. The sellers set their prices with roughly that in mind. That kind of thing isn’t much fun for me.. meh.. And for someone like me who’s hopeless at haggling, a shop that sells at the marked price is much better.
Snacks
Nothing special, so I moved on.
Pottery put out at bargain prices
Bulky pieces are a pain to carry back to Korea, so I ignored them.
Slightly pricey beer cups
Too expensive, so I gave up.
An exhibition by a potter named Okugawa
Pottery with an extra digit on the price tag has a completely different aura. People like me just look.
The crowds keep growing.
They sell spoons too..
I bought rice bowls too ^_^ I guess they’re there so you buy a matching set.
And chopsticks..
Not too expensive and pretty. Two pairs of these are already in my kitchen..
This is what it’s like further into the market.
A typical countryside view.
A ramen bowl museum
Bowls with matching spoons as a set! It looked kind of fun, but I don’t eat much ramen at home, so I didn’t really need one and skipped it.
Porcelain for the dressing table
Delicate and pretty, but not my taste, so I moved on.
Simple plates
Over 3,000 yen each, but in practice they’d knock it down to 1,500. At first these looked good enough, but by my second lap they no longer satisfied me, so I ended up not buying them. That’s what a healthy shopping-spree life looks like.
This time I photographed rice bowls.
I did buy a rice bowl and some small plates, but I don’t think I can bring myself to put plain rice in something this cute. It deserves prettier food.
Arita Station
They had the Arita-yaki Curry that’s famous as an ekiben (station bento), but it didn’t really tempt me.
A Sasebo burger, order in
Sasebo is just a stone’s throw away, so I went, lunch is a Sasebo burger! But somehow the way it was made didn’t inspire confidence. The patty wasn’t great, and the yolk even burst later..
But once I ate it, it was decent enough.
Though it most likely just tasted good because I was starving.
A young woman playing music on porcelain bowls
It was a hit with families.
There are plates in all kinds of designs.
All over the place there were clearance bins with everything at 100 yen.
The pieces I’d impulse-bought up to then were so beautiful I couldn’t imagine actually using them, so I picked up a few here for rough everyday use at home, and the quality was nothing like 100 yen. Light, sturdy and elegantly designed, they’d be worth ten times that. Looking back, I should have scooped up a whole pile.
There were also pieces with cute designs like this.
I didn’t feel like buying ornaments, so I passed. Instead I bought various things that caught my eye, and I’ll do a separate post on them later. I’d heard a few times that Arita was good, but I had no idea it was this good. I got to see lots of fine work, and my eye for porcelain has improved a lot. Now that I have a feel for what’s cheap and good, I don’t think I’ll get ripped off wherever I go. Though someone as weak at haggling as me will probably always get taken for a ride anyway..