A look at the highlights of Japan's grand ceramics market festival

““Food vessels are the clothing of cuisine” - this saying comes from Kitaoji Rosanjin, a Japanese man who combined the roles of gourmet and artist. For Japanese people, who value food vessels as much as they value cuisine, where do they all go to do their big shopping for tableware? The annual Golden Week is about to arrive, and every major ceramic settlement holds all kinds of festivals to attract crowds to buy vessels and enrich their dining tables at home! Among them, the one that cannot be overlooked is the Mashiko Pottery Market, with nearly a hundred years of history and attracting 600,000 visitors each year, while the nearby Kasama Himatsuri is also extremely exciting!”

In Japan, at the end of April and the beginning of May each year, the consecutive holiday known as “Golden Week” is a major annual consecutive holiday period. Because the holiday can last as long as a week, many celebration events are also held across Japan to attract local Japanese people to visit and vacation.

During Golden Week, when events bloom in profusion all over Japan, ceramic festivals are certainly no less impressive. The two major kiln sites closest to Tokyo - Mashiko and Kasama - each hold their own ceramic festival events, attracting tourists to take part in the lively activities and to buy ceramic works on a grand scale. After watching these two ceramic festivals for a long time, the author fulfilled a long-held wish last year (2016) by going to Mashiko and Kasama to take part in that year's ceramic feast. Because I returned with a rich haul, and in order to tempt everyone to visit these two major events in person, I am sharing my observations and reflections from that time in this article.

2017 event dates: 2017/4/29-5/5
Official website: http://www.himatsuri.net/

Note: This article was originally published in the October 2016 issue of Ceramic Art magazine.