Today, we started our day at the beautiful Miho Museum, a breathtaking building in Shiga Prefecture, designed by I.M Pei (the same architect behind the Pyramid entrance at the Louvre and the National Gallery East Building in DC). The Miho holds a variety of Asian and European art, with a particular emphasis on those countries and regions involved in the Silk Road. As such, the building itself (the only part I could photograph, unfortunately) is a modern-day Shangri-La with a magical tunnel through a mountain leading to the picturesque museum building itself. So great.
After touring the collections and buying a few souvenirs (museum gift shops are the best!), we headed into Shigaraki, one of the major pottery towns in Japan. It was absolutely amazing to be surrounded (literally!) by so many makers. We walked through several stores that I'm fairly sure had more hand-built pottery in a single shop than most American towns have. And such variety of surfaces from rough wood-fired to meticulous enamels and painted ware. Also, a lot of Tanuki statues, Japanese Raccoon-Dogs, which Shiga is famous for and which are said to bring luck to the owner. We also toured through the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park and met some of the really friendly local and international residents who were loading up a woodkiln, but were happy to take a few minutes to say hello and show us their work and the grounds. Refreshing to be surrounded by makers and my art form again!
After we returned to Kyoto (a much longer train ride than I'd expected), we stopped for dinner at Shishin, a self-proclaimed Samurai Cafe, only about two blocks from our Airbnb. We had a yummy dinner, Japanese style for the first time: sitting crosslegged on the floor on tatami mats and thin cushions. Midway through our meal, we were joined by a Japanese man (we both forgot his name unfortunately) who had studied in England for the past few years and was really friendly and interesting to talk to. All in all, Japanese Food Culture 201 went much more smoothly than 101 had!
After touring the collections and buying a few souvenirs (museum gift shops are the best!), we headed into Shigaraki, one of the major pottery towns in Japan. It was absolutely amazing to be surrounded (literally!) by so many makers. We walked through several stores that I'm fairly sure had more hand-built pottery in a single shop than most American towns have. And such variety of surfaces from rough wood-fired to meticulous enamels and painted ware. Also, a lot of Tanuki statues, Japanese Raccoon-Dogs, which Shiga is famous for and which are said to bring luck to the owner. We also toured through the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park and met some of the really friendly local and international residents who were loading up a woodkiln, but were happy to take a few minutes to say hello and show us their work and the grounds. Refreshing to be surrounded by makers and my art form again!
After we returned to Kyoto (a much longer train ride than I'd expected), we stopped for dinner at Shishin, a self-proclaimed Samurai Cafe, only about two blocks from our Airbnb. We had a yummy dinner, Japanese style for the first time: sitting crosslegged on the floor on tatami mats and thin cushions. Midway through our meal, we were joined by a Japanese man (we both forgot his name unfortunately) who had studied in England for the past few years and was really friendly and interesting to talk to. All in all, Japanese Food Culture 201 went much more smoothly than 101 had!