While living in Beppu from 1988 to 1990, I had the pleasure of going several times to the 18th Century pottery center of Hita, situated two hours from Beppu in the mountainous interior. I wrote the following during a visit there on August 18, 1989 and with a few edits, present it here.
Hita
In Japan, history takes on new dimensions, especially for a woman from the American west, where anything a hundred years old is truly venerable. Now I sit in Hita, a pottery town once under the rule of the Shogunate. Something in the way the streets are laid out with simple structures of wood and packed down dirt roads remind me of ghost towns I've visited in Arizona, except that here there are the ubiquitous choshin lanterns and the distinctive short indigo curtains in the entranceways.
In the oldest section of town can be found a row of interesting little shops like the one that sells nothing but delicate ceramic "bells" in the shape of Neko Maneki or O-Hina dolls or animals or any number of other whimsical shapes, and my favorite, a coffe/ocha/shokuji establishment where I now sit.
In a small room glowing red from an antique lacquered parasol suspended overhead, which matches the smooth napless carpet, a low round carved Chinese table, itself of a rich reddish hue, holds the coffee acoutrements. To the right is a slatted sliding door of the same color wood, leading into a tatamied room of soft greens. The contrast is superb and my favorite color combination, scarlet and moss. Beyond the window of that room there are mossy tile roofs and bamboo, the leaves of which are just beginning to turn. The whole of the outside scene infuses the room with a chartreuse glow.
Back in my small, sanguine room an oil lamp the color of turquoise rests on a low wooden tansu chest. From various surfaces, antique hina matsuri dolls in faded splendour observe me with Mona Lisa expressions. They seem to say, "Just who is observing whom?"
Oh Hita, what a graceful if aged beauty you are.
Sightseeing in Hita City
- Onta Ceramics
- Onta Classic Pottery Museum
- Ono Crafts Village
- Hina Dolls of the Kusano Family
- The Kangien
- Yoshichiro Musuem (geta and geta-making tools)
Posted by Jeanne Belisle Lombardo
September 12, 2002
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From various surfaces, antique hina matsuri dolls in faded splendour observe me with Mona Lisa expressions. They seem to say, "Just who is observing whom?"