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I just returned from Japan where I spent 7 weeks in Kasama city, Ibaraki Prefecture. Kasama is a well-known pottery town although few people outside Japan know about the town. Kasama is about 2 hrs north of Tokyo by train and is rather a small town with mostly agriculture and pottery studios. The town is…

Upon my return to Los Angeles, I realized how transformational my visit to Kasama was. Experiencing the traditional Japanese pottery environment, the kiln firing, the old pottery set up in the studio, the natural clay to make pots, all was tremendously exciting. I was fortunate to make friendships with many genuine Japanese potters. They accepted…

Working in a Japanese pottery studio was always on my list of things I wanted to experience. Finally, the opportunity arose when Okuda-San offered me to do some practicing on the wheel. The Okuda Pottery Studio has a very large thatched roof building where his parent and then later Mr. Okuda had a production pottery…

I picked up my small green Daihatsu boxcar at Narita Airport in Tokyo to drive on a beautiful Saturday morning in March of 2019 to Kasama, Ibaraki. Since I left early I encountered rather light traffic although there were many heavy construction trucks that on these narrow country roads are rather intimidating. Driving through the…