A journey for people who like to know how things are made. Potters in Mashiko and Shigaraki, an indigo dyer in the hills north of Kyoto, lacquer in Kanazawa and Yamanaka, sake in Fushimi.
You will meet makers in their workshops, eat from their bowls, and try your own hand at the wheel and the dye vat. You will not be good at it. That is part of the point.
Day by day
Day 1
- morning
- Met at the airport by your guide, who has spent years visiting the workshops on this route.
- afternoon
- Check in, and a slow walk to Kappabashi, the street of kitchen knives and lacquered bowls.
- evening
- Dinner served on pottery from the potters you will meet tomorrow.
Day 2
- morning
- A two-hour drive north to Mashiko, a town of climbing kilns where folk pottery has been thrown for centuries.
- afternoon
- Lunch with a potter, eaten from her own plates, then an hour at the wheel with clay up to your elbows.
- evening
- Back to Tokyo for soba and a cup of warm sake at a counter near the hotel.
Day 3
- morning
- The Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Komaba, where the mingei movement began.
- afternoon
- Shinkansen to Kanazawa, two and a half hours of mountains and rice fields.
- evening
- Dinner in the teahouse district, on lacquer trays older than the restaurant.
Day 4
- morning
- A gold leaf workshop, the leaf beaten thinner than a breath.
- afternoon
- A Kanazawa lacquer studio, where one bowl takes months and dozens of coats.
- evening
- Dinner served on Kutani porcelain, painted in green, yellow and deep purple.
Day 5
- morning
- Yamanaka, a hot spring town known for lacquer on turned wood.
- afternoon
- Watch a turner shape a bowl on the lathe, then the lacquerer finish it.
- evening
- A soak in the town bathhouse, then back to Kanazawa.
Day 6
- morning
- Ōmichō market, then the train south.
- afternoon
- Move into your machiya in Kyoto, a narrow townhouse with an inner garden the size of a tatami mat.
- evening
- Dinner of obanzai, Kyoto home cooking, at a neighbourhood place with six tables.
Day 7
- morning
- Kiyomizu-yaki at Gojōzaka, a potter’s studio in the lanes below the temple.
- afternoon
- A bamboo craftsman splitting cane by hand, then a woodblock printer working in a room smelling of cherry wood.
- evening
- Dinner in Pontochō, a lane barely wider than your shoulders, overlooking the Kamo River.
Day 8
- morning
- Drive north into the hills to Miyama, a village of thatched farmhouses above the Yura River.
- afternoon
- An indigo dyer’s studio, and a cloth of your own, dipped and dried.
- evening
- Back to Kyoto, blue to the wrist, for a simple supper of tofu and pickles.
Day 9
- morning
- Shigaraki, one of Japan’s six ancient kilns, where the clay comes from the bed of an old lake.
- afternoon
- A climbing kiln on the hillside, and a potter who feeds it red pine for four days and nights.
- evening
- A dinner of Ōmi beef and river fish from Lake Biwa, served on Shigaraki stoneware.
Day 10
- morning
- A Fushimi sake brewery, where the water is soft and the work starts before dawn.
- afternoon
- A tasting with the brewer, from cloudy new sake to a mellow one aged three winters.
- evening
- A farewell dinner, every dish on a plate you watched someone make.
Day 11
Home with your hands full
Kyoto to Kansai Airport
- morning
- A last walk to the morning market at Nishiki, for knives, pickles and a bag of hōjicha.
- afternoon
- A private car to the airport, the fragile things already packed and shipped home.
- evening
- A cup in your hand whose maker you have met, and whose kiln you have stood beside.
What’s in it
- An hour at the wheel in Mashiko
- Gold leaf and lacquer in Kanazawa
- Turned-wood lacquer in Yamanaka
- An indigo vat in Miyama
- Shigaraki’s climbing kilns
- A sake tasting with a Fushimi brewer
The seasons you’ll travel through
In its best months (Apr · May · Jun · Oct · Nov), this journey passes through 31 of the 72 micro-seasons. A few of them:
- 31 Mar – 4 Apr雷乃発声Distant thunder
- 5–9 Apr玄鳥至Swallows return
- 10–14 Apr鴻雁北Wild geese fly north
- 15–19 Apr虹始見First rainbows
- 20–24 Apr葭始生First reeds sprout
- 25–29 Apr霜止出苗Last frost, rice seedlings grow
- 30 Apr – 4 May牡丹華Peonies bloom
- 5–9 May蛙始鳴Frogs start singing
- 10–14 May蚯蚓出Worms surface
- 15–20 May竹笋生Bamboo shoots sprout
- 21–25 May蚕起食桑Silkworms start feasting on mulberry leaves
- 26–30 May紅花栄Safflowers bloom
Where you’ll sleep
machiya· KyotoPlaceholderKinari MachiyaA restored wooden townhouse of your own, with a courtyard garden and a deep cypress tub.
- Type
- machiya
- Bath
- none
- Sleeping
- futon or bed
- Size
- 85 m²
- Guests
- 2–4
design hotel· TokyoPlaceholderSumi HouseA small hotel of charred cedar and plaster on a back street, close to the old neighbourhoods of the east.
- Type
- design hotel
- Bath
- none
- Sleeping
- bed
- Size
- 32 m²
- Guests
- 2
machiya· KanazawaPlaceholderTsuta MachiyaA two-storey wooden townhouse near the teahouse district, restored with local lacquer and gold leaf.
- Type
- machiya
- Bath
- none
- Sleeping
- futon or bed
- Size
- 75 m²
- Guests
- 2–4
Every day above can move. Tell us what you’d change.
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