My pottery-making
experience at Suetoku-Gama
Sue sits before the pottery wheel with an intent expression.
As though by magic, the lump of clay becomes a pot.
In the blink of an eye, the pottery wheel and clay take on a new form....
The artisan’s hands look as though they are working magic.
I listen to a lecture, then, for the first time in 20 years, I too sat down at the pottery wheel like old times and tried following his example.
Of course, it did not go as I expected.
As the pottery grew thinner, I became more and more nervous.
It had looked so much like magic...
The higher it got, the weaker my bowl became, and began collapsing.
It only took an instant.
After many ups and downs, I completed my bowl.
I cannot keep up with the eye, sensibilities, or touch of 300 years of artisans, but in that moment, the feel of the clay brought a profound sense of joy.
I am the one who brought this bowl into existence and the one who will fire it.
In the same way that it is special, so too are all people special.
No matter who your parents are, where you were raised, or where you live now...
We are all the same in that each and every one of us is special.
Through the earthquake, the wars of the past, and all of the troubles like the nuclear disaster we are dealing with now, I came to realize that all of us are special.
I give my thanks to Sue and Kaori, the successors to the 11 generations of the Obori Soma-yaki tradition. Working at the pottery wheel at Suetoku-Gama, I learned that there is nothing in the world that is not special.
In a few weeks, this pot will dry and be fired, and I cannot wait until the day it comes.
Writer Kim Yanghyeon
Born in Korea but living in Saitama, Yanghyeon married a Japanese man in 2001, and started a blog in 2004 about life in Japan, travel, food, and culture etc. (http://miuki73.blog.me/ ) Elected four years in a row (2008-2012) for Naver blog’s foreign living category power blogger, this blog has amassed over 7,000 followers as of October 2017.
