Jon Pettyjohn on tue 12 nov 96
Hi
I just got back home to Manila after attending the Asian Ceramic
Festival held annually in Osaka, Japan. It's a huge event held
last Nov.1-4 at the Intex-Osaka Exhibition complex with over 120
clay artists from all over Japan. I was fortunate to be chosen as
the representative of the Philippines and I was given a nice space
to exhibit my work. There were potters from China, Korea and Vietnam
there too. I think this is only the second year that they have held
this festival (organized by the city of Osaka) and I believe that
in the future the organizers are hoping to include more work from
other countries, especially South East Asia. I was told that they
are constructing a "pottery village" also where they will invite
potters from many countries to come and work for short periods,
plans include an anagama.
The response to my work was very encouraging. I brought along
mostly large slab and thrown vases and I got some nice comments
and answered a lot of questions (through an interpreter) about
Philippine ceramics. I was also asked to do throwing demonstrations
3 times a day for the public and I was pleased with the reactions.
The show itself was an amazing range of ceramics from industrial to
one of a kind with prices ranging from a few dollars up to thousands.
(I saw one chawan selling at 7,000$) Thousands of people attended
during the 4 days and I have to say (even though we've all heard this
before) that the interest of the Japanese public in pottery is
astonishing. I observed that the Japanese seem to go for the
most traditional styles the most, especially Bizen, even though
the prices for woodfired work are very high. There seems to be some
kind of craze for bizen style (unglazed) beer mugs with no handles,
and everyone swears that the beer tastes better in them, some
potters were even giving out free beer taste tests and making a
big deal about how the bubbles look softer in an unglazed mug.
Personally I couldn't tell the difference, but I bought a beautiful
mug with incredible fire marks from an old man from Bizen who seemed
to be doing a very brisk business, and even if the beer tastes the
same it sure looks better.
I was able to take a trip to Kyoto where I saw a great exhibition of
the work of Muneharo at the Takashimaya department store.
Unfortunately Kawai's museum and workshop were closed the day I was
there. I also spent a few days in Seto visiting a friend and seeing
workshops there. There are hundreds of artist-potters in this town
alone and Seto would really seem to be the Mecca of Japanese
ceramics. The trees were just beginning to change color and I
feel lucky to see this since we don't have an Autumn in the
Philippines.
I was amazed at how easy it is to travel around by trains and
subways and I found the people very willing to help when I needed
directions, although I had heard its difficult. I wouldn't
hesitate to encourage anyone to travel around by themselves if they
get a chance.
Jon Pettyjohn Manila clayjon@ibm.net
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