Kagoshima: Crafts, Gardens and the Ever-Present Volcano

Kagoshima is many things – strong, proud influencer of Japan’s modern history (i.e., after its opening by the West); affected by its early exposure to the West; maker of fine ceramics, pongee silk, and Kiriko cut glass; and it has a beautiful garden and active volcanoes.  What follows is primarily a pictorial representation of those themes and my time here.

Korean Shrine, Miyama

Satsuma ware for export

Ceramics, glass, and silk.  Like the Saga prefecture in northern Kyushu, Kagoshima prefecture has fine clay and imported Korean artisans to make ceramics.  It makes what is known as Satsuma ware that originally was of two types:  ivory-colored ceramics were made and used only by the ruling Satsuma clan, and black was made for public use.  Later it added a lot of gold and intricate painting to its ivory Satsuma ware specifically for export to the West.  As I walked through the new Denshokan ceramics museum, constructed in the traditional Japanese style and full of western-styled ceramics, I marveled at the mutual influences:  western tastes affected Japanese ceramics and at the same time Japan had an impact on western art and architecture. 

Chinjukan ceramic, 1.3MM yen

Denshokan

Chinjukan, a leading pottery family for more than 14 generations, still makes stunning pottery today.  His work was showcased at Denshokan, and later I saw his own museum and working kiln in Miyama, a nearby town.

Forming Kiriko cut glass

Buffing Kiriko glass

Kiriko cut glass, whose style I suspect was also influenced by western tastes, is clear leaded glass over which is put a very thin film of colored glass.  Then the glass is etched so that the clear glass shows through and the color gradates almost imperceptibly.  Watching the process of making the glass was fascinating.

Weaving silk pongee

Pongee company staff and me in kimono

I also visited a shop in Kagoshima that sold beautiful pongee silk, primarily for kimonos, but also in handbags and other articles.  When I told the head of the shop that I was interested in seeing how the pongee was made, she directed me to a small company in town.  There I met the owner, whose grandfather had founded the company, and got to watch him and two others weave the silk.  The most interesting was a woman, a weaver of over 20 years, where the warp (the long threads) had been dyed or painted to create a pattern, and she was weaving alternate rows of black and light grey threads to accentuate it.  The owner and his colleague decided to have some fun and had me try on a kimono.  All the staff got involved in dressing me up!

Trained tree, Sengan-

Sakurajima

Garden and Volcano.  For my Sunday outing, I joined others in going to Sengan-en, a large villa and beautifully manicured garden made for the Shimatzu family (the lord of the Satsuma clan).  I found the way the trees were pruned and trained to be amazing, as were the very simple but quite large rock sculptures.  It was a lovely garden, still peaceful despite being crowded and in a bustling city.

The villa and garden were set so that its owners could enjoy the vistas of the sea and Sakurajima, Kagoshima’s active volcano.  Unlike the picture you saw in my last posting, the volcano was belching forth ash, which made for some quite impressive cloud formations.

80-yr-old marathon runner

Last, a bit of “human interest”.  On my last day, I had lunch in a small, crowded restaurant in the ferry terminal.  As I talked with my neighbors and the proprietors, I learned that the small woman “assistant” to the cook had just finished a marathon the day before.  It happened to be her 27^th marathon.  She began running at age 52 and is now 80.  She was the cook’s grandmother and probably ran the place.