Saga Prefecture, Kyushu: ceramics & 6000-BC Japanese life

This post covers two really interesting attractions in Saga Prefecture, Kyushu. The first are the area's ancient pottery and porcelain villages and traditions (especially Karatsu, Imari, Arita wares). In fact, Kyushu is known to be the first place humans ever fired pottery! And it was also the place where the Japanese came to be experts in bright chemical glazes (stolen from the Koreans in the late 16th century). The second attraction in Saga are the Higashimyo ruins archaeological site near Saga City, Kyushu. They feature the remains of an early Jomon era (14,000-300 BC) town and a shell mound. This incredible site is where Japan's oldest known woven baskets, combs, wooden plates, and biological remains were found.

• Kyushu's ancient pottery villages: Karatsu, Imari, Arita
• Kyushu' NW Higashimyo Jomon ruins, from 6,000 BC!

Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!

Kyushu's ancient pottery villages: Karatsu, Imari, Arita

Since ancient times, Saga Prefecture has been known for making pottery. Today, Saga's ceramic towns and villages, especially Karatsu, Imari, and Arita continue to attract ceramic fans from all over the world. Did you know that the early Japanese of Kyushu, Japan were the first to make fired pottery? Ironically, the Japanese first understood chemical glazes after they kidnapped 25,000 Korean potters at the end of the 16th century and brought them to Kyushu.

Arita, Imari, and Karatsu are the three most popular villages on the tourist circuit, although there are few more. All of them are 2-3 hours by train from Fukuoka City (and international airport and Hakata bullet train station).

People in these Kyushu villages have been making pottery for hundreds of years. For generations, fathers have taught their sons and, in some circumstances, their daughters the craft. Some familes are in their 14th generation!

The pottery villages in Saga Prefecture (NW Kyushu) became known for making ceramics since the native clay was so good. From about 1600 to 1700 and onwards the big buyers of Saga's pottery wares were the local feudal samurai lords. Some of these pottery villages are very small, with only one set of traffic signals and a little store. But don't let that stop you.

Kyushu, in general, is know for it's slow pace and that is also true of Saga's ceramic worlds. You can walk around as much as you like and take your time. The people that own a showroom will never push you to buy, and they don't expect you to. Don't feel like you have to hurry. If you see anything you like, take it up carefully (remember breaking it means buying it!) and see how it feels. Half of the fun of ceramics comes from how they feel to the potential owner.

Karatsu ware: tea ceremony simple: Karatsu is a busy city by the sea that is roughly an hour and a half by rail from Hakata Station in Fukuoka City. Karatsu ware's brown and earthy color glazes give it a simple, natural look. The base and other parts of the pottery are often left raw and unglazed. Most of the time, wood-fired kilns are used to fire Karatsu pottery. Because of this, the licking flames give each item its own unique look. Karatsu ware is extremely popular in the rarified Japanese tea ceremony world. Looking for Karatsu goods while walking around the city is a terrific way to get a feel for the town's particular vibe. One of Japan's top three pine forests (with 1 million trees) and a lengthy coastline are great places for nature lovers just beyond Karatsu. And biking is super popular. So, maybe rent a bike. Of course, ceramics are still a big part of Karatsu. For hundreds of years, people have been making Karatsu pottery, which is also known as "Karatsu-yaki." You may observe both working and long-abandoned kilns. The colors are usually earthy browns with flowers, plants, birds, or mythical creatures on them. The Karatsu Ichibankan shop and gallery has wonderful pottery and ceramics. There are many other pottery shops in town, but this is one of the most prominent Karatsu galleries. They have an online store and gorgeous displays. You can also go to the Nakazato Tarouemon ceramics gallery and store. For decades, the family had sold goods to the feudal rulers of Karatsu.

Imari ware: colorful and bright: Imari's Okawachiyama pottery settlement is just outside of the town of Imari and built in a remote location to keep the Nabeshima samurai lord's personal kiln a secret. Okawachiyama is a village that looks like it came straight out of a storybook. The old kilns and cobblestone streets have a magical quality. Okawachimaya is lovely in a way that makes it feel like it's frozen in time. The houses still have an Edo feel to them. There are a lot of old houses in the village, and the streets are lined with cute galleries and businesses that sell ceramics. One of Okawachiyama's most famous landmarks is its beautiful bridge made of porcelain tiles. The community is small and great for walking around. You may buy for ceramics and enjoy the beautiful scenery as you go up and down its hills. You may view a lot of kilns and pottery workshops off the main street, as well as several old climbing kilns. The main town of Imari, where the train station is, has a lot of small ceramics studios and shops in traditional Japanese homes that have been turned into stores. Porcelain decorates even the tiniest parts of town, even the riverbed. There are useful maps all across the hamlet painted on tiles. Imari's unique modern and classic patterns are quick and easy, and they use softer colors instead of strong blasts of color, which is different from Arita porcelain.

Arita ware: blue & white porcelain: Kami-Arita Station approximately 40 minutes by train from Imari Station. The main street on the north side of the station is lined with ancient homes, stores, and galleries that display the colorful Arita ceramics, which is usually blue and white. Recently, plain white porcelain has become trendy. Instead of adornment, the white porcelain focuses on shape and simplicity. The Tonbai Wall alleyways are off the main road. The walls that were created around the potters' houses with fireproof bricks are still there on these cobblestone lanes. Tozan Shrine is one of the most remarkable places in Arita. The torii gate and komainu guardians are made from porcelain. Arita really stresses how deeply connected people and pottery are in this area. Nearby Tozan temple is worth the trip on its own, and the old alleys and shops around the temple are beyond charming.

And don't miss the Kyushu Ceramic Museum in Arita: This comprehensive indoor and outdoor ceramics museum has a modern look, good lighting, and a lot of beautiful ceramic patterns on exhibit (old and new). The Kyushu Ceramic Museum isn't very big, so you can see all the patterns in an hour or two. And don't forget to stop by the museum cafe, where you can eat off of ceramic plates that is up to 200 years old!

Koishiwara (or Toho village today) ware: rustic & earthy: The pottery in Koishiwara is distinct from what you might see in other places. It's more rustic and has a strong earthy feel, maybe even a little primitive, but it still has the warmth of clay. People who just drive through (rather than stop and spend some time there) probably know it best for the huge pots and dishes that are on display along the route. But don't be fooled; this is primarily a trick. Koishiwara-ware is actually pottery that is meant to be used every day. If you live in a colder place and like to keep your coffee warm, this pottery is a fantastic choice because it is thicker than Arita's more delicate lines. You may get coffee cups, plates, and bowls here that you will be glad to use to feed your family. Koishiwara is a small village that has been making pottery for years, just like most of the communities in this area. In fact, you'll see that practically every household in the town makes pottery in some way. In the summer of 2017, the area was flooded, and the local administration is politely asking people to spend their money there to help the economy get back on its feet. Like most of the pottery villages on Kyushu, Koishiwara isn't very easy to get to. To make matters even more confusing, the village of Koishiwara doesn't really exist anymore. About 20 years ago, this proud and old hamlet was combined with others to form a new group called Toho because of some stupid bureaucratic reorganization. But when you get there, you'll still see road signs that still read Koishiwara.

Kyushu' NW Higashimyo Jomon ruins, from 6,000 BC!

The Higashimyo ruins are an archaeological site near Saga City, Kyushu. They feature the remains of an early Jomon era (14,000-300 BC) town and a shell mound. In 2016, the site was named a National Historic Site of Japan. Higashimyo is where Japan's oldest known woven baskets, combs, wooden plates, and biological remains were found.

The Higashimyo site is on the central Saga Plain, north of the current city of Saga, on a low-lying wetland. The site is about 12 kilometers inland from the current coastline, but it was close to the coastline during the Jomon Maximum Transgression, which happened around 7,000 years ago. The land around the Higashimyo site contains tidal flats and reed fields, and it is considered that the environment was like the coast of the Ariake Sea today. This site is 300 meters northwest of the Hisadomi Nihonsugi Site, which is linked to a shell mound from the same time.

The Jomon transgression lasted from 16,000 to 7,000 years ago, and the coastline kept moving over that time. About 8,000 years ago, the land around Higashimyo became a seashore. The Jomon people built a village here as a fishing base. It is thought that the area sank below sea level and became uninhabitable because a thick layer of clay over five meters thick was deposited on top. This clay came from floating mud (clay) carried by the flood tide and sediment carried by the river, just like the current coast of the Ariake Sea. The sea slowly went down, and the area became land again, although the groundwater level stayed high. In 1990, while work was being done on a flood control project, the remains were first found.

From 1990 to 1996, archaeologists dug up the remains of many hearths, Jomon ceramics, stone implements (arrowheads, harpoons, awls, scrapers, grinding stones), animal bones, and a large number of human bones that seem to constitute a cemetery. It is thought that the cemetery holds eight bodies. They were all buried with their knees bent. Isotopic study of the remains shows that the diet was mostly made up of land plants, with seafood as a supplementary source of protein.

A shell mound was found in 2003, and further research showed that there are six shell mounds at levels two meters below sea level. From 2004 to 2007, the second phase of excavations concentrated on the No. 1 and No. 2 shell middens, which are located in the midst of the six mounds. There were a lot of bones from mammals and fish, as well as implements made of bone and horn. Many prehistoric storage pits were also found, mostly around the second shell mound. From these pits, acorns that weren't very decomposed and a lot of woven baskets were dug up. The clay layer that used to be a wetland had plates, bowls, paddles, and combs that were in good shape. Some of these were among the oldest in Japan, and the woven baskets with different weaving patterns and antler accessories at different stages of production gave us a rare look at the pattern culture of the time. Most prehistoric sites in Japan are prone to deterioration because of acidic soil, and there are only a few sites where the artifacts are well preserved. The third through sixth shell middens were kept intact by filling them in without digging them up.

The Higashimyo Jomon Museum is home to main artifacts dug up at the site. It takes about 15 minutes to drive from JR Kyushu Saga Station to reach the Higashimyo Jomon site.

Content by Japan travel specialist & designer Ian Martin Ropke, founder & owner of Your Japan Private Tours (YJPT, est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with all of YJPT's Japan private tour clients and have a great team behind me. I promote YJPT through this content and only advertise at www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip to save time & have a better time. Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search) is also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!