Mashiko Pottery Fair

As a result of its closeness to Tokyo and the relative affordability of its folk pottery, Mashiko has become one of the most popular destinations for ceramic-related tourism in eastern Japan. The town receives about 600,000 visitors every year during its Pottery Fair, which has been held since 1966. Occurring twice a year in fall and spring, it hosts about five hundred pottery stalls of sellers and creators not only from Mashiko but from all over Japan, as well other handcrafted products and locally grown vegetables.

In 2016, I performed a survey with a total of eighty visitors to the Mashiko Pottery Fair, with a sample of fifty interviewees in the spring and thirty interviewees during the fall festival. The fact that the first survey was performed on a Friday morning of the Golden Week, which was not an official holiday, is reflected in the predominance of older visitors from inside the Tochigi prefecture. According to the potters, attendees of that day, especially during its early hours, were mostly locals or workers from large companies that were allowed a bridge day between the holiday and the weekend. Thus, a second survey was performed on a Saturday afternoon, showing a higher representation of younger people as well as visitors coming from Tokyo. Four six non-Japanese nationals (four Americans, one Italian and one Russian) who were visiting the

festival were also surveyed, yet only two were tourists from abroad. Thus, taking into consideration the small sample amount and its limitations, the following results were obtained:

1. Almost half of the visitors were over fifty years of age (46%). More than one-third were in their thirties and forties (36%) and only less than one-fifth were under thirty years old (18%).

2. Almost all came from prefectures located in the Kanto area, almost one third being from Tochigi and eighteen percent from Tokyo.

3. Occupations were predominantly housewife (22%) and professional or technical worker (17%).

4. More than half had a university degree and ninety-six percent had graduated from high school.

5. The majority had come to Mashiko with their families (70%) especially to visit the Pottery Fair, which they had heard about from family or friends (52%) or on the Internet (22%).

6. The large majority were repeaters (80%) and around twenty percent had already come to the Pottery Festival more than five times.

7. Even though not all visitors had come with the intention to buy pottery (only 60% intended to buy), more than eighty percent of those who intended to buy ceramics planned to spend less than 10,000 yen. This proves true the potters’

remarks of how, in recent years, visitors have started coming to the fair mostly to look around and stroll.

8. Around half of the respondents stated that they used to attend similar craft events several times a year. The majority were interested in handmade crafts and more than two-thirds (77%) stated that they had handmade pottery at home.

9. When asked why they were interested in handmade products the responses were: because it's more beautiful (33%), to value the work of the craftsmen (31%), because they have better quality (21%) or all of the above (15%).

Interestingly, while in the second survey, dominated by younger visitors for urban areas, 44% answered “to value the work of the craftsmen”, in the first

survey, prevailed by older visitors from within the Tochigi prefecture, only 18%

chose that answer.

10. Sixty percent of the respondents also affirmed they often buy organic food.

As for the potters, they were aware that the majority of the visitors to the fair were not ceramic aficionados, especially those coming during the last weekend of the event. On the contrary, they stated that the best sale days of the fair are the first ones when ceramic collectors come to check on their favorite potters with a clear intention of buying directly from them since they can pay a price that doesn’t include the gallery taxation. Potters noted how some exhibitors have a line of customers waiting at their stalls from very early hours, with some sometimes selling out on the first day. In addition, collectors know where their favorite potters are, for the stalls are usually installed in the same place every year. Thus, ceramic collectors arrive in Mashiko with a clear goal and location in mind. If a stall location changes, that might be a nuisance for both customer and potter, as one subject mentioned.

Finally, while the fair has kept a stable number of visitors in the past three decades (see Figure 2.11), with a

small growth

between 2005 and 2010 and a temporary decrease in 2011 as a result of the Great

East Japan

Earthquake, most

potters’ state that their sales have been going down. Similarly, the number of stalls has also decreased. According to the subjects, this is because people buy much less pottery nowadays, coming to the fair as a touristic experience, to stroll around the rural town rather than with the specific goal of purchasing.

Figure 2.11: Mashiko annual number of visitors

Source: Mashiko Tourism Association.

0,000 500,000 1 000,000 1 500,000 2 000,000 2 500,000

Number of visitors to the pottery fair Number of visitors outside the pottery fair Total number of visitors

People come for tourism. They might be interested in pottery, but they don’t know much about it. They might be looking for a specific color or shape, but that’s about it. They don’t understand about the potter’s throwing or glazing skills. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If it sells, the economy is moving. And the Pottery Fair it’s not just pottery; it stimulates restaurants and other business too (Satoshi Yokobori, July 2017, translated from Japanese by the author)

Furthermore, the fact that the potters have to pay 10,000 yen per day just to set up their stalls in the parking spaces rented by the galleries, which translates into a cost of 100,000 per potter for the ten days of the festival, means that it is often difficult to profit from sales alone. Therefore, for many potters, the festival serves more as an opportunity to show their products and build new connections that might translate into new clients, than actually making a large profit from sales. But despite the high costs, potters from other regions as far as Kyushu and Hokkaido also come to sell their works at the fair. Known as kamagure, which means “nomad potter”, they drive long distances to take part in pottery fairs in different regions and often sleep in the car during the events.

Figure 2.12 (top): Mashiko Pottery Fair. Photo by the author, November 2016.

Figure 2.13 (bottom): Australian potter Euan Craig at the Mashiko Pottery Fair. Photo by the author, November 2015