Okinawa Tsuboya Yachimun Pottery Class with Master Potter

Most pottery classes in Okinawa hand you clay and a wheel. This one starts with the town. You walk Tsuboya Yachimun Street, where Okinawan pottery has been made since 1682, and learn how to read what you are looking at: the colors, the shapes, and what each piece was made to do. Then you meet SAHIO, a working potter, in his own workshop at Niou-gama. He talks about the clay, the glazes, the firing, the failures, and what he is trying to keep alive. Only then do you sit at the wheel and shape your own cup, plate or bowl with his hands guiding yours. Groups are capped at six, so there is room to ask real questions. Your piece is fired over the following weeks and shipped to your home, so the experience arrives once more long after your trip has ended.