I always find myself losing track of time when I stand before “noborigama [ascending kilns]”, such romantic relics.

A ceramic artist I once met at a pottery event in Yokohama, I meet once again by chance at pottery event in Kyoto. Upon hearing that he trained at Tamba when he was younger, the very next day I find myself being rocked gently by the Fukuchiyama Line headed here.

Autumn has settled beautifully in the Tamba Tachikui Pottery village.

Along a long tranquil path toward the kilns, children and elderly folk are in the fields harvesting beans.
Yes. When I think of Tamba, I think of those special New Year’s kuromame [black beans].
Kuromame aren’t actually black, though. They are only slightly more brown than yellowy-green edamame.

After leaving Tamba, I stop at a restaurant that has the most superb sashimi, and am reunited with those kuromame I just saw being harvested. I have tried “delicious beans” many times over, but these are in a category all their own.
Today I find pleasure in both a piece of Tamba Pottery and a piece of Tamba autumn.
I can’t wait for spring.