Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Fall 2012 - (Page 104)

Cl ay nat ion Cyclist on Tsuboya Pottery Street, in Naha, capital city of the Okinawa prefecture. wards off evil spirits. They’ll fire your finished piece in their kiln and deliver it to you when it’s ready. In the early 1970s, increased urbanization led the city of Naha to ban Tsuboya’s wood-fired kilns. Not wanting to switch to gas or kerosene, a number of well-known potters left for the quiet back roads of Yomitan, one hour north. Using old roof tiles, discarded utility poles, locally gathered stones and their own hands, one group built a striking nine-chamber climbing kiln at the center of what is now known as Yachimun no Sato (Yomitan Pottery Village). Today more than a dozen studios and galleries dot this laid-back artists’ community, where you can chat with Japan’s leading potters or enjoy a meal on locally fired wares. Up the lane to the left of the central kiln and through a stand of trees is Yukutaya Gama, the kiln of Minoru and Keiko Chibana, whose designs feature the floral patterns of classic Ryukyu pottery. Cups, saucers, bowls and vases shaped by Minoru and painted by Keiko rest on wooden boards laid out in their yard, like a gallery within a forested glade. Chances are, you’ll find yourself planning your next party and what you’ll be serving on one of their gorgeous oversized platters. Also here is the glass-blowing studio of Seikichi Inamine, whose bubble-art and clay-glazed pieces graced banquet tables at the G8 Summit in 2000. After you’ve watched his crew’s coordinated footwork — gathering molten glass from the furnace, then shaping, spinning, blowing, shaping once again, and cooling it — move on to the family-run gallery and shop that flank the Inamines’ garden. When pottery and glass purchases threaten baggage weight limits, consider Okinawa’s diverse textile arts. Bashofu, woven not from cotton or silk but from the fibers of a native banana plant, is one that positively exudes Okinawan soul. Although bashofu once clothed the people of these islands from a time predating even the Ryukyu court, today the labor-intensive process of tending and cutting the stalks, harvesting their fiber, spinning and dyeing the thread, and, finally, weaving the cloth is carried on mainly in Kijoka, a hamlet far up the main island’s west coast. A fading art, bashofu may have disappeared if not for Toshiko Taira, the Kijoka native who spearheaded its revival after World War II. Now 92, Taira still works at the Kijoka Bashofu Weaving Center she established, making cushion covers and stylish table runners from the plant’s outer fibers, kimono sashes and neckties from its inner layers, and — using the finest threads culled from the plant’s innermost core — exquisite bolts of cloth destined to become high-end kimonos worn by men and women who have grown tired of Vuitton and Dior. If bashofu illustrates understated beauty, then bingata — the stencil-dyed textile product of Shuri in Naha — is a showcase of flamboyance. Once made for kimonos worn by Ryukyu royalty, its bright color combinations and dynamic floral, bird, fish and water motifs incorporate Okinawa’s natural beauty. Pattern-dyed chintz from India and batik from Indonesia brought to the islands by Dutch traders influenced its eye-popping patterns, as did the experiences of painters dispatched by the Ryukyu court to study in China. Bingata production declined when the Ryukyu Kingdom ended, but a few dyeing houses continued on. The art was all but lost during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, when whole archives of its washi-paper stencils were destroyed. Artisans like the late Eiki Shiroma worked to preserve the craft, and his family carries on this tradition today at the Shiroma Bingata Studio in Shuri. Farther north, in the heart of the Motobu Peninsula, artist Masanao Shiroma makes indigo-dyed textiles and pottery with Ryukyu-ai, a native species of indigo. At Aikaze, his inviting hilltop workshop, gallery and café nestled deep within the Yanbaru Forest, you can sign up for a dyeing lesson. While your scarf or table runner is drying in the shade, enjoy lunch served on Shiroma’s pottery, colored with indigo left over from his dyeing projects. There is a sense, when dyeing cloth, that you are receiving life from the plant. Okinawan weavers say that they thread their very soul into their work. Pottery and glass pieces, too, seem to speak directly from the heart of their creator. While the sun, surf and relaxed pace of island life are undoubtedly part of Okinawa’s charm, it’s this life-affirming spirit, and the warm welcome found in the homes and studios of its artisans, that make these islands unlike any others. 104 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Fall 2012

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Fall 2012
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... San Francisco
Design
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Art
Gourmet Travel
Wellness
Golf
Okinawa
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Fall 2012