I visited Onta Sarayama again.

小鹿田皿山を再訪した。

The first time I saw the pottery village on the mountain was in the Winter of 1994. I took the local bus in freezing snowy weather. There were no other passengers.The bus going back to town was in two hours.

路線バスに乗り凍るような雪の中、初めて山あいの焼き物の集落を訪ねたのは1994年の冬のこと。（当時、冬の間はバスの運行が無くなるので運行最終日に行っている）
時刻表を見ると町へ戻るバスは2時間後だった。

I saw only 3 people in the two hours I was there, and very few pots. I saw a lovely green glazed pitcher leaning against the wall of a climbing kiln and asked the woman in the pottery opposite if I could buy it. It was the only piece of pottery I saw available for sale while I was there. The other pots I saw were in the small unattended unheated museum, they were amazingly good. Some of them were made at Onta by English potter Bernard Leach who visited the potters there and taught them to make pitchers in the English style.

その2時間の間に見かけたのは3人の人といくつかの焼き物だけだった。その美しい緑釉のピッチャーは登り窯の横に置いてあった。向かいの工房にいた女性に売り物かを尋ね、運良く買うことのできた唯一の焼き物だった。他の焼き物は無人の、しかし素晴らしい陶芸館に展示してあり、イギリスのバーナード・リーチが小鹿田訪問時に制作したイングリッシュスタイルのピッチャーなども展示してあった。

The tour of the village took 30 minutes and then I waited an hour and 30 more minutes for the bus.

集落を散策して30分、バスの時間までまだ1時間半。

After half an hour I was so cold my face hurt. I ate a banana, the only food I had with me, it was almost frozen.

30分後には顔が寒さで痛くなり、取りあえず持っていたバナナを食べたのだが凍る寸前の食感。

Time passed. I looked at the Museum again.
I felt obliged to remove my shoes and wear brown plastic slippers that were 2 sizes too small for me. My feet turned to ice. I began to fret that the bus wouldn’t come and I would die there on the mountain.

その後また陶芸館へ戻ったが、2サイズ以上も小さなビニールスリッパに履き替えないといけず足は凍ってしまうようで、もしこのままバスが来なければここで死んでしまうかも？と焦りを感じるぐらいだった。

This time I drove up the mountain in a private car in fine weather. The wifi cut out half way up to the village but that was no great hardship.
I bought and ordered pots. 
Many of the potteries have shops with a selection of their work for sale. 
The Museum is now much larger and well heated.

今回の再訪では、良い天気の中車で向うことができた。時々wifiが途切れてしまうこともあったが、それぐらいは何でもない。そしていくつかの焼き物を買うこともできた。
それぞれの工房は作ったものを販売するスペースを持ち、陶芸館は規模も大きくなり暖房も気持ちよく効いていた。

There is space on the mountain for a limited number of potters, eleven to fourteen I think.
This is due to there being room on the river that runs down the mountain and through the village for only that number of water powered wooden hammers to crush the clay that the potters dig out of the mountain.

山には限られた材料、限られたスペースしかないため代々数少ない工房だけが今に繋げている。これは唐臼（川の水を使い餅をつくように土作りをするもの）の数にも依る。

The sound that these massive hammers make is amazing…a loud groan and a heavy thump  at regular intervals.  The whole mountain is a tuning fork  for the music of Titans.

唐臼の大きな杵から聞こえる音は驚くほど大きく、ドスン、ギー、と山全体がギリシャ神話の巨人たちの奏でる音叉の響きのようだ。

Onta Sarayama is a remote and wonderful place and the pots made there are beautiful.

小鹿田皿山は人里離れた素晴らしいところ、そしてそこから美しい焼き物が生まれている。