The Road Through Miyama, by Leila Philip (HC, 1989, $2)
Leila Philip, a blond haired American, wanted to learn to make Japanese "folk pottery".
Leila was not the first of her family to go to Japan. In the beginning of the 1900s, her 23 year old great-"Aunt Bessie" packed her bags and set off to Japan to study painting. She would stay in Tokyo for two years, refusing to learn Japanese, but earning an honorable mention in a Japanese art exhibit.
Now it is Leila's turn, and she wants not only to go to Japan, but to a "traditional workshop" in Japan. In Miyama, 700 miles from Tokyo, they speak a strange dialect, and don't much like strangers. What they do like, is to make pottery. Unlike most Japanese pottery communities, Miyama has not yet been "discovered". There is "no restaurant or visitor center, just 14 potteries and pottery painting workshops along the road." Leila could speak some Japanese, and she could make some pottery, so this sounded like a no-brainer. Or at least that is the way it seemed when she was in the States.
Here is the story of her two year apprenticeship in this far away village, and the lessons she learned, lessons about Japan, their people, their art, and about herself.
Find this book in the new non-fiction table, avail. 1/18 (Later: Japan)
