May 2022 | Goods From Japan

Old Toilets in Japan, Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture

84歳の私の母は大の緑茶好き。とりわけ急須にはこだわりがあり、常滑焼の急須を母の日に何度もプレゼントした。あの赤銅色のつるっとした肌合いの陶器で入れたお茶は、まろやかで香りよく、格別なんだそうだ。

常滑焼の急須、赤土で作られている

ということで、陶磁器で有名な常滑に行ってきました。駅を出て左に行くと、まず緩い坂道がある。有名な「とこなめ招き猫通り」。道沿いには39体もの様々な招き猫が並ぶ。

焼き物通りウォークはここからスタートして、つづら折りの狭い道を両脇に並ぶ焼き物屋さんや土管を敷いた庭などを眺めながら歩く。GWの真っただ中、快晴に恵まれたその日は家族連れも多く、にぎわっていた。お年寄りには格好のウオーキングコース、子供たちもあまりマスクを気にせず嬌声を上げている。

焼き物散歩道、土管を捨てずに再利用

Recycled clay pipes in the garden

歩き疲れたので休憩をして、高台から町を眼下に望む。レンガ色の煙突が澄んだ青空にニョキニョキと立っていて、「ああ、ここは古くからの焼き物の町なんだなあ」と実感。その先には青い海が広がり、窯炉で焼きあがった陶器はあそこから船で出荷されていたのだろうと思いをはせる。

煙突が立ち並ぶ常滑の町

焼き物散歩道を一巡りしたので、次は南へ足を伸ばして、INAXライブミュージアムへ。歩くこと約20分。結構疲れましたが、訪れる価値ありの場所でした！

ここで見学できるのは、まずタイルの歴史そしてトイレの歴史。世界のタイル博物館（１F）では常設展として「装飾する魂」が開かれている。タイルというのは木造家屋の多い日本ではあまり馴染みのあるものではない。生活を彩るオブジェぐらいに私は思っていた。でもあれは立派に「絵」なんですね、人々の憧れや信仰を表している。

たとえば、世界最古のエジプトのタイルは美しいオーシャンブルーに彩られ、王の再生や復活を願ってピラミッドに張られた。

偶像崇拝がタブーのイスラムでは、人物や動物は描けない代わりに精密な幾何学模様を生み出した。

産業革命時代のイギリスでは富を得た中産階級がアールヌーボーの様式美を生活の中に取り入れた。そして日本人は？

銭湯のタイル壁に富士山を描いたのです！

ピラミッドに残る世界最古のタイル

イスラームのタイル張りドーム天井

真骨頂は企画展示室（１F）で見られる古便器コレクション「デザイン性豊かな昔の便器」。そうです、INAXといえばTOTOと並ぶ日本の2大トイレメーカー。

青磁の古便器

暗い空間を華やかに彩った昔の小便器

人目をはばかる空間で昔は「ご不浄」とも呼ばれた日本のトイレ。江戸時代末から明治にかけて、便器はそれまでの木製から、衛生的で耐久性のある陶磁器製に変わっていった。染付で華麗に絵付けされたものや、青や緑の釉薬が縦に横に流し掛けられたものなど、焼き物として装飾が施された便器は、暗いトイレを華やかに彩る意匠だったようだ。

実は、うちの隠居にもそんな古いトイレがあった。懐かしいなー。あれは昭和40年代、祖父母の部屋の隣に青磁のアサガオ（小便器）が佇んでいた。孫の私は少し気味悪く思いながらも、その横を通り障子の部屋を開けたものだ。

INAXライブミュージアムには、非水洗式の大小便器、尿瓶やおまる、厠下駄など、陶磁器製のトイレコレクションが600点近くある。ぜひ一度のぞいてみて。

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Buy Japanese Gifts From Aichi Prefecture

Hand-Picked Sayama Tea 手摘み狭山茶

by Johannes Schonherr

Shincha advertising at a Sayama Tea store in Tokorozawa, Saitama

In the Sayama tea area northwest of Tokyo, the harvest of the Shincha (新茶), the first tea leaves of the year, takes place in late April / early May. Among tea lovers, this is a highly anticipated harvest since those first leaves are especially tasty and aromatic.

Sayama Shincha is a Sencha tea, which means it is a tea sold in the form of processed, steamed leaves - unlike Matcha which is sold as a powder. About three-quarters of all Japanese green teas are Sencha teas.

Yamaka-en Sayama Tea field, Tokorozawa

Japanese Teas

The premium quality is picked by hand by a group of experienced harvest helpers who can decide within fractions of a second which leaves to take, steadily filling their baskets with the highest quality leaves.

Sayama is one of Japan's northern-most tea areas. Winters can be freezing. Tea plants need to be of varieties that can withstand such conditions. Yabukita, a plant originally from Shizuoka that proved to be able to adapt to the more northern climate, turned out to be the first choice for the hand-picked Sayama Shincha.

To withstand the cold of winter, the Sayama tea plants grow thicker leaves resulting in a profound flavor and a rich taste.

An old local minyo folk song, often sung during the harvest in old times, takes the comparisons to the other traditional Japanese tea growing areas lightly: the tea from Uji (near Kyoto), it says, is all about the scent, the tea from Shizuoka is all about the color but Sayama Tea is all about the taste.

Kyoto-Uji is certainly Japan's most famous tea area while Shizuoka produces the bulk of Japanese Green Tea. Sayama, producing tea since the times of the Kamakura Shogunate in the 1300s is up among them as one of the top three traditional Japanese tea production areas.

Yamaka-en Sayama Tea field ready for hand picking, Tokorozawa

The Harvest

To get a real feel of the tea, there is nothing better than actually joining the harvest. Take a Seibu Shinjuku Line train to Tokorozawa or Iruma City, walk around the tea fields in April and inquire at the adjoining farms if they need a harvest helper. In most cases, the answer will most likely be a happy "yes."

Yamaka-en tea harvest by hand, Tokorozawa

Yamaka Kasuya Tea Farm

At the Yamaka Kasuya family farm in Kita Iwaoka, Tokorozawa that is definitely the case. Their teas are known under the name Yamaka-en (Yamaka Garden).

Give them your phone number and you will receive a call back once the actual harvest days have been decided.

Arrive at the tea field in the morning. You might be a little surprised at the shape of the plants you are directed to. Those are not the neatly trimmed rows of tea plants you see so often in advertising. Those neatly trimmed rows are for machine harvesting. The hand-picking tea also grows in neat rows but the branches stretch out in a much more natural manner.

Wrapped-up shades hang over the tea field. Those have shielded the plants from intense sunlight during the growing period in spring, preventing the ultra-violet rays from damaging the taste of the nascent young leaves.

You receive a basket and are told which leaves to take - only the set of the freshest three leaves right on top. The classical set of tea leaves is often seen in print.

You work the bushes, clipping leaf set after leave set with your fingers. A typical group of harvesters consists of about 20 to 30 people. Many of them are elderly folks being part of other tea-growing families living nearby.

Unfortunately, they don't sing any minyo folk songs during work anymore. But there is constant chatter. The days of the harvest bring many folks together who don't see each other for the rest of the year. There is constant talk about whose children married whom, who had children, who died, and so on. For those folks, a tea harvest is a social event.

A perfect set of tea leaves

Tea Tradition

Frequently, the town hall sends young employees to the harvest as well, to let them experience the importance of the tea tradition in their town.

Since the plants are about 160 cm high, it's all rather easy work. You don't have to be afraid of back pains. If you like to squat on the ground for a while and take the leaves from there, it's perfectly okay.

At the end of the working day, usually at 4 pm, you receive an envelope with your salary of the day in cash.

Don't expect to finance your next trip around the world that way. Rather invest the cash in some really good tea by going to the farm shop to buy some top-notch tea about a week later.

By then, the son of the house, running a small tea processing plant right on the premises, will have turned the tea leaves you harvested into high quality Shincha for sale only at the tiny family tea shop on the family premises.

Hand picked tea leaves in a basket

Gomeicha

The tea available there is the one you picked by hand. It says Gomeicha (御銘茶) on the outer wrapping though nobody ever uses that word in a conversation. Gomeicha simply means "our best tea", "our flagship" or "signature tea" or something along those lines, indicating that it is the absolute top quality tea produced at the farm.

As with most Japanese green teas, prepare this tea with water heated up to about 70°C (158°F) for optimal taste. For a second brew, use the same temperature, for the third, however, use boiling water.

The Yamaka-en Gomeicha received an award for best Green Tea from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery in 2016, 2018, and 2021.