Kanto, Japan · Town / small city
Kanto's best-known pottery town: Jonaizaka street, lined with Mashiko-yaki pottery workshops and shops, the Ceramic Art Messe (which includes the original kiln of potter Shoji Hamada, who put the town on the map in the early 20th century), two annual pottery fairs (Golden Week and early November), and Saimyoji Temple with its five-story pagoda from the 16th century.
Train — Shinkansen Tokyo-Utsunomiya (¥5,000, ~50min) + direct bus to Mashiko (~1h, ¥1,170, only one bus per hour). For anyone based in Utsunomiya, the same bus covers the whole trip in 1h for ¥1,170, much cheaper and more direct than a round trip from Tokyo. Alternative via local train through Oyama-Shimodate and the private Mooka Railway (~1h40, ¥1,110), slower and with more transfers.
The town's main street, lined with Mashiko-yaki pottery workshops and shops, with vendor stalls and visitable kilns.
A museum complex including the original kiln and studio of potter Shoji Hamada, who moved his workshop to Mashiko in the early 20th century and put the town on the international map.
House, collection and climbing kilns of Shoji Hamada, Living National Treasure and leader of the mingei movement alongside the Briton Bernard Leach: the core of why Mashiko is Mashiko.
Saimyo-ji is stop number 20 on the Bando pilgrimage of the 33 Kannon and holds the only smiling Enma in Japan: the judge of hell, laughing.
Shape and glaze your own piece of Mashiko-yaki with a potter in his own workshop; several potteries offer it from about 4,400 yen.
Pedaling from kiln to kiln along satoyama lanes as far as the Ogodo dam, the best way to see the workshops that lie off the main street.
The hot spring complex on the outskirts opens its stone-walled outdoor bath to day visitors, with no need to stay overnight.
Nine generations dyeing with vats of fermented indigo sunk into the floor, a workshop alive since the Edo period that almost nobody associates with Mashiko.
Close to a million sunflowers in August facing the hills of the pottery town, with a festival of its own.
From July 23 to 25, floats from six neighbourhoods and the Omiki Chodai rite, considered one of the three strangest festivals in Kanto.
Twenty minutes uphill to a viewpoint taking in the whole pottery valley and its kilns.
Garden produce, local ceramics at lower prices than on the main street, and a canteen using vegetables from the district.
Two major annual fairs (Golden Week in late April-early May, and early November) with hundreds of potters' stalls; only available on those specific dates.
A temple with a five-story pagoda from the 16th century, one of the few historic buildings of its kind in Tochigi Prefecture.
Shop and cafe set in a farmhouse that reinterprets folk craft in contemporary terms; a reference point in Japanese design today.
At weekends a C12 steam locomotive runs the Moka line to Mashiko, one of the few still in regular service in Japan.
The district concentrates dozens of strawberry greenhouses open from December to May, the largest such operation in northern Kanto.
Guided visit and tasting at the town's sake brewery, with advance booking.
Two Muromachi-period shrines with thatched roofs in a silent forest, both Important Cultural Properties and virtually without visitors.
An Amida hall mixing three architectural styles and a zen gate from 1402 with an enormous eave, hidden among rice paddies.
Warehouse of salvaged antique Japanese furniture and ceramics, on the same circuit of design shops in the town.
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