by Ngo Tu Thanh (Frank Tu)
In this blog post, I will introduce Hasami, one of our project’s four field sites. While Cecilia wrote about online representations of the town in one of her previous posts, I focus on my experiences during fieldwork in Hasami in September 2022. Hasami is a small, mountainous town located 65km north of Nagasaki and 25 km east of Sasebo, the largest and second largest cities in Nagasaki Prefecture respectively. The town is surrounded by mountains. In 2022, Hasami’s population was 14,283. Hasami is well-known in Japan as a pottery town (yakimono no machi). It is important to note that, despite having a long tradition of making ceramic products, Hasami pottery just began to gain popularity in recent years, thanks to a movement to promote Hasami yaki initiated some years ago. In the past, due to a division of labor with the neighboring Arita, pottery produced in Hasami was sold under the name of Arita pottery. Hasami’s traditional industries are agriculture and ceramics. Nowadays, ceramics is also the town’s largest industry.
Hasami: A picturesque pottery town
Copyright © Ngo Tu Thanh 2022
As expected from a pottery town, during my fieldwork, I noticed a strong influence of ceramics in Hasami. There are also many ceramic shops around the town. According to my interview with the vice director of the Hasami Ceramics Promotion Association, as of 2022, there were as many as 111 ceramics companies organized in the cooperative (kumiai) involved in different stages of making and selling Hasami yaki, including 5 mould-making (katazukuri) companies, 40 shape-making (kijizukuri) companies, 40 kilns (kamamoto), and 26 retail companies (shōsha). The Hasami Ceramics Promotion Association acts as the mediator between these different stakeholders and the municipal, prefectural, and national governments.
Hasami Ceramics Park is one of Hasami’s famous tourist destinations
Copyright © Ngo Tu Thanh 2022
In Hasami, one can find many tourism amenities that capitalize on Hasami ceramics. One is the Hasami Ceramics Park (Yakimono no kōen), where both the Hasami Ceramics Promotion Association and the Hasami Tourism Association are located. Hasami also hosts an annual ceramics festival at the Hasami Ceramics Park. The town also transformed a former municipal primary school into a public hall to exhibit Hasami ceramics. The hall has been recognized as a tangible cultural property of Japan.
However, the vice director of the Hasami Ceramics Promotion Association also told me that the ceramics industry of Hasami is facing several challenges. The biggest problem is the lack of manpower to carry on with the production of ceramics. To counter this, he believed there should be structural transformations to ensure the sustainability and efficiency of production. He suggested several ways such as to digitalize and automize production processes, i.e., using AI to replace administrative jobs. He also thought it would be better to minimize unnecessary decision-making and implementation processes, by cutting down steps to connect potters with sales companies for example. However, he acknowledged that it would take time for such changes to take place, given the dominance of existing conservative mindsets among both local business leaders and workers in the ceramics industry, who might resist changes and innovations.
The primary school that was turned into a public exhibition hall
Copyright © Ngo Tu Thanh 2022
While ceramics has been playing an important role in Hasami’s development, there are also concerns regarding an economy solely dependent on ceramics. For instance, the vice director of the Hasami Ceramics Promotion Association said: “If the population of Japan will decrease to 100 million in the future, ceramics production will naturally have to decrease as well […] So, do you think that potteries and trading companies should just reduce the amount they sell, or should they do something different to support their employees without having to lay off employees? We have to do something about this” (interview September 29, 2022). This concern was also shared by a municipal politician who believes that Hasami lacks other services and has no products to offer other than ceramics. He is concerned that this lack of alternative business activities may hinder Hasami’s development efforts. At the time of my interviews, the respondents said Hasami was still trying to identify new ways to proceed. Thus, I am curious to follow up on future developments.