Ceramic Artist Jaeho Choi: Extending the Lines of History in Yamaguchi Prefecture

Ceramic Artist Jaeho Choi: Extending the Lines of History in Yamaguchi Prefecture




Zobigasaki, or Elephant Trunk Cape, curves out into the Seto Inland Sea from the Murozumi district of Hikari, Yamaguchi prefecture. It once had a bustling commercial port where trading ships and tax collectors plying the Seto would stop on the way to Osaka and Tokyo, but today it is a fishing community so quiet it sometimes feels frozen in time. Old wooden merchant houses and shops still line Kaishodori street as it runs northeast from the ancient Fugenji temple. Just a few minutes walk along that street is a small building with a hand-painted sign reading simply utsuwa, in white hiragana. The word is usually translated ‘vessels’, but on this sign, what it truly means is ‘pottery’.