A second-generation potter from Echizen, a rural region of central Japan rich in pottery tradition dating to the middle of the 12th century, will be featured in an April workshop, sponsored by the Fairhope Committee On Public Art (COPA), a committee of the Eastern Shore Art Association; Susie Bowman of the Kiln Studio  and Gallery, Fairhope; and the University of South Alabama’s Baldwin Campus.

Uichiro Oya will conduct the two-day workshop, “Heart of Echizen,” Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  in the theater of the University of South Alabama’s Baldwin Campus, located at Summit and St. James streets.  The cost will be $10 per day with participants asked to bring a brown bag lunch. Seats are limited.  To RSVP, call the Eastern Shore Art Center, 928-2228, Extension 106, or email  kate@esartcenter.com.

Oya’s work and that of 19 other potters from Echizen will be featured in an exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art, April 19 through July.  The exhibit will move to the University of Montevallo, August 6 through September 14.

Echizen products are made with the highest quality soil from the local region.  In the past, Echizen potters used a coiling technique called nejitate; where clay is rolled into long, thin cord-like pieces and then curled up on top of itself to form a basic shape.  It was fired in an anagama kiln, which was made by tunneling into the side of a mountain, a method still used today.  This pottery is referred to as yakishime, because it is made without the use of any artificial glazes.  Echizen pottery today is still made in wood-fired kilns, to keep the tradition alive.

Oya followed in the footsteps of his father.  He produces two lines of work, one utilitarian, the other his sculptural figurines.  When viewing his work, one is confronted by wide-eyed, smiling, animalistic creatures. “ These toy-like creatures are created to embody lighthearted warmth,”  he said.  He feels firing without glaze gives his work natural sequences of color and surfaces.  “It gives my work the look as if it was born in nature rather than made by hand.”

At the conclusion of his Fairhope workshop, Oya will present to COPA and the Eastern Shore Art Association one of his creations.  COPA and ESAA will then present the piece to the City of Fairhope Library for permanent display.

The Echizen workshop and exhibit were inspired by Bowman who studied with Echizen pottery masters in Japan in 2009.