The “Autumn Mashiko Pottery Fair” is held on early November every year. This fair started from 1966, there are about 50 shops and as many as 550 tents set up selling pottery. The Pottery Fairs provide a great chance to enjoy talking with young artists and local potters in the shops and tents. Every year about 600,000 people come to enjoy the fair.

Developed since the19th century for its fine quality and proximity to the big market Tokyo， Masiko-yaki pottery has long been liked for its daily use items such as pots， water jars and teapots. There are nearly 260 kilns， 50 shops and potters of youth and experience who create works of great variety. Pottery markets held in spring and autumn attract hundreds of thousands of Mashiko-yaki lovers. Even beginners can join workshops to learn how to decorate， hand-form or use a potter’s wheel， and enjoy authentic ceramic art.

Higeta Indigo Dyeing Workshop, established during the Kansei era (1789–1801), is a fabric-dyeing and weaving workshop. It is a rare workshop in Tochigi that inherited traditional indigo dyeing. It still uses the dyeing area created at the time of its establishment to dye the fabric in the traditional manner. Inside the 200-year-old building with a thatched roof, 72 earthenware indigo vats are neatly arranged. The building and the vat area are Tochigi Prefecture’s tangible cultural assets, and visitors can freely visit and see them. Indigo is a plant dye that has long colored ethnic costumes. Long ago in Japan, 80% of commoners’ cloths were dyed with indigo. The indigo color produced by the traditional Japanese indigo dyeing and plant dyeing methods is called Japan Blue and, together with the dyeing methods, is highly recognized around the world. The workshop engages not only in dyeing but also cotton cultivation, yarn-making, yarn dyeing, and handweaving in order to preserve the cotton tradition essential to the indigo dyeing culture. The workshop sells indigo-dyed cotton fabric, coasters, and tablecloths. Please come and see the traditional techniques and the beauty of indigo.

Daisei Gama, established in 1861, is a leading pottery studio in the pottery town of Mashiko. Its shop, a renovated traditional Japanese house, showcases a wide variety of pottery ranging from standard products to basic products with a few additional touches to the design, clay, and taste. Daisei Gama has been using a climbing kiln for generations since its establishment. Among climbing kilns operated by many pottery studios in Mashiko, it is the largest one. Daisei Gama uses Japanese red pine as fuel and traditional glaze that has long been used in Mashiko such as persimmon glaze as well as rice-bran white glaze, black glaze, amber glaze, and celadon glaze. Currently at Daisei Gama, the sixth-generation family head Kuninori Otsuka and the seventh-generation family head Seiichi Otsuka, together with craftworkers, are creating traditional, simple Mashiko pottery with a glimpse of strength and warmth inside. Visitors can view the climbing kiln. There is also a gallery in a separate building.

The Mashiko Pottery Museum exhibits the works of the late Shoji Hamada， a designated National Treasure along with related works and high quality pieces by local artists. The former residence of Shoji Hamada was moved to the site including a replica of his climbing kiln.