Earthenware Poem by Nanashino Ryu

Even during the hunter-gatherer era,
people had made earthenware.

Clay was managed by administrators.
Permission was necessary to fire wares.
Size and number of wares were imposed a tax on.
People bought clay or rented earthenware
from merchants having the special privilege.
And they paid it back the debt by crops and labor.
The nobility owned earthenware decorated beautifully.
Ordinary people used sooty and fragile one carefully.

The weather was bad that year.
Many people got only poor harvest.
Then the merchants jacked up the price of clay.
After that, cheating increased, thieves were caught,
and families without meals cried.
While poor people endured hunger and cold,
the nobility and the merchants continued to feast.

When I had such an imagination in a museum
while staring at an earthenware which was restored,
I felt an emptiness to the world as usual in all ages.
In old times,
everything was so simple, unlike complicated present,
and people had a deep affection and pure heart.
I really want to believe so.

However,
if there were the rulers and the ruled,
if there were owners and non-owners,
I couldn't find a difference between
a man who was using an earthenware and
a man who is using an electric rice cooker.