Transcript:

Kara - usuI'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. This past year, I've been rediscovering some of my favorite sounds. This recording was made in the village of Onta in Kyusha, a southern island of Japan. Onta is a pottery village. All day and night, 364 days of the year, the village is filled with a remarkable sound.The sound is made a by a karu-usu, which is used to pound rocks and soil into clay suitable for pottery. It looks like a giant timber seesaw, about the size of telephone pole. One end has a scoop that fills with water from the river that runs through Onta. When the scoop is full, it weighs down the timber, making that creaking sound, until the water drains out and the other end of the kara-usu comes crashing down, pounding the soil.The Karu-usu of the Onta pottery village, in Japan.For the past few decades, I've been pounding away at writing a novel, Sacred Mounds, a work of historical fiction, which is now available in print and audio. For more information, please visit sacredmoundsnovel.com. That's sacredmoundsnovel.com. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.