ARTIST FACT SHEET Shoji Hamada

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ARTIST FACT SHEET Shoji Hamada ABOUT THE ARTIST (b. 1894, d. 1978) Shoji Hamada was born in Tokyo, Japan in the Kanagawa Prefecture (a district in the country) in 1894. He began studying ceramics at age 16 and graduated from Tokyo Technical College. In 1918, Hamada met British studio potter Bernard Leach. Together they founded the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall, England in 1920. In 1924, Hamada returned to Japan to open his own studio at Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture. Hamada and Bernard stayed life-long friends and were particularly influential in bringing the mingei aesthetic to contemporary pottery. In 1952 they visited the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. Hamada mentored numerous potters during his career, at Mashiko and around the world. Regarded as one of the most influential masters of studio pottery, Hamada was designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government in 1955. ABOUT THE ARTWORK This work of art is an example of Hamada’s poured glaze technique. The artist created the patterns by pouring the glaze over the plate with a ladle. This plate has a solid, black background called a tenmoku glaze. The poured rust-colored is called a kaki glaze. Hamada’s glazes usually were made from ash, salt, iron and cinder. CONNECTIONS AND FACTS Shoji Hamada Hamada’s studio is now part of the Mashiko Pottery Village. Find Plate with tenmoku glaze and kaki out more at http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/attractions/facilities/heart_art/ glaze poured in an angular direction, traditional_tochigi.html circa 1960 Glazed stoneware The word mingei means “art of the people” and was coined by a Collectors Forum Purchase Japanese philosopher named Soetsu Yanagi who found beauty in regional, handmade, utilitarian objects. More information is available at http://kiadocentresources.wikispaces.com/file/view/ Turning+Point-Japanese+Ceramics+section+panels+text.pdf Location of Artwork The Archie Bray Foundation provides a center for potters to explore Permanent Collection of the Boise Art Museum the medium and collaborate with each other. Visit their website for 670 Julia Davis Drive more information http://www.archiebray.org Boise, Idaho 83702 www.boiseartmuseum.org Since 1955 Japan has named influential potters as Living National Treasures. See a list at http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/living-natl- © All images copyright of the artist, treasures.htm Boise Art Museum or the artist estate. 670 Julia Davis Drive Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 345-8330 www.boiseartmuseum.org .

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Hamada Shōji (1894-1978)
HAMADA SHŌJI (1894-1978) Hamada Shōji attained unsurpassed recognition at home and abroad for his folk art style ceramics. Inspired by Okinawan and Korean ceramics in particular, Hamada became an important figure in the Japanese folk arts movement in the 1960s. He was a founding member of the Japan Folk Art Association with Bernard Leach, Kawai Kanjirō, and Yanagi Soetsu. After 1923, he moved to Mashiko where he rebuilt farmhouses and established his large workshop. Throughout his life, Hamada demonstrated an excellent glazing technique, using such trademark glazes as temmoku iron glaze, nuka rice-husk ash glaze, and kaki persimmon glaze. Through his frequent visits and demonstrations abroad, Hamada influenced many European and American potters in later generations as well as those of his own. 1894 Born in Tokyo 1912 Saw etchings and pottery by Bernard Leach in Ginza, Tokyo 1913 Studied at the Tokyo Technical College with Itaya Hazan (1872-1963) Became friends with Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966) and visits in Kyoto (1915) 1914 Became interested in Mashiko pottery after seeing a teapot at Hazan's home 1916 Graduated from Tokyo Technical College and enrolled at Kyoto Ceramics Laboratory, visits with Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963) Began 10,000 glaze experiments with Kawai 1917 Visited Okinawa to study kiln construction 1919 Met Bernard Leach (1887-1979) at his Tokyo exhibition, invited to him his studio in Abiko where meets Yanagi Sōetsu (1889-1961) Traveled to Korea and Manchuria, China with Kawai 1920 Visited Mashiko for the first time Traveled to England with Leach, built a climbing kiln at St. Ives 1923 Traveled to France, Italy, Crete, and Egypt after his solo exhibition in London 1924 Moved to Mashiko.
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The Leach Pottery: 100 Years on from St Ives
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Bernard Leach and His Circle
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Bernard Leach and British Columbian Pottery: an Historical Ethnography of a Taste Culture
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Leach Pottery Announce Collaborative Project to Restore Documentary Film Compendium on Bernard Leach and the Mingei Movement
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Education Guide
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THE LEACH POTTERY: ONE CENTURY Dates: 17Th
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In Pursuit of the Ethical Pot IJ's Essay 7July2015
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As I Was Going to St Ives… LIVING a TRADITION at the LEACH POTTERY
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Bernard Leach
BERNARD LEACH hsgayg in Apprecioﬁiom CoiiectedF ané Edited by T. Barrow A Monograph published by the Editorial Committee of the N.Zi Potter Wellington New Zealand 1960 BERNARD LEACH READING — ST.IVES, 1957 CONTENTS Page List of Illustrations Terry Barrow Editorial Preface Bernard Leach An Open Letter to New O\ Zealand Potters The publication of this book was Bernard Leach Looking Backwards and made possible by the generosity of 10 the Hon. W. T. Anderton, Minister Forwards at 72 of Internal Affairs. Financial C. L. Bailey Bernard Leach in Perspective 16 support was also received by small donations and pre—publication Michael Cardew Bernard Leach — Recollections 19 payment of subscriptions. All Ray Chapman—Taylor A Few Lines on Bernard Leach 26 work in connection with the pro— duction of this book has been Kathe rine Pleydell — At St. Ives in the Early Years 29 voluntary, and any profits from Bouverie its sale will be used to subsidize Barry Brickell The Colonial Response to Leach 33 regular issues of the N. Z. Potter Bernard Leach A Note on Japanese Tea 37 or other monographs. Ceremony Wares Len Castle Photographs of the Leach 39 Mr. Wilf Wright has generously Pottery undertaken the task of distributing Murray Fieldhouse Workshop Visit - The Leach 41 the book. Copies may be obtained Pottery for ten shillings each by applying to Mr. Wright at Stockton's Ltd. , George Wingfieldu Bernard Leach — Bridge between Woodward Street, Wellington, N. Z. Digby East and We st Bernard Howell Leach Biographical Chronology 62 c 1960 by the Editorial Committee N. Z.
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From the Editor's Desk
3 urn? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, I From the Editor’s suppose. The axiom is valid (at least Desk in a Platonic sense) whether the idea originates with Keats or with the art- ist whose work inspired the young JOHN S. HATCHER poet to pen these lines. But the jar before us on the cover, fashioned by world-renowned potter THE ANECDOTE OF THE JAR Bernard Leach (1887–1979), is equal- ly evocative in the subtlety of what Sometimes a work of art is sufficient it might say to us. Leach was born unto itself—we see it, experience it, in Hong Kong, attended the Slade and understand it. We need not, or School of Fine Art and the London cannot, articulate exactly what the School of Art, studied ceramics in Ja- art, whether a painting, a symphony, a pan under Urano Shigekichi, and later dance, or in this case, what might ap- returned to England, where he estab- pear to some as a simple jar, has led us lished Leach Pottery, which promoted to know or feel or become. pottery as a combination of Western Except the jar on our cover is not and Eastern arts and philosophies and simple. It is fashioned by someone became a place for apprenticeship for steeped in the knowledge of how potters from all over the world. It is much the potter’s art can convey. The still open today. speaker in John Keats’s poem “Ode Leach learned about the Bahá’í Faith on a Grecian Urn” describes his own from friend and renowned abstract ex- philosophical musings as he ponders pressionist painter Mark Tobey, and the designs on a piece of ancient Gre- he officially joined the Faith in 1940.
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