I recently wrote about Shoji Hamada as part of a job application that I didn’t get. Never mind, these things happen for a reason! I did enjoy researching and writing the piece though, and it reminded me of all the years I spent training to be a design journalist and how much I love learning about other people and celebrating their successes.
I thought I’d use my words to start a new Master Series, a place where I’ll explore the contributions of some of my favourite craftspeople.
Shoji Hamada
1884-1978
Shoji Hamada is one of the most important and influential potters of the 20th century. A great friend and colleague of Bernard Leach, Hamada moved from Japan to St Ives in 1920 to help establish the Leach Pottery, building its first wood-burning climbing kiln. Together the two men drove a new studio pottery movement in the West - one that celebrated craftsmanship, functionality and the timeless beauty of natural materials.
A humble and charismatic artist, Hamada produced individual pieces of stoneware as well as slip decorated earthenware. He threw fluently, using a Chinese-style hand wheel, rotated by a stick. Often throwing while holding a conversation and surrounded by friends and family, he made the process seem effortless and did much to bring traditional Japanese forms into the modern western aesthetic.
He decorated the clay with energy and ease, using incised, painted and poured decoration that was at once generous yet economical. His work gave the materials used a new prominence of their own.
On his return to Japan in 1923, Hamada established his own pottery in Mashiko and was instrumental in developing the Mingei movement – advocating a return to the essentials of art, producing only necessary items and living simply with the earth. He committed to using exclusively local materials, not only for the clay and glazes, but also for brushes and tools, which he made himself from animal hair and bamboo.
Hamada’s work and personal life were the embodiment of this philosophy and in 1955 he was declared a ‘National Living Treasure' in Japan. Over sixty years later, his work and philosophy seem as relevant today as they ever were and his legacy lives on in those that find beauty in craftsmanship, function and nature.
