Poetry of Earth and Life: Shoji Hamada and Folk Crafts
"Poetry of Earth and Life - Hamada Shoji and Mingei Pottery"
Working with the soil of Mashiko, Shoji Hamada has continued to create vessels that seem to quietly speak to one another.
It is not an art that competes for fame, but rather the "beauty of utility" that fits comfortably in the hands of the user.
Shoji, who deeply resonated with the ideas of Yanagi Soetsu and lived as a practitioner of the Mingei movement, has pottery that exudes the warmth of everyday life.
■ Early life and journey - the path to pottery
Hamada Shoji (1894–1978) was born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, and studied ceramics at Tokyo Higher Technical School (now Tokyo Institute of Technology).
After graduating, he devoted himself to researching glazes at the Kyoto Municipal Ceramics Testing Center, where he met Kanjiro Kawai, Muneyoshi Yanagi, and Bernard Leach.
In 1920, he traveled to St. Ives, England with Leach and built the first climbing kiln in the West.
In this artist village, where creativity and everyday life come together, Shoji witnesses the ideal form of "beauty rooted in everyday life."
■ Mashiko - facing the soil
After returning to Japan, Shoji studied at the Tsuboya Kiln in Okinawa, and from 1930 he settled in Mashiko Town, Tochigi Prefecture.
As the founder of the Mashiko ware revival, he used local clay and glazes to create simple yet powerful vessels on the potter's wheel.
Representative techniques include "nagashikake" and "toukibimon," in which the flow of glaze and patterns breathe life into the vessel.
They grow with use and have a beauty that blends seamlessly into everyday life.
■ As a practitioner of the Mingei movement
Shoji promoted the Mingei movement together with Yanagi Muneyoshi and Kawai Kanjiro, and in 1926 published the "Prospectus for the Establishment of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum."
In 1936, he worked hard to establish the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, and served as its director after Yanagi's death.
His activities were not limited to Japan, but also included researching folk crafts in China and the Korean Peninsula, spreading the idea of folk art widely.
In 1955, he was designated a Living National Treasure and made his name as a leading figure in folk art pottery.
■ Hamada Shoji's pottery - practical as poetry
Shoji's pottery is not a work of art, but "beauty for use."
It is like a poem that is passed on to someone's hands and nurtured at the dinner table every day.
"Leave it to the kiln" - Shoji's words are imbued with an aesthetic in which nature and technique, chance and will, coexist.
His pottery still welcomes us at the Mashiko Museum and the Japan Folk Crafts Museum.
The spirit of Mingei still lives quietly in modern life.