Crafting Ancient Japanese Pottery: Keeping Alive A Japanese Art Form | Handmade In Japan | Journal

Meet one of Japan's most famous family of potters - the Hamadas. Shoji Hamada was a major figure in the Mingei folk art movement of the 1920s and 30s and helped turn the town of Mashiko into a major center of ceramics, famous for its thick and rustic pottery. Nowadays, his grandson, Tomoo Hamada, continues the family tradition as he painstakingly shapes his pots and fires them in an old style wood-fueled kiln. The art of Japanese pottery is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and dates back thousands of years.
Handmade In Japan is a short trilogy of films that take a closer look at the incredible and iconic items that originate from Japan. The Samurai Sword, the Kimono and Japanese Pottery. Each film focuses on the process behind the craft as well as looking at their importance in Japanese culture.

[@garyroberts3859]

I learned about Bernard Leach and his association with Japanese ceramics in 1967.
Over the next 30 years I made pottery on and off. I learned to use the wheel, to fire the electric kilns and experiment with numerous glazes..
I had a love affair with ceramics. and some of the pieces I made I’m very proud off…I was just a hobbiest

[@Liliarthan]

Like you, I love the pieces I made. I did pottery briefly before the pandemic. At the time I was quite critical about my pieces, but I couldn’t bear the thought of throwing them away. Now, the aspects that irked me, like how my little bowls were too heavy coz I was not good at judging thickness of clay on the wheel when trimming, are now my favourite parts about them - the extra clay gave them a nice weight when handling and made them almost impossible to break (handy with young kids!).
I hope you’ll get to do more of it.

[@jamesanonymous2343]

FOR YEARS I COLLECTED, ADMIRED THOSE FROM THE ""ORIBE"" TEA CEREMONY TYPE
HAD TO LET ALL OF THEM GO, BECAUSE OF MY AGEING. ALSO LIKED AMERICAN
""TECO"" FROM EARLY 20THC. RAKU AND MANY OTHERS,,,,,,,

[@kevinbosley2215]

"You can't do this with a gas kiln..." (proceeds to fix glaze errors with gas kiln) 😂

[@aptmix]

this documentary is very important to me, thank you

[@lianefehrle9921]

I hope one day my grandson will get me one of these .

[@sandramyer7081]

Beautiful!

[@catherinebullock-bukky7163]

Is that you Gjeff voff voff ? Hvy doings the chessbord on ya head ?