Pottery in Australia Vol 17 No 1 Autumn 1978

locally. For the large pots, it is put three times through a rough mixer with rollers.
For the smaller pots, the cl ay is further refined, using a blunger and pugmill.
Everything in the pottery is thrown and the range extends from the smallest sauce
bowls to teapots, platters, umbrella stands and the six-foot-high jars. Much of the
ware is slip decorated with iron oxide and sgraffito decoration. Glazes include a
clear, an iron glaze and an opaque copper green. A large thirteen-chamber climbing
kiln is fired every two months, although often only the first six chambers are
used. The large jars go into this kiln , the doorways being enlarged to allow their
entry. A large gas kiln is used to fire the smaller pieces and this is fired every
three days.
The large jars are made by a coil and throw method. The base is thrown up
to a height of fourteen or more inches and then coils "as thick as a man's wrist"
are added and thrown until the pot is complete. Several pots are made simultaneously
on Korean-type wheels.
As President of the Gotsu branch of the Bussankan, a national organization
which sells and promotes the work of craftsmen, Shimada san is constantly heing
called upon to advise and mediate. Sometimes artists from Tokyo come to the
pottery to decorate large platters which Shimada san has thrown for them and
there is a feeling of purpose and progress in the workshop. Shimada san is a
traditional craftsman with a modern attitude and a broad and generous outlook,
adapting his work to the needs of the community.
JANET MANSFIELD visited the Shimada Pottery while on a study tour of Ja pan in 1977 on a
grant from the Australia-Japan Foundation.
HAMADA
Shoji Hamada was not only a great potter, like Bernard Leach he was a "builder of the
bridge between East and West"--as Leach described tbeir activities-a pioneer in the development
of an international community of potters and an international c.eramic idiom. We are
all deeply indebted to him.
Older members of the potting communilY in Sydney will have happy memories of
Hamada's visit to Sydney in 1964. He was scheduled for about a week in Sydney. and we
had planned a full program of visits and excursions, and some demonstrations. On arrival,
however, on being shown the wheel, clay, and raw-dip glazes that had been prepared for his
demonstrations, he said he felt he could make a better contribution to potting in Sydney
by sitting down in the one place and making pots. And this is just what he did, topping it
off with his two most memorable demonslrations at the University of New South Wales.
He will be remembered-and missed-by those who got to koow him not only as a
good potter, but as a friendly, generous and humble person.
/ VO II M cMeekill
One of the greatest Japanese potters of the twentieth century, Shoji Hamada, who perfected
Mashiko ware, died on the 5th of January, 1978.
When he returned to Japan from England in 1924, Shoji Hamada went to li ve at a littleknown
village ca ll ed Mashiko, where he continued developing what is known today as
Mashiko ware, using clay from around that vi llage in his work.
The beauty of Mashiko ware comes from its simple yet unique design. Shoji Hamada
taught and gave demonstrations of his art in many countries, and definitely contributed to
the current world-wide boom in pottery.
In 1965 Hamada came to Australia, where he taught at the University of New South
Wales, using a stick wheel provided by the university. Many people in Australia were deepl y
impressed by this artist and his work, and recall particula rl y the beauty of hIS hand move.
ments while throwing.
The Japanese Travelling Ceramic Exhibition, which toured Australia in 1976, included
a large bowl made by Shoji Hamada with a magnificently dynamic and free feeling.
, believe that Shoji Hamada was one of the truly great purely Ja panese potters, and
hi s death is like the going out of a great light in the East.
Shigeo Shiga
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