By Rafe Calder
Brown glaze. Sometimes a little red. Wikipedia sums up the look of Mashikoyaki in those terms: simple and rustic. The page is short, and the history behind it is a story of two dates, 1853 and 1930, and a man who went to England and came home.
The pottery
Wikipedia says pottery in Mashiko dates back to the Jōmon and Yayoi periods. Modern Mashikoyaki, it says, dates to 1853, when a potter found that the local clay was ideal for ceramics. The page does not name the potter, and we do not. It describes Mashiko as a folkware kiln site, unlike some older kiln sites elsewhere in Japan.
Hamada Shōji
The same article says that in 1930 Hamada Shōji set up a kiln in Mashiko, which popularised the style, and that he was later designated a Living National Treasure. His own article adds the detail. He was born on 9 December 1894 in Kawasaki and studied ceramics at Tokyo Industrial College, now the Tokyo Institute of Technology, under Itaya Hazan, alongside Kawai Kanjirō. He wrote to Bernard Leach after seeing Leach’s Tokyo exhibition and became his friend. In 1920 he accompanied Leach to England and spent three years at St Ives. He returned to Japan in 1923. In 1930 he built his residence in Mashiko and set up his workshop in the town.
The article calls him a major figure in the mingei, or folk-art, movement. It gives 1955 as the year he was designated a Living National Treasure, and says that in 1961 he succeeded Yanagi Muneyoshi as the second director of the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum. In 1977 he opened the Mashiko Sankōkan, a museum at his home. He died in Mashiko on 5 January 1978.
Two small differences
The two articles describe 1930 slightly differently. One says Hamada set up a kiln in Mashiko. The other says he built his residence there and established his workshop. These are compatible, and we mention them only so that a reader who spots the difference knows we saw it.
After Hamada
The Mashiko article says that after Hamada, people seeking a more traditional Japanese lifestyle settled in the area. It also says Tatsuzō Shimaoka, Hamada’s student, was designated a Living National Treasure and worked in Mashiko from 1953 until his death in 2007. Twice a year, the article says, potters and craftsmen from Mashiko and nearby areas set up stalls in the town. It names a week in the spring and a week in the autumn, and we give no dates, as a schedule can change.
Dates in order
- Jōmon and Yayoi periods: pottery in Mashiko dates back to them, according to Wikipedia.
- 1853: modern Mashikoyaki begins, according to Wikipedia.
- 9 December 1894: Hamada born, according to Wikipedia.
- 1920: Hamada travels to England with Leach, according to Wikipedia.
- 1923: Hamada returns to Japan, according to Wikipedia.
- 1930: Hamada builds his residence and workshop in Mashiko, according to Wikipedia.
- 1953: Shimaoka begins work in Mashiko, according to Wikipedia.
- 1955: Hamada designated a Living National Treasure, according to Wikipedia.
- 1977: the Mashiko Sankōkan opens, according to Wikipedia.
- 5 January 1978: Hamada dies, according to Wikipedia.
- 2007: Shimaoka dies, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
The place article gives the pottery’s long background and its look. The biography gives one man’s life. They share the date 1930 and the name Hamada. They do not describe the clay by name or the making of a bowl, and so we do not.
What kind of sources these are
Both are Wikipedia articles, which anyone can edit. We read no museum, kiln or craft body source. Several of the facts we would most like to give, such as which glazes are used and how the clay is prepared, were not in the text, and we have not supplied them.
Questions a buyer would ask
Who made the piece and where? Is it a modern piece in the Mashiko style or an older one? The articles name two famous potters, both now dead, and a piece cannot be assumed to be theirs. What is the glaze, and is it food-safe? We have no source on that, and we make no claim.
Why the St Ives years matter to a reader
Hamada spent three years at St Ives with Bernard Leach, according to his article, and then came home and built a workshop in a town whose pottery the other article calls simple and rustic. The two articles do not draw a line from one to the other, and we do not claim the style changed. We note only that the biography records a man who worked in two countries before settling at Mashiko, and that the place article credits his 1930 kiln with popularising the style. Our reading: the fame of Mashiko owes something to his reputation. That is our inference, and neither article says it.
What the short page leaves open
The place article is brief. It does not say how many kilns operate today, what the clay is like, how the glaze is made, or how a piece is fired. Those are exactly the questions a careful buyer asks. We would rather leave them open than answer them from memory.
What we left out
We left out any named glazes or clays, because the pages do not mention them. We left out prices. We left out the chronology of individual kilns, which we did not find.
Roam first. Shop later.