West Meets East
One day in 1911, two years after I had returned to the Far East, I was invited to a sort of garden-party at an artist friend's house in Tokyo. Twenty or thirty painters, actors, writers, etc., were gathered together on the floor of a large tea-room; brushes and saucers of colour were lying about, and presently a number of unglazed pots were brought in and we were invited to write or paint upon them. . . . I was told that within an hour's time these pots would be glazed and afterwards fired in a little portable kiln, which a man was stoking with charcoal a few feet beyond the verandah in the garden. I struggled with the unfamiliar paints and the queer long brushes, and then my two pots were taken from me and dipped in a tub of creamy while lead glaze and set around the top of the kiln and warmed and dried for a few minutes before being carefully placed with long-handled tongs in the inner box or muffle. Although this chamber was already at a dull red heat the pots did not break. Fireclay covers were placed on top of the kiln, and the potter fanned the fuel till the sparks flew. In about half an hour the muffle gradually became bright red, and the glaze on our pots could be seen through the spy-hole melted and glossy. The covers were removed and the glowing pieces taken out one by one and placed on tiles, while the glow slowly faded and the true colours came out accompanied by curious sharp ticks and tings as the crackle began to form in the cooling, shrinking glaze. Another five minutes passed and we could gingerly handle our pots painted only one short hour before. (29-30 )
This experience was so impressive that Leach began his pottery career that day by seeking out a potter who could teach him how to make raku and stoneware. Leach would later use this inspiration from the raku party when he set up his own pottery in England when West would imitate East.
Bernard Leach's first trip to
Japan
in 1910
Bernard Leach