I am back again in Mashiko preparing for the Fantastic Fire workshop. Rob Muylaert, also a Dutch participant, visited me in Kamakura and together we came earlier to make pots for the firings. This is Rob and Swanica at the wheel at the International Tougei Club from Furuki-san ( ... Continue Reading
Secondly, I feel lucky to be here, because Kusakabe-san and Euan Craig are building their kilns at the moment at Furuki-san’s clay center. I will fire those kilns with Steve Tootell’s workshop in the end of October. So, they have the Mashiko Building Kiln workshop at ... Continue Reading
Euan Craig gave a workshop in Mashiko at the Tao International Tougei Center of Furuki-san on Feb 22-24 for the student and parent potters of the International School of the Sacred Heart from Tokyo. This was organized by the head of the art department Steve Tootell. http://www.d1 ... Continue Reading
On February the 10th, I attended a workshop from Yo Thom at the Sacred Heart International School in Tokyo. Yo Thom is born in Tokyo and went to Britain after she got her degree in English. She started at the Kent Institute of Art and Design. In the meantime she assisted Lisa Ha ... Continue Reading
Last Saturday, I went to a workshop from Masakazu Kusakabe-san at the Sacred Heart International School in Tokyo, where Steve Tootell is the head of Creative and Performing Arts. Steve has his own wonderful ceramic studio in the school and organizes all kinds of pottery workshop ... Continue Reading
Other potters we visited are Baba Yochiko, Euan Craig and Douglas Black. Yochiko-san works in her studio by herself. She was an apprentice “deshi” from another quite well-known potter from Mashiko: Takauchi Shugo. Her work is beautiful: white slip with on top an ele ... Continue Reading
One morning, we bought a “bento box” lunch and drove to the Saimyoji temple, way up a hill. Hank, Lee, Jim and Craig. Saimyoji Temple, also known Tokka-san Fumin-in, is a temple of the Busan Shingon School. Its main revered figure is the Eleven-Faced Kanon Bosatsu w ... Continue Reading
We also visited Kamiya Shouichi. He lives also in Mashiko and is a 5 minute walk away from Furuki-san, the tougei place we stayed at. He is a former apprentice “deshi” of Shimaoka-san and worked with David McDonald. Shimaoko had told him, when he was going to build ... Continue Reading
Matsuzaki Ken is born in 1950 in Tokyo and graduated from the Fine Arts Ceramics Department at Tamegawa University in 1972. Directly after that, he apprenticed for five years with Shimaoka Tatsuzo. He established his own kiln, “YuShin (Playful Spirit)” in 1978. Matsu ... Continue Reading
Shimaoka Tatsuzo is born in 1919 in Tokyo. When Shimaoka was a teenager , wondering what to do when he grew up, he visited the Nihon Mingeikan (Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo) in 1938. There he discovered the beauty of Mingei advocated by Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961). Shimaoka ha ... Continue Reading
