Bernard Leach - Beyond East and West: Memoirs, Portraits and Essays

My thanks go toeveryonewhohascontributedtothecompilationofthisbook,whichIdedicatetomyfellowBahandsecretary,TrudiScott,withoutwhoseself-sacrifice,constantspiritualsupportandpracticalhelp,Idoubtifitcouldhavebeen accomplished.

page

1903 my first day at the Slade friendship with Reggie Turvey. Henry Tonks. The sounds of London. My father on leave, sick, sees Tonks. I leave the Slade and art to be at home until my fathers death, before which I promise to take up banking. I go to Manchester to study for the entrance exam. I fall in love with my cousin Muriel disapproval. I pass my exam and enter the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in Lombard Street, but in spite of the compensations of living in Whistlers Chelsea, loathe the work and resign after nine months. To cleanse my soul I go to Prestatyn in North Wales and Wareham in Dorset. In 1908 I meet my cousin Muriel again feelings unchanged. Parents consent to our marriage. Menton then Italy for six weeks. The vision of the Italian Renaissance. Meet Reggie in Paris. Return to Chelsea and the artists life. Rooming with Reggie. Meet Takamura at the London School of Art. Etching under Sir Frank Brangwyn he tells me to go to nature, and I go to Japan.

I meet Morita and remove to northern suburbs of Tokyo. Begin learning Japanese go shopping. Decide to build Japanese house and studio cost 200. June rain and voice of frogs. Summer heat. Journey up Sumida river nearly drown. Downstream to Tokyo. House nearing completion we celebrate. My etching press installed. Small exhibition advertised first students come meet Sakya. Engage servants Kame-chan. Muriel and her mother arrive at Kobe married at the Doshisha, Kyoto. Our first home. An expedition to unspoilt Akagi mountains. In 1910 Reggie Turvey travels to Japan with Tomimoto. Reggie comes to Boshu with us in the summer, then returns to South Africa.

We share life. He leads me into Oriental subtleties. From our brief drawings of lovely Nara emerge patterns for future use on pots. Our work accepted for the first East and West exhibition in Tokyo. We experience an amateur pottery party. This decides our future. I meet the sixth Kenzan and learn his alphabet of clay on his hard floor. He makes my first kiln and gives me the succession. Tomimotos technique. Problem of the professional and amateur in art. Telepathic exchange. A poem by Tomimoto.

The nature of beauty. Thoughts on Japan. Turvey leaves. Tomi and Takamura. Japanese marriage. Tomis illness. Race prejudice. First exhibition. Restrictions on Japanese artists. Our son is born. Work and plans for the future. Various artists.

in summer heat we rent a thatched cottage and pea-green dinghy at Hakone Lake. Painting, sailing and climbing. Cydonia Japonica jam. A dream coincidental with Emperors death.
the beauty of this plateau. Prospect point learning rock climbing under Father Kelly. Landscape drawing.

Our first meeting. The Shirakaba Society. My first etching students. Exchange of thought East and West. Arrival of Czanne and Van Gogh prints enthusiasm. Yanagis early letters Let our work be so great that every man is able to love each other in it. Augustus Johns offer of an exhibition. Understanding between East and West. Yanagis book on William Blake. Emily Bront brings tears to my eyes. August 1914 the world is now in battle. We have moved to Abiko. My book on Blake finished 600 pages. Tolstoy, Turgenev. Yanagis search for truth between two hemispheres.

Dr. Westharp the reason for my going to Peking. Impressions of Chinese life. Discussion with Chun Fu-ching, the translator of Dickens. Moving house. Rickshaws and rumours money-changing. Chinese cooking. The Temple of Heaven. The Chinese theatre. Break with Westharp. Our daughter is born. Letter from Yanagi: I am dreaming of coming to Peking. August 1916: Yanagi comes to Peking. Our first journey togetherthe Great Wall of China. We also visit the imperial Sung pots, the Temple of Confucius etc. Yanagi stays a month. I tell him of conflict with Westharp. His reply an invitation to live and work at Abiko. Chinese shadow-play theatre in our courtyard. Farewell party. Departure.

Chinese and Western. Philosophies of education. My letter to the translator of ChungYung.

Sharing a kiln with Tomimoto. Tomimotos marriage in Tokyo.
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and modern Western thinking.

Twin daughters born at Cardiff. Hamada and I go to St. Ives. We meet my partner, Mrs. Home. Hamada and I spy out the land. Choosing a site for the Pottery. My first friend, Robert Morton Nance. Dreolin Podmore. Hamada at the Pottery. Decision to make an Oriental climbing stoneware kiln. I buy Providence Mine Count-House. George Dunn. Exhibitions, collectors. William Staite Murray. Finances. Hamadas friend Matsubayashi rebuilds kiln. Experimentation. Exhibitions at West End galleries. Publication of APottersOutlook. Exhibitions abroad. East and West challenge.

Michael Cardew my first student emerges with his character tucked under his arm! Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie. HerArticle:AtSt.IvesintheEarlyYears: her memories of early life at the Pottery. Herself, Matsubayashi, her mother and the Japanese Tea Ceremony at Coleshill. Norah Braden, my most sensitive student. My son David. My right hand for 25 years. Bill Marshall. Learning the grind of a potters life.

Reggie arrives from South Africa. The education of our children. Bernard Walke.

First visit. Tagores advice to Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. My 1931 letter to Leonard. Begin teaching at Dartington in 1932. Friendship with Mark Tobey. His first address to students. Invitation to Japan.

Mark Tobey and I leave Dover for the Orient. Colombo a Buddhist funeral. Hong Kong, its harbour and street life an inspiration to us both. Shanghai Mark stays and I go on.
Arrival Kobe Tokyo, living near Yanagi. First visit to Mashiko. Minagawa, the last pattern-painter. A traditional spy. Hamadas friend To Chan and the town doctor Suzuki. A letter from Mark. He comes to Mashiko then decides to go back to America. Oya stone, used for glaze and buildings. The remotest village Kuriyama. To Kyoto and Kawai. The fruit-testing society. Acupuncture. Kawais kiln.
With Yanagi, Hamada and Kawai in search of unknown crafts. Himeji castle Naeshirogawa Korean potters, the hot sea at Kyushu. Flight over inland sea and landing on Osaka river. Exhibition in Tokyo Kyukyodo lunch with the old proprietor. Karuizawa in the snow with the Spackmans round-robin letter to English friends covering travel the Sakazu pottery up the Narihira river and Kurashiki. Back to Kyushu and Futagawa pottery. The Sumi family the shakuhachi flute. The best brushed slip in Japan I re-use the old pigments brown and green. Firewood catches alight disaster.
Korea: the beauty of Korean line exhibition of my work in Seoul Yanagis little museum reproof to my lecture Koryo pots the colour of sky after rain beauty of the Yi dynasty the land of morning calm. Visiting Korean noblemans home curio-hunting I buy a Yi dynasty porcelain we sup at a Korean restaurant. North Korea the Diamond Mountains.