Hamada Shōji

Hamada Shōji

Hamada Shōji ( Japanese 浜 田 庄 司 , Kyūjitai : 濱 田 庄 司 ; * December 9, 1894 in Takatsu (today: Kawasaki ), Kanagawa Prefecture ; † January 5, 1978 in Mashiko , Tochigi Prefecture ) was a Japanese potter and art ceramist. It was declared in 1955 as a living national treasure for the important intangible cultural asset “ceramic art” and awarded the imperial cultural order .

Live and act

Shōji Hamada was born in Takatsu in 1894. He studied ceramics at the Tokyo Technical University under Hazan Itaya (1872–1963) and graduated in 1916 from. He then worked with the ceramicist Kawai Kanjirō , who was two years apprenticeship above him, in the ceramics laboratory in Kyoto Prefecture . During this time, he mainly dealt with glazes. Through Yanagi Sōetsu , the founder of the folk art movement ( 民 藝 運動 , mingei undō ), he met the English ceramist Bernard Leach , whom he followed to England in 1920 and with whom he built a kiln in St Ives in Cornwall . In 1923 Shōji opened a solo exhibition in London, which was a great success. After his return from England in 1924, he first went to Okinawa to improve his knowledge a. a. to deepen at the Tsuboya kiln. From 1930 he settled in Mashiko to produce ceramics. Hamada trained many students, including Shimaoka Tatsuzō , and he made his adopted home Mashiko an important ceramic site in Japan through his work.

Shōji Hamada was named a Living National Treasure on February 15, 1955 . In 1964 he was awarded the Medal of Honor on a violet ribbon, in 1968 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits and in the same year was also awarded the Order of Culture. After the death of Yanagi Sōetsu in 1961, he took over the management of the Museum of Japanese Folk Art ( 日本 民 藝 館 ). He died in Mashiko in 1978 at the age of 83.

Hamada's work can mainly be seen in the Ōhara Art Museum and the Museum of Japanese Folk Art in Tokyo.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 浜 田庄 司 . In: 美術 人名 辞典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 24, 2015 (Japanese). 

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Hamada Shōji . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 494.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Hamada Shōji . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Web links (images)

Owned by the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo :

• 絵 刷毛 目 壺 （1932）
• 柿 釉 白 抜 草 文 壺 （1958）
• 柿 釉 丸 紋 大平 鉢 （1959）

Web links

• 旧 濱 田庄 司 邸 . Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, 2014,accessed March 24, 2015(Japanese). 
• 濱 田庄 司 作品 . The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, 2015,accessed March 24, 2015(Japanese, With many illustrations of his works). 
• 濱 田庄 司 記念 益 子 参考 館 . Shoji Hamada Memorial Mashiko Sankokan Museum, 2007,accessed March 24, 2015(Japanese). 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Hamada is the family name, Shōji the first name.