Artist
Bernard Leach
Britain/Japan
East meets West. The bridge builder.
A British artist went to Japan to teach etching and discovered his life's purpose in a raku kiln.
Bernard Leach was 22, teaching in Tokyo, when a friend invited him to a raku party. Reaching into the hot kiln to pull out his still-glowing bowl, Leach felt something shift. He spent eleven years studying Japanese and Korean ceramics. When he returned to England in 1920 with Shoji Hamada, they established the Leach Pottery in St Ives. His book 'A Potter's Book' (1940) became the bible for generations of studio potters.
What traditions might you bridge?