Ceramics and tea culture are both close to my heart so when Hosai Matsubayashi XVI invited me to practise pottery at Asahiyaki it felt like a dream come true.
In November 2023 I embarked on a research trip to Japan for my book on what we could learn from Japanese craftspeople, shokunin, to improve how we live and how we work. This is the second in a series which started with Talking by making: soba noodles in Tokyo.
Uji is a town on the outskirts of Kyoto that’s renowned for its tea, producing the best matcha in Japan and credited with inventing sencha in the 18th century (while matcha was reserved for the aristocracy, higher echelons of the warrior class and religious clergy, sencha – steeped green tea – was accessible to all). The Tale of Genji, a classic novel written in the 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu, is set in Uji. It’s also where the Asahiyaki Pottery was established 400 years ago under the patronage of the multitalented tea master Kobori Enshu. The current head of Asahiyaki is Hosai Matsubayashi XVI.
Ceramics and tea culture are both close to my heart so when Hosai san invited me to practise pottery at his workshop it felt like a dream come true.
Read the full article in The Craftsman Newsletter.
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