Written by Bernard Leach, the father of British studio pottery, this seminal book is the first treatise to be written by a potter on the workshop traditions handed down from the greatest period of Chinese ceramics in the Sung dynasty. With this book, potters can learn everything from how to adapt recipes for pigments and glazes to designing kilns.

'In our time, Bernard Leach has done for pottery what Henry Moore has done for scuplture. This... infinitely rewarding book is an account of his pilgrimage through life.' "Times"

Bernard Leach (1887-1979) was as renowned in Japan and the East as in Europe and America, both as an artist-craftsman and as a thinker. His interpretation of the traditions of the Orient in the making of pots - and in evolving a philosophy of life - was a lodestar for many potters in the West.

"Beyond East and West," first published in 1978, is more than an autobiography. Full of sharply-etched and amusing recollections, it contains much of Leach's deeper thought and a great deal too about the practical application of his ideas. Its recurrent theme is the meeting of East and West at all levels - artistic, cultural, social, political.

Bernard Leach (1887-1979) was as renowned in Japan and the East as in Europe and America, both as an artist-craftsman and as a thinker. His interpretation of the traditions of the Orient in the making of pots - and in evolving a philosophy of life - was a lodestar for many potters in the West.  Beyond East and West, first published in 1978, is more than an autobiography. Full of sharply- etched and amusing recollections, it contains much of Leach’s deeper thought and a great deal too about the practical application of his ideas. Its recurrent theme is the meeting of East and West at all levels - artistic, cultural, social, political.

"'I have tried to formulate a criterion by which good pots may be judged.. a pot in order to be good should be a genuine expression of life. It implies sincerity on the part of the potter and truth in the conception and execution of the work.'"

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""Bernard Leach (1887-1979) is generally reckoned to be the 'father of British studio pottery.' Born in Hong Kong, profoundly influenced by both an upbringing and studies in Japan, Leach developed a vision of pottery that interwove art, craft, design and philosophy. In 1920 he co-founded the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, and "A Potter's Book" was first published in 1940. Within these pages Leach communicates his deeply-held convictions, through an account of the standards and materials essential to English slipware, stoneware, Japanese raku and Oriental porcelain.

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craftsman working in a set tradition for a lifetime? What is the value of handwork? Why should even the roughly lacquered rice bowl of a Japanese farmer be thought beautiful? The late Soetsu Yanagi was the first to fully explore the traditional Japanese appreciation for objects born, not made. Mr. Yanagi sees folk art as a manifestation of the essential world from which art, philosophy, and religion arise and in which the barriers between them disappear. The implications of the author's ideas are both far-reaching and practical. Soetsu Yanagi is often mentioned in books on Japanese art, but this is the first translation in any Western language of a selection of his major writings. The late Bernard Leach, renowned British potter and friend of Mr. Yanagi for fifty years, has clearly transmitted the insights of one of Japan's most important thinkers. The seventy-six plates illustrate objects that underscore the universality of his concepts. The author's profound view of the creative process and his plea for a new artistic freedom within tradition are especially timely now when the importance of craft and the handmade object is being rediscovered.