Not counting my early experiences as a kid, digging up my own clay, I become interested in pottery during undergrad at the U of Central Mich. Was too busy trying to get a degree to raise a family to take time and study pottery at the time. When I met my wife Jean in 1983, I looked her up because of the note she posted on the Zen center bulletin board, looking for a partner to go square and folk dancing with. This caught my eye, because it was out of character for your average Minnesota zen student, who my potter friend Dirk describes as being "about a quart low on blood."

The first thing Jean asked me was if I was a potter. I said no, I was studying wood sculpture, but I was always interested in pottery. She said I looked like a potter and reminded me of her friend Dirk. When I met Jean, her apartment was full of MacKenzie's work and Dirk's work. Jean also took me to an import store, Yamato Imports, Downtown Minneapolis, where I was able to handle the work of Hamada and Shimaoka and also see the wood block prints of Shiko Munakata. She also took me to visit MacKenzie's pottery in 1983, not long after I came back from the monastery in Iowa.

Jean introduced Dirk to MacKenzie's first graduate student (Horning), after Dirk came back from the East coast, where he ran a bookstore for the Himalayan Institute in NYC and learned pottery to make their cast formed netty pots (a sort of Aladdin's lamp used by Yoga people for cleaning the sinuses.) When he came back to Omaha in 1981, he told Jean he was really interested in the work of Shoji Hamada. Jean told him that he should meet Jerry Horning at Creighton University, the head of the ceramics department there, because he studied with MacKenzie, who was the leading proponent of Hamada in America. So, from the beginning, I was always interested in Dirk Gillespie, Warren MacKenzie, Tatsuzo Shimaoka and Shoji Hamada.

After I studied with our zen teacher for 7 years, I began studying pottery. My initial plan was to study at my friend's pottery for a year and study Japanese too, and then study at Shimaoka's for a year. My friend's pottery situation was not satisfactory, so I went to Shimaoka's after a couple months and ended up studying with him for over 3 years. We decided to stay in Mashiko early on, when we found our modern house and studio, which is very rare in Mashiko. Jean's single request for a house was that it had a flush toilet and not a pit toilet. We have that here. Dirk and I both picked up work at the wheel very quickly. I have always attributed this to his yoga mediation and my zen meditation. I was also lucky to be able to collect and study good pots for 7 years before touching wet clay.

It took me a long time to send in my Jerome Travel Study grant report because I am still being effected by it, but I did sent it in last month. I include it below.
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My travel study grant allowed me to come to Mashiko to study pottery and do a three year apprenticeship with the National Living Treasure Tatsuzo Shimaoka. I was introduced and recommended to Shimaoka by his friend Warren MacKenzie. Few foreigners have had the chance to study with Shimaoka for three years. I was able to study all aspects of traditional wood fired pottery, from the processing of clay and glazes, working on the wheel, glazing, firing a large complex Noborigama climbing kiln and preparing work after it is unloaded. I had a graduation show in the spring of 2003 at the Tsukamoto gallery, the best gallery in Mashiko, which included my wife Jean Shannon showing her monotypes and new woodblock prints.

I have built my own wood fired kiln which can be seen here: http://mashiko.org and have opened my own studio and am making my own work in Mashiko. I am also working on a book drawing on my experiences that the travel/study grant enabled. The book is related to zen practice, craft and the importance of craft in the 21st century.


Below is a short bio I sent to the International Wood Fire Conference in Goshiwara, Aomori Japan, that I am presenting at in June. My talk will be titled: "From MingeiSota To Mashiko."

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I was born in Osaka, lived my first 18 months in Sakai, and grew up in Michigan in the U.S.A. I moved to Minnesota in 1983 to study Soto Zen Buddhism with Dainin Katagiri Roshi. At my teacher's funeral service in 1990, I was impressed with the traditional Hassidic Jewish pine coffin, of nailess construction, that his body lay in. I decided at his funeral to become a potter, and to make funeral urns with the same heart/mind as the Hassidic coffin maker.

Consumption is death and creating is life. Human beings are by nature creative. We cannot be happy through consuming only. And the best means of communication that transcends time, place, and culture, is through art and craft. Creativity can bring understanding, peace and harmony to the world.

--
Lee Love in Mashiko, Japan Lee@Mashiko.org

homepage: http://mashiko.org