Japanese woodblock prints inspired French Impressionist painters, and the Japanese veneration of nature and ‘the handmade’ formed the basis for the Art Nouveau movement. But a quieter, yet equally transformative revolution was taking place. The Japanese reverence for a sort of refined imperfection would permanently alter and expand our notions of what is beautiful and admirable in the world of ceramics.
This ‘imperfection’ centres on the concept of wabi sabi: wabi being an austere, imperfect beauty and sabi being the rustic patina that comes from age. Wabi sabi acts as an aesthetic framing tool for living, teaching us to accept the fundamental Buddhist truth of impermanence. It is the material manifestation of the transitory nature of the world.
To achieve this refined ‘imperfection’ when making, we must ‘let objects speak’, a sentiment grounded in Japan’s indigenous Shinto belief of a spirit inhabiting all things. Accidents and chance occurrences during the creative process are embraced with an emphasis on allowing materials to do what they do. All of this is a sort of meditative mediation, an attempt to reduce oneself in the creative act as a means of developing a oneness with our materials and processes. But there is also a refinement to this ‘imperfection’ informed by the austerity and rigor of the strict religious lives and practices of Zen monks.
Best exemplifying this is the humility and naturalism of the tea bowl. At the centre of traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, tea bowls are hand-built of unrefined stoneware and low-fired in wood burning kilns. In the kiln, glazes are allowed to move across surfaces unevenly and imperfections like cracks are celebrated. For over 400 years, across many generations, the Raku lineage of potters studied, refined, and constantly reinterpreted this ‘imperfection’ through the sole form of the tea bowl.
In the late 19th century, the Art Nouveau movement advocated for a return to nature and the handmade in response to the dehumanising effects of industrialisation. No doubt inspired by the Japanese stoneware exhibited at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Ernest Chaplet (1835-1909), began making stoneware that emulated the naturalness of form and surface typical of traditional Japanese ceramics. In the kiln, Chaplet’s pots would bend and the glazes would shift in organic ways. To orchestrate this feat, Chaplet controlled all aspects of production including building, decorating and firing, becoming the first of many studio potters in Europe.
Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the Arts and Crafts movement advocated for a ‘truth to materials,’ paralleling the Japanese notion of ‘letting objects speak’. Adherents believed in making simple, well-crafted, functional objects from natural, humble materials like oak, copper, and stoneware. Its leader, William Morris (1834-1896), advocated for the ‘craftsman-designer working by hand’. This ethos then formed the basis for the Mingei movement in Japan, where a new appreciation and development of traditional Japanese arts blossomed.
Born into both the Arts and Crafts and Mingei movements, Bernard Leach (1887-1979), led the British studio pottery movement into Modernism. Raised for a time in Japan as a child, he returned to the country from 1909 to 1920, meeting with Japanese makers and thinkers including Mingei founder Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961). In 1920, Leach moved back to England and established Leach Pottery with Japanese potter Shoji Hamada (1894-1978), building the first traditional Japanese climbing kiln outside of Asia. From these experiences, Leach argued for the creation of beautiful but utilitarian ‘ethical pots’ in the simple Japanese stoneware style.
Leach’s ethos had tremendous influence on the next generation of post-war studio potters including Australian potter Milton Moon (1926-2019). Deeply influenced by Zen Buddhism, Moon believed pottery to be ‘a fundamental expression of life’s forces.’ In 1974, Moon spent a year in Japan studying Zen meditation, visiting historical kilns and meeting with Shoji Hamada. Moon’s ceramics have an elemental quality, are mostly hand-built, and are often scratched or painted on the surface in a spontaneous way not unlike the calligraphic ink paintings done by Zen monks.
Today, Japanese ‘imperfection’ continues to influence studio ceramics across the world. Hiroe Swen (b. 1934) was born and trained in ceramics in Kyoto and emigrated to Australia in 1968. Swen’s work speaks to Japanese tradition with earthy glazes on stoneware, hand-built asymmetricity and refined naturalistic forms, often with calligraphic decoration.
With each new generation of potters, traditional Japanese aesthetics—and especially its reverence for a refined imperfection—inspires anew. As the world evolves ever more rapidly, we are continually reminded of the impermanence of things and as a means of encountering this truth gracefully, Japanese ‘imperfection’ allows us access to something elemental, a sort of freedom in nature and a oneness in this shared experience of being and making.
Kyle Walker, Guest Contributor
Top Image: Bernard Leach Gallery, St Ives / Alamy
October 2024