Shoji Hamada: A Japanese Potter in Ditchling

About

The exhibition explores how a young potter's visit to a tiny village in East Sussex shaped the course of the craft movement in both Britain and Japan.  In 1921, Shoji Hamada - a key figure in the Mingei Japanese folk-art movement, came to Ditchling with his friend Bernard Leach.  On display will be over 70 ceramics, ranging from traditional British slipware to tenmoku-glazed jugs; iron brush decorated plates and sgraffito etched jars.  As well as ceramics by Hamada, the exhibition will also feature ceramics, paintings and textiles by leading figures of the modern British 20th art, design and craft movement:  Ethel Mairet, Frances Hodgkins, Ben and Winifred Nicholson, William Staite Murray, amongst others.