thereby attempted to make some himself, but was dissatisfied with the
results, finding after a lapse of time that even those which he thought
best were somehow lacking. He said that however he concentrated
himself on his work the results were unsatisfactory and he therefore
came to the conclusion that this was not the right procedure. He said
he wented to produce pots with ease. He compared the making of pots
with climbing a mountain, "One struggled to the top with effort only to
find that the path did not end there" and he added that "right making
was more like walking down a hill in a pleasant breeze". "Tt seems to
me" he said, ''That the time has come to attempt this".

Corean potters often made flattened bottles with ease and nonchalance,
we admire their beauty and try to achieve it with effort and fabour and
fail. Why can't we be easy? If lapply the criterion of Zen the
Corean answer is normal or ordinary whereas ours is intentional.

The latter camot compete with the former.

The significance of a Tea-bow] is concentrated in its footring where
you will find its naked value. Hamada's footrings show both good
craftsmanship and ease and some of his bowls would almost rival the
O Edo Corean Tea bowls. The crawled glaze effects he favours are
so superb that Hamada himself was almost entranced by his own
turning and throwing. He saw the danger of being trapped however
and at that point began to make salt-glaze wares the technique of
which involved abandonment of the turned footring in favour of thrown
ones in which the former effects are not possible. This required
courage for many pot-lovers blamed him for the loss of beauty. But
Hamada wanted to find a new answer untrammeled by accustomed
and mastered beauty. This he is beginning to give in his new work in
reply to the Zen Koan® and without words.

The next great issue is between 'Jiriki'* (self-development) and
'Tariki'® (other power enlightenment). Something beyond individual-
ism is required in craftsmanship. When I had a talk with Hamada the
other day I felt that he had moved forward after he said that what he
desired was for the rhythm of nature in the spin of the clay on the
wheel, of the brush on the pot, of the flames over the melting glazes
to take charge rather than his preconscious will, thus accepting

2.