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.