Drawing

Having travelled to Japan in 1909 with the idea of teaching etching, Leach became enthralled by the art of ceramics, and in 1920 returned to England with Hamada Shōji to establish the Leach Pottery in St Ives. Together they built the first East Asian-style climbing kiln in Europe, and set about producing reduced stoneware and slip-decorated earthenware. Leach made a number of return visits to Japan, most notably his extended tours in 1934-5 and 1953-4, the latter documented in his book, A Potter in Japan (1960).

Significant in Leach’s later tour was a three-week period spent at the remote village of Onta (styled by Leach as Onda) on the southern island of Kyushu in April 1954, where he admired the ‘unspoilt’ nature of the local pottery. Leach worked actively there, making a number of pots (including C.68-2024) with the help of local potters, as well as various drawings recording the potters and kilns. This drawing along with another in the collection (E.907-2024) record places and scenes which Leach witnessed during his visit to Onta. They record the craft process: the preparation of clay, the process of coil-building and the process of firing.