In giving this brief talk I am not intending to prove a point or to make any kind of hard and fast case to suggest that Bernard Leach or Hamada Shoji were exclusively influenced by Korean pottery and culture because we all know that this is quite obviously not the case. I am though, going to try and show that both Leach and Hamada were influenced in a very fundamental way by Korean pots, Korean landscape, Korean people, their ways and character and it was this influence that pervaded their making lives even when the apparent derivation was from elsewhere.

It is true that Leach, almost from the very beginning of his interest in pottery, had held the Chinese Song Dynasty in the highest esteem… He wrote in 1940…'Our need of a criterion in pottery is apparent and seems to be provided by the work of the T'ang and Song potters which during the last twenty years has been widely accepted as the noblest achievement in ceramics' and again in 1951… 'The best Song pots have a complete unpretentiousness of clay, glaze and handling, but whilst there is an abundance of bravado on the part of the potter, there is present, and inspiring it, a nobility of concept which transcends personal endeavour'. Indeed much of the Leach Pottery Standard ware range owes heavily to the slightly rougher, less than palace wares of the Song dynasty. As we can see Katherine Pleydell Bouverie adopted some of the same concerns in her own work. However, it was to the potters and artisans of Korea that he owed his greatest debt. Critically, through Soetsu Yanagi he came to appreciate what he perceived as the 'naïve' qualities of the 'Korean people above all, in the good sense of the word, and that is why I love their pots best'.

Korea is a small country. The population of South Korea today is less than that of the United Kingdom and the land mass is also a little smaller. Of course, when Leach first visited what he liked to call 'land of the morning calm' in 1918 there was no South and North, it was a unified, although occupied, nation-bordering China to the north and neighbouring Japan only a short distance by boat to the East. Korea had been annexed by Japan in 1910 and existed under the firm, some would argue ruthless, control of Tokyo. Historically the closeness of Japan to the Korean mainland and the Japanese proclivity toward occupation and adoption of Korea and things Korean, particularly in the last years of the 16th century, is of great importance in understanding the eventual effects of that country upon Leach and Hamada. It is interesting to note though, that throughout his writings about Korea, his tours and recollections there is scant mention of the harshness of Japanese rule or indeed Japanese rule in itself. He does recount the time that he gave a talk in Seoul and was questioned and challenged by a young Korean student after mentioning the connection between Soetsu Yanagi and the preservation of what Yanagi called the 'arts of the [ Korean] people. Korean emotions ran high in regard to the Japanese occupation and what they saw as the rape of their country. In fact, they still do and many Koreans only marginally tolerate the Japanese as tourists. Within the pottery fraternity there does seem to exist a true friendship although that softening of feeling often does not extend outside the ceramic world. Leach wondered what became of that brave student, fearing for his safety at the hands of Japanese soldiers. Whether Leach was unduly concerned at the Japanese occupation and its effect upon the Korean people is hard to say. His obvious love for the country and its people gave way to his loyalty for his Japanese friends, particularly Yanagi whose disapproval of Japan's incursion into Korea and ongoing brutal regime was well known. Leach's reticence in publicly voicing displeasure was probably more to do with keeping within the Japanese codes of etiquette than of insensibility to the plight of the Korean people. It is also interesting to consider the irony that it was Yanagi a Japanese national and founder of the Mingei or Popular Art Movement in Japan, who was to discover or at least draw attention to what he called the "immaculate beauty of everyday ware made by unknown craftsmen" in a Korea while under Japanese occupation. Yanagi attempted to preserve and promote this Korean Popular Art by organizing exhibitions, collecting remaining wares and founding the Korean Popular Art Museum in Seoul. Through these efforts, Yanagi succeeded in popularising the traditional crafts, which had remained invisible and unrecognised as such until then. Further, Yanagi applied this strategy not only to Korean but also to other Asian cultures, including Japan. Yanagi's efforts to establish the credibility of handcrafts contributed greatly to reaffirming the repressed Asiatic cultural identity under the overwhelming impact of Western imperialism and Western culture.

Today, Korea has all the trappings of a successful Pacific Rim economy. Some of the most well known global brands are Korean - LG, Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, are examples. While it is true that the majority of Koreans, certainly in the cities, enjoy a good standard of living there is, underneath the surface of this vibrant, energetic and glossy country, a third world nation that is still fairly easy to discover. Amongst younger, educated Koreans there is a fierce pride in national identity and a reluctance to fall any more under the spell of the USA and its 'decadent' influences. The Korea that Leach and Yanagi discovered in 1918 and Hamada with Kawai in 1919 still exists outside the cities and even in the cities it is possible to see evidence that the older people are reluctant to give up old habits in favour of new. One only has to walk the back streets of Seoul for a few minutes as I have, to witness the strange juxtaposition of the latest Ssangyong monster four wheel drive with macho driver, shiny chrome and more mirrors than seem really necessary, passing by a small woman in peasant dress nimbly crouched on her haunches washing a large pile of cabbage from a plastic bowl in the gutter. Chillies, minced in large machines in open fronted shops are used in combination with salt, various vegetables and garlic to make Kimchi, a preserved and pickled staple food. The scents and smells pervade the pavement, boxes of chillies are stacked six high, cabbages, huge by comparison with our own are pile, sometimes 6ft high. Markets are a visual feast where, to western eyes at least, there, is sold a strange, exotic mix of foods, fruits and herbal medicines. Live and dried fish in assorted and graded sizes, eels, the rear legs of large dogs, various roots including Ginseng, a variety of different woods and barks neatly cut into appropriate lengths from which to make curative infusions. Antique shops, swish coffee shops and Galleries are many - often displaying the innate sense of line and good taste that Leach spoke of.