listening to clay

this groundbreaking volume is the first to present conversations with the most important living japanese ceramic artists of the last century, figures whose unparalleled skill and creative brilliance have lent them an influence that far transcends national borders. sharing their stories for the first time, they not only describe their unique processes, inspirations, and relationships with clay, but together trace a seismic cultural shift through a field in which centuries-old but highly exclusionary potting traditions opened to new practitioners and kinds of practices; significantly, the book includes both conversations with artists born into pottery-making families, and the first women admitted to the tokyo university of the arts. In the process, listening to clay tells a larger story about ingenuity and trailblazing that has shaped contemporary art in japan and around the world.

published by the monacellli press, one of the leading publishers of provocative, inspiring, and essential titles on architecture, visual art, interior design, landscape architecture, photography, and applied arts.