Bernard Leach is, without a doubt, the best known and most prominent of British studio potters. His friendship with Shoji Hamada and his shuttling between Japan and St Ives are well documented. Born in Hong Kong; he was taken almost immediately to Japan by his grandparents. He came to England at the age of ten for schooling. After a brief spell working as a clerk for the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank he attended The London School of Art.
In 1909 he returned to Japan to teach etching which he had himself learnt from Frank Brangwyn, and while there married for the first time. After ten years of life in the East - both Japan and China - he met Hamada. The following year they both came to England and set up the Leach Pottery at St Ives.…
