Mr. Chris Clark, an English ceramic artist, grew up in the county of Wiltshire, near famous Stonehenge approximately an hour away from London. “There was nothing else but nature. It may perhaps be recollection of my childhood life there that brought me to this remote hinterland in Chiba, though the blue color of the sky and the green of plants looked different.

”In addition to the Ichikawa Atelier we visited that day, he also runs another called Yoro-keikoku where he vigorously keeps on making pottery. He holds individual shows at main department stores in Tokyo or other prefectures in the vicinity a few times a year. In the past, he also exhibited at British fairs, however, he said, “My works look out of place at an English fair. Some Japanese comment that it’s ‘westernized’, and, on the other hand, Westerners say it’s ‘Japanese`, but I’m trying to take in both cultures. I relax in mind, removing any excitement to think ‘I can make it!’ and I reach an ideal balance this way.

The fact was he had to find some job to make a living regardless of where he lived. He and his wife set up an English conversation class in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. In those days, there were only two English conversation schools in Chiba Prefecture. With no experience of teaching and no knowledge about textbooks, he began to run the business in the dark. “Even so, my life was so exciting every day. I knew I had nothing with me, absolutely nothing, but I thought, looking at it at a different angle, that I could do anything at will. I was doing anything I was interested in, and found every day so exciting. Maybe because I was selfish,” he smiled.

The style of running the English conversation school started to gain reputation, because it was a new method at that time to invite British people holding teacher’s qualifications to become instructors at the school to teach native English. It was well accepted among the students and an increasing number of them joined. He recalled, however, saying, “Teaching was a joy to me. But I had to spend more time on management and less time to teach, and began wondering if it was what I wanted to do. Bigger the business grew, less enthusiastic I became to keep operating the school.”

It was at this time when he began ceramic art. It would be rather inappropriate to say that he began because he was already familiar with pottery since his youth. During his high school days he was a keen potter making many ceramic works in his club activities. “I don’t know why, but no one else but me in the family was so fond of arts ,” he said with a smile.

He started ceramic art in Japan by himself, as no master was around to teach him at the time. He recalled how he had done it by reading books and sharing information through talking with friends of friends, gradually gaining knowledge and techniques. Clay, water, air and fire, ‘Ceramic art’ is composed of the power of nature mingled with the essence of self. Before long he had immersed himself in his new career.

While continuing his activities as a writer, he started giving pottery classes at the two ateliers, Yoro-keikoku and Ichikawa. The tuition fee is 6,000 yen for a bi-monthly class including materials like clay. Every spring, he holds a ‘Students Exhibition’, a joint show of the two ateliers, and it has drawn much favorable public attention to the corpus for their annual effort.

“It’s my joy to teach them pottery. Wondering how a person can understand most easily, I am most delighted when I’ve found the best way for teaching that individual.” We heard about a unique story. The students that join Mr. Clark’s classes can use English. As a matter of fact, he intended to run all the classes in English as a rule. That was for no other reason, than it was the easiest for him to use English to explain about precise methods and technical terms. He encountered, however, an instance when he faced the situation compelling him to consider one of the traits of the Japanese character. “When I began to explain in English, they became quiet and turned away their faces. I lost the way to communicate, and so I’m doing that way only with volunteer students now. I was forced to speak Japanese as a result, and could pick up the language quickly” he laughed.

We asked him out of the blue, “Did you ever not think of quitting ceramic art?” “It’s a whole day work to keep the fire burning in a kiln. When it’s short, it takes twenty hours, and three days when long. There must not be a pause, but we have to continue staring at fire in the kiln. It’s such painstaking labor. Numerous times did I shout at myself losing my temper, saying ‘Now I quit!’, this used to happen especially when the temperature did not rise to a desired point, or a work did not turn out satisfactorily.” Mr. Clark said in laughter, “Pottery can only be done through trial and error.” He continues still now to try various new ceramic glazes and when it is not fired as desired, he has no hesitation to destroy it. “There are a number of turning points when I review again and again, throwing it away, and putting myself into confusion again. It is a never-ending process,” said he.