Scenes from the Film Archive showing the pottery town of Mashiko, from 1934-1971

Mashiko Village Pottery

Japan, 1937
Produced by Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai
(32 minutes)

This a film of rare historic importance, beautifully produced by KBS (Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai), a cultural agency in Japan in the 1930’s.

Bernard Leach had two copies of this film in his private collection, which he gave to Producer Marty Gross in 1974. The film clearly presents the various stages of pottery manufacture in Mashiko which supplied Tokyo with utilitarian ceramic vessels of all kinds for over 100 years.