Shoji Hamada

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Shoji Hamada (濱田庄司, Hamada Shoji^?) (December 9, 1894 – January 5, 1978) was a Japanese potter. He was born in Tokyo, Japan, and died in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture.

He studied ceramics at Tokyo Institute of Technology under Kawai Kanijiro, soon after he met Bernard Leach with whom he travelled to England in 1920. In 1955 the Japanese government designated him a "Living National Treasure".

Hamada is the subject of an out-of-print VHS video titled "Shoji Hamada--A Potter's Way & Work." It follows Hamada as he and his assistants throw, decorate and fire a large batch of pots on his seven-acre estate, in outdoor, wood-fired kilns. Hamada's influence is widely felt and accepted as a major force in 20th century American and Japanese studio pottery.^{[citation needed]}