Beauty Changes Us

My first trip to New York City was ten years ago. On the evening of September 10th, I took the friend I was staying with to the Japanese Society in Midtown Manhattan. We heard a lecture by Tatsuzō Shimaoka, he had been honored as a Living National Treasure in Japan for his work in ceramics. He showed us images and talked about different aspects of his work with the most humble tone. At some point the moderator asked him how he had come to make such beautiful pots, and I will never forget his answer. He said he had become aware of ceramics and enrolled in a technical college for a degree in ceramics. He also studied and worked in a studio with the master Hamada Shoji, and had since made many pots. He would go to museums and other studios to see historical and contemporary work of all kinds. He would walk in nature to look and see. He brought lovely and functional objects into his home, and used them everyday. He said it was in this constant effort that he had come to know beauty, itself.