Lately, this concept has been popping up in various parts of my life, having been largely set aside since my Karatedo days back in my teens and 20s. The definition below calls it a martial arts term, but I am not so sure that it didn’t originate with some other discipline. Regardless, it is a very useful concept for pottery as well as just about anything else you decide to pursue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari

Shu       /    Ha    /     Ri
Protect / Detach / Transcend

The reason for bringing it up today is a combination my own struggle to find ‘my’ work, and a recent email thread in which standards for potters and pots are being proposed and refuted.

As stated previously, I first encountered shuhari in my Karate practice. Later, I found it equally applicable to my bonsai practice, and now ceramics. In all three of these endeavors, however, I’ve found a fundamental difference between the US and Japan, that continues to re-assert itself. (I use these two cultures because they are the only two I have experienced with any depth)

When I first came to Japan for Karate, I was amazed at the basic level of skill compared to my previous dojo and what I’d seen at other dojo(s) in the US (with exceptions). When I studied bonsai, I was amazed at the disconnect in quality between the US and Japan/Italy/Taiwan (with exceptions).  And now, in ceramics I am amazed at the disconnect in the overall level of quality between the US and Japan (with exceptions).

I think that the concept of shuhari is useful in finding the reason for this disconnect. In Karate, it was the lack of concentration on kata and basics. In Bonsai, it was the lack of concentration on basics and traditional forms, in ceramics, it is the lack of concentration on basic skills and traditional forms. (Even the US has a rich ceramic history, even if you don’t go back more than a couple hundred years, so the youth of the country is no excuse, or basis for critique)

The concept of studying the basics seems to be lost on many Americans (notice I say many, not all). When my wife and I joined a pottery class together back in the 90’s, there were so many students who ignored what the teacher said and just did their own thing. Then later they wondered why they couldn’t get a nice pot off of the wheel. They had no interest in the boring cylinder, they wanted to make stuff  ‘their own way’.

I had a conversation with a young guy about his bonsai tree once. He saw some great work of abstract art. I saw a formless curlicue of a tree that had been trimmed so hard it was probably going to die and if it didn’t it would develop wire scars in one season. I explained the various styles of bonsai, forms and basic composition. He didn’t want any of that. “All of that stuff just constrains creativity, I want to do it my way” (I’m paraphrasing) I told him that I thought his tree was crap. (Though I did attempt to be somewhat more diplomatic than that). That was followed by the inevitable “What do you know? What makes you think you can judge me/my work?” As for ceramics, I’m sure everyone has a good quality story, but for me Etsy is a very telling example. Have you ever checked out Etsy? There is some absolutely beautiful work there, stunningly beautiful even, IF you can wade through all of the other crap and find it. And there are mountains of the other stuff. Stuff made by people who didn’t develop skills before deciding to sell to the public. Because setting up on Etsy is so easy and cheap, anyone can sell their work, piles of crud accumulate, and it cheapens the whole experience.

The first part of Shuhari, ‘protect’, means internalizing basic skills encapsulated in tradition. Why do so many people think this is a bad thing? Having this tradition to stand on is a priceless gift. Generations before you have acquired all of this knowledge and passed it on. They have separated the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Heck, they practically baked the bread for you. All you have to do is eat the bread. It’s breathtakingly easy, when compared to spending your life in trial and error, figuring out for yourself what generations before you already knew. One human life is only so long, Less time wasted the better.

Well, I had this great train of thought going, someone knocked on the door, one thing led to another, and it’s a few days later and I can’t remember exactly where I was going with this. So I’m going to wrap it up today at Shu, the level where the student studies to master the basics, without worrying about trying to be original or god forbid ‘creative’. If you haven’t mastered the basics, there’s no way you’re going to be successful at quality, aside from the occasional lucky accident.