Out of Our Hands is a lyrical account of the craftspeople and makers of Hokkaido, Japan’s wildest island, an intimate portrait of a thriving world of potters, wood-carvers, weavers, dyers, sword-smiths and glass-blowers.
169 pages. 14 illustrations. Map. ISBN 978-1-9160783-3-8
“Hokkaido is an island where earthquakes are regular events,” writes Willie Jones. “Sudden fire is a familiar sight; volcanic eruptions still drive residents from their homes. The work of the potter Masayoshi Sakata reflects this: some of his pots are as black as basalt, some grey as steel; some have thick smears of glaze running down their sides; some look like a house that burned down in the night. Where Sakata lives, the hills are ribbed with snow even in June, and often plumed with smoke. Lava flows from them, as the glazes spill down the sides of one of Sakata’s pots…. Some knowledge is as old as the hills, and it is very likely from the hills that we learned it.”
Out of Our Hands is an intimate account of the craftspeople who live and work in Hokkaido, in the volcanic landscapes of Japan’s wildest island. Drawing on fifteen years of journeys and conversations, Willie Jones brings to life a world of sword-smiths, potters, painters, glass-blowers, weavers, dyers, etchers and wood-carvers, describing with lyrical precision their lifelong dedication to their craft and submission to the materials they work with – to the power of arrested fire and awakened stone.
Willie Jones was born in Hereford, England, in 1931. He taught at St Bees School in Cumbria and Shrewsbury School in Shropshire and has been Lecturer in English at Hokkaido University and Professor of English Rhetoric at Sapporo University. He is the author of essays on language and rhetoric, and memoirs in verse and prose of his childhood in England and later life in Japan. He lives in Sapporo.
Published 2022
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