This Intriguing Exhibit Unearths The Surprising Role Of Ceramics In Cementing The Alliance Between Japan And The U.S.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States pivoted from denouncing Japan to vilifying China, embracing a former enemy as an ally in the fight against Communism. But the strategic realignment was stymied by popular resistance. The government had to overcome the bigotry stoked by its own anti-Japanese propaganda. Soft diplomacy was needed. With American encouragement, the Japanese offered clay.

The little-known role of ceramic statecraft in Cold War geopolitics is the subject of a fascinating exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Clay as Soft Power traces the path of Shigaraki ware from Japan’s ancient kilns into America’s foremost museums, and the travels of American artists to the Shiga prefecture, where they worked with local materials and learned from venerated masters.

The choice of Shigaraki ware was intentional and shrewd. Prior to World War II, Americans were most familiar with fancy Japanese porcelain that projected imperial splendor rather than inviting personal connection. Shigaraki ware was as authentic as the porcelain of Satsuma or Arita – a complex art form refined over millennia – but it was folk art: the rustic pottery of a humble people.

Deliberately rough and durable enough to withstand everyday use, Shigaraki vessels were appreciated for imperfections that evoked the hand of the maker. They were also distinctive of the Shiga prefecture, with its elastic clays and ample supply of wood that heated kilns for days at a time, firing the ceramics and glazing them with the fugitive ash.

The textures of Shigaraki ware were the tangible equivalent of terroir. When vessels ancient and new arrived at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, they were more than mere examples of good design. They were manifestations of cultural heritage wrought from the patch of earth where they were made, crafted by people whose families had worked the native clay for countless generations. You’d be hard pressed to find a medium and message more suited to the diplomatic mission.

The exchange of artists was as significant as the import of pots. Japanese masters including Hamada Shōji and Kaneshige Tōyō gave demonstrations in American art schools. Even more intensive was the experience of talented midcentury ceramicists who traveled from the U.S. to Shigaraki, such as Georgette Zirbes and John and Susanne Stephenson. These artists got to experience the local clays firsthand, to fire their artwork in the ancient kilns, and to benefit from the knowhow of their hosts, who were inspired by them in turn. In other words, they personally enacted the desired relationship between nations. Taking the form of art – often combining aesthetic proclivities of the West and the East – their enactment was preserved in a material that was durable and transportable: soft diplomacy vitrified to stand the test of time.

As the

UMMA curators observe, the exchange between artists had a significant impact on their subsequent artwork. There was also a notable shift in the traditions of Shigaraki, which became more accepting of female ceramicists upon exposure to accomplished American women. What the curators do not attempt to assess, and what may be impossible to quantify, is the actual effect of clay on Cold War geopolitics. Without question, the alliance between the U.S. and Japan strengthened during the period that American museums touted Shigaraki ware and artists learned from one another. But correlation is not causation. The influence could have been profound or minimal or even nonexistent.

Should the want of evidence and the lack of a basis for assessment be reasons to rejects cultural diplomacy? To the extent that cultural diplomacy is intended as soft power, the political efficacy of exchange is a legitimate question. However, the lesson from Shigaraki is that cultural diplomacy should not be considered solely from the perspective of realpolitik.

Diplomacy enriches culture. Enrichment of culture enriches civilization as a whole. Art is a visible manifestation of the value of finding common ground. Instead of making artists into agents of statecraft, statecraft should be put to work in the service of art.