Leach travelled in China from 1914-16, resulting in among others this etching and the Temple of Heaven, Peking (see lot 95)

In 1908 Bernard Leach studied at the London School of Art under Frank Brangwyn where he discovered etching and sensed that his strengths lay with line rather than paint. Friendship with a fellow student Takamura Kotaro, a Japanese sculptor, and reading the romantic writings of Lafcadio Hearn on Japan influenced his decision to go to Japan to become an artist and a teacher. He was born in Hong Kong and had spent his early years living with his grandparents in Japan so this was a return to early roots. When he arrived in Japan in 1909 with a large etching press and many paintings to demonstrate his artistic credentials the Takamura family provided many useful introductions. He wrote an article introducing etching to the Japanese Art World, for an art magazine and gave a lecture demonstration at what is now Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

Demonstrating etching at an exhibition of his work brought Leach to the notice of a group of radical students, especially Yanagi Soetsu, the editor of their monthly journal Shirakaba [silver birch]. Yanagi was a young writer and art critic whose lifelong friendship influenced both profoundly. It was "a source of spiritual and intellectual support that was warm, rigorous and mutually understanding.¹ Shirakaba introduced literary and artistic ideas from the West to an exclusive but influential Japanese audience. Leach contributed articles and during 1913 designed all the journal's covers. He enjoyed stimulating intellectual discussion with members of the group about the visionary ideas of William Blake and Walt Whitman and the art of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rodin and Leonardo da Vinci. With Yanagi he constantly questioned the qualities of 'truth and beauty' and what constituted Art. In Japanese museums he was introduced to Eastern Art, particularly paintings and pottery.

He exhibited etchings, textile designs and woodcuts at Gahosha, a small independent art gallery in central Tokyo which specialized in the work of young artists.

Leach decided to go to China from 1914-1917 where he was involved in social reform and though he continued to draw and write he gave up pottery. Two soft ground etchings of the Temple of Heaven and the Chien-Men Gate in Beijing 1916 are from this period. Yanagi visited him in China keen to explore Chinese culture but was also concerned about Leach's artistic work. As they travelled around the great sites Yanagi rekindled Leach's interest in pots and suggested he return to Japan where he gave him land near his home at Abiko outside Tokyo to set up a pottery.

Several of Leach's etchings are from this period in Japan and China (see lots 89 and 95). These are landscapes and portraits, notably: A watermill in Japan 1909-20; June Rain, Japan 1911; In a Tokyo Park 1918; Wind in a tree 1913; Buildings and rice paddy field, Japan 1909-20. Summoning up the atmosphere of Japan at that time, these prints also show a vital sense of line expressing movement and life. They conjure a moment in time whilst indicating the prevalent weather and an intimate impression of the landscape. His self portraits of 1913 and 1914 show an intense but confident young man. He never loses interest in landscape, writing a poem to recreate the view of Porthmeor beach from his room at Barnaloft in 1965. "Seabirds/ Balance in the wind/ Then streak across/ My window pane/ ... At Cludgy Point/ Under the north-west wind/ Atlantic rollers burst/ Full forty foot."2

1. Emmanuel Cooper, Bernard Leach life and Work, (New Haven and London, 2003)
2. Marion Whybrow, The Leach Legacy, St Ives Pottery and its Influence, (Bristol, 1996), p. 182