Not only rewrites the history of contemporary Western ceramics but also engages in two important discourses in anthropology today: one concerned with art and aesthetics; the other with Orientalism. Amply illustrated, with a frank description of the operation of Japan's art pottery world.

Introduction; Chapter 1 The Japanese Mingei Movement; Chapter 2 A Pottery Community; Chapter 3 Social Organization; Chapter 4 Ecology and Social Structure; Chapter 5 Labour Cooperation; Chapter 6 Environmental and Social Change; Chapter 7 The Mingei Boom and Economic Development; Chapter 8 The Decline of Community Solidarity; Chapter 9 Theory and Practice in Japanese Mingei; Chapter 10 Folk Art, Industrialization and Orientalism;