In peaceful hamlets throughout Japan, local potters work at their own pace while garnering a loyal local following. There are literally thousands of such ceramists, and the serene environment in which they work nurtures and supports their artistic endeavors in subtle ways.

Hitoshi Abe holding a Shigaraki pot in his 350-year-old home.

A famous celadon specialist I visited recently illustrated this point to me in a very specific way. He brought out a white kohiki slipped-style tokkuri (sake flask) that he had thrown in Korea, which was completely different from any of his usual shapes. He told me that when he was throwing the tokkuri the clay had refused to cooperate -- instead of taking the shape he intended, it insisted on taking the shape of the ancient wares from that area.

Upon returning to Japan he tried to replicate the Korean forms but it just didn't happen. Something about the place -- mood, energy, whatever you'd like to call it -- subliminally dictated direction.

Environment and personality affect all human endeavors and it should come as no surprise that those closest to nature have the deepest vibrations in their work and life. In fact, aloofness from society and closeness to nature are almost a prerequisite for thought of any lasting value. There's just too much unnatural change happening in the cities.

I felt this intrinsically at the home and studio of Izu potter Hitoshi Abe, whose latest exhibition opens today in Ginza at Matsuya's seventh-floor gallery and runs until April 17.

Abe lives in a 350-year-old warabuki (thatched-roof) home that has the feeling of an enchanted villa. It's surrounded by nature's cathedral -- a heavenly bamboo forest that sways with the wind and allows sunlight to dance on the ground in delightful shadows.

Abe's work is fired in an anagama tunnel kiln. He makes sturdy Shigaraki and Iga and some Shino wares. The Shigaraki and Iga pieces are all fired up front of the kiln where the intensity of the heat is highest and ash fuses and encrusts the bodies, while the Shino works are placed on shelves in the back of the kiln. It's all good stuff -- not worthy of museums, but most welcome to any dining table. As I always say, if you choose to live with disposable plastic items, an "environment of the wasteful" will surely become part of your persona. Yet if you choose to complement your daily eating and drinking rituals with items full of beauty and grace . . . well, you get the point.

Abe's understood that for years. From 1968 to 1975 he worked as a chef at Osaka's Kiccho, one of the premier ryotei in Japan, where he served food on the finest dishes and eating utensils (much as Rosanjin did at his legendary Hoshigaoka restaurant in the early Showa Era). He does the same in his own kitchen, where he complements his culinary creations by placing them on his own platters and dishes. Some of the Shigaraki pieces have a rich hi-iro (fire color) orange glow, while the Iga pieces are more subdued with dark patches of ash and rivulets of greens.

In addition to his shokki (tablewares), Abe also makes kaki (flower utensils) and chadogu (tea ceremony wares) in the same styles.

Abe's an able potter, not one who is going to rewrite ceramic history nor have his work shown in museums, yet that's not what nature tells us to strive for anyway. It's the linking of heart, mind, environment and daily routines where lasting beauty is found, and that, like a bamboo forest, is breathtakingly simple.

Works by Rokubey Kiyomizu VIII

Also echoing environment but in a slightly more complex way is the work of Kyoto avant-garde ceramic artist Rokubey Kiyomizu VIII. He's having a very special exhibition at Nihonbashi Takashimaya's sixth-floor gallery until April 17.

It's not every day that a potter of the younger generation succeeds to his family's name, yet recently I've heard of two. The first was the Mino potter Shoji Kato, who became the 14th-generation potter in his family. This involved a name change and he's now known as Yasuaki.

The second was Kiyomizu-sensei, who became the eighth person in his family to take the name Rokubey. Kyoto's environment supports avant-garde ceramic art like no other place in Japan. It was home to such innovative potters as Ninsei Nonomura and Kenzan in the early Edo Period, and Kazuo Yagi, the father of modern sculptural ceramics, after World War II.

Kiyomizu traces his roots back to Meiwa 8 (1771), when the first Rokubey made Kyoyaki in the area known as Gojozaka. Subsequent generations made all types of wares, including utsushi (copies of Korean tea bowls) and Chinese-style blue-and-white wares.

Shapes took a radical turn with Rokubey VII, who created geometric forms that echoed the atmosphere around him: rapidly changing and diversifying. His son continues on in that polyhedral vein. His works have a very Cubist sensibility: he takes a simple koro (incense burner), for example, chops it up into rectangles, squares, triangles and diamonds, and merges them to make a spectacular work. Futuristic-looking kaki in blacks and silvers, some trimmed in gold, not only challenge the viewer to re-examine what a flower vessel is, but also push forward the functional aspects of sculptural pottery.

He'll also be showing some chawan (tea bowls) in the exhibition.

Some other exhibitions of note include:

* Yuteki Tenmoku potter Koji Kamada at Gallery Okumura, Higashi 1-27-10, Shibuya, (03) 3409-0332, until April 14. Kamada has been making oil-spot tenmoku for over 25 years and is a master of his craft -- his work glistens.

* Korean style wares by the ever-gleeful Akira Yoshida at Yufuku, Aoyama 2-6-12 (about a five-minute walk from the Aoyama 1-chome subway station), (03) 5411-2900, until tomorrow.

* Mashiko-based Jay Jago is showing his crystal-glazed wares at Kanon Gallery in Setagaya-ku until April 15. Call (03) 5706-8028 for more information.

* Oribe wares by Ryoji Koie at Yamaki Art in Osaka, (06) 6446-0123, until April 27.

* Modern bizen wares by Hiroyuki Wakimoto at Tenmaya's fifth floor gallery in Okayama, until April 16.