Looking around this exhibition space, one would be hard-pressed to find five more wildly distinct potters to represent the town of Mashiko.

For Japan, the history of ceramics is the history of its belief systems, its cultural values - to a greater or lesser extent, it is the history of its people.

Lying some 60 miles north of the swarming metropolis of Tokyo, the pottery town of Mashiko rests beneath the shallow slopes of Mt Takadate.

64 page monograph with essay by David Whiting

In 2007 we first visited the Mashiko studio of internationally renowned Japanese potter Ken Matsuzaki to film the master at work.

When you first start collecting pots, keeping track of the many different glazes on different pots can be more than a little tricky.