Several years ago, at the depths of our recent recession, I received a mysterious email from a realtor in Pennsylvania, I’d once met, asking if I would try to rescue a fabled Japanese house not far from where I lived. The place, in litigation and abandoned for 6 years, was now dilapidated and in ruins. But it had been hand-built in the 1960s by a famous potter from the Corcoran School of Art: Teruo Hara. Mr. Hara was regarded as a national treasure in Japan, and the house also contained his kilns and other hand-built structures.
The story of the rescue of the house was documented by the Washington Post and the ongoing quest appears below.
