Hamada Shôji had four sons. The oldest is a journalist, the second, Shinsaku, is a potter like his father, as was the third son, Atsuya (1931-1986), and the fourth son is a glassmaker. Hamada Shinsaku's compound is near his father's, part of which is now a museum. Shinsaku has built himself a magnificent house, much larger than his father's. Just up the hill is a huge workshop. Next to it are two climbing kilns (noborigama), a gas kiln, and a small chimney kiln (entotsu-gama) for firing overglaze enamels (aka-e). Like other Mashiko potters, Shinsaku uses the gas kiln for his more routine pieces. Like most Japanese potters' sons, Shinsaku worked diligently after school in his father's workshop, mastering all the basic ceramic techniques of throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing. He graduated from Waseda University. After years of subordination to his father, he was finally allowed to have the first of his annual one-man shows at Mitsukoshi department store's main branch at Nihonbashi, Tokyo, in 1970. He accompanied his father on a year-long trip to the United States, Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East in 1963. During that time the two Hamadas taught an intensive course for twenty-five advanced students in Herbert H. Sanders' ceramics department at San Jose State College in California. Shinsaku told this writer during an interview in 1987 that the American students were enthusiastic, hardworking and full of fresh creative ideas, but that they had not mastered throwing and trimming, and were unable to produce any two pieces of the same shape and size. [From "Modern Japanese Ceramics in American Collections," Japan Society, 1993.]