Born in Hong Kong in 1887 and spent his early childhood in Japan. In 1903 he entered the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and from 1907 studied etching at the London School of Art, where he met Kotaro Takamura. In 1909 he returned to Japan and settled in Ueno, Tokyo. He came to know Soetsu Yanagi, who became a lifelong friend, and the young men of the Shirakaba group, and in 1917 taught printmaking at Abiko. Drawn to tea and tea utensils through the influence of Kenkichi Tomimoto, he studied ceramics under Kenzan Ogata VI in 1912, and in 1917 opened a kiln at Yanagi’s house in Abiko, taking his first step as a potter; he was later licensed as Kenzan VII. At this time he became friends with the potter Shoji Hamada, and in 1920 the two moved to St Ives in England, where they built a traditional Japanese climbing kiln; in 1922 he opened the kiln known as the Leach Pottery. He was appointed CBE in 1963 and received the Japan Foundation Award in 1974.