Today, almost four decades after the artist's death, Rosanjin's ceramic work commands attention and praise on a scale the artist never witnessed during his lifetime. Record crowds attend exhibitions throughout Japan, and museums in the United States and Europe clamor for his pieces. Born out of wedlock and soon abandoned to the care of the first of several foster homes, Rosanjin's road to adulthood was troubled, and only a special flair for cooking, calligraphy, and art saved him from a life of obscurity and neglect. Yet as each of his endeavors brought further recognition, his personal life crumbled, each of his five marriages ending in failure.But Rosanjin's artistry was never in question. He was the first -- and only-artist to turn down a nomination for Living National Treasure, Japan's artistic equivalent of a knighthood. Potter, painter, cook, gourmet -- Rosanjin was a Renaissance man with unwavering views on artists ("The problem is not one of materials, but of men"), food/connoisseurship ("People raised on low-grade food can only become low-grade people"), and living ("... Of course, in life's climbing expedition, there is no peak, no limit to how high you can go"). Candid, opinionated, and eminently talented, Rosanjin was one of Japan's most influential creative forces, and Uncommon Clay vividly captures the life, work, and thoughts of this extraordinary man.