The Tengu's Thunder-Staff by Kim Schuefftan

"The late Kim Schuefftan] was a true original, a character for whom the term 'character' was made. Born and raised in California, he was the son of a musician (father) and a ceramic artist (mother). He attended Reed College and graduated from Berkeley. In his youth he traveled to the Japanese countryside with Mingei Movement founders Bernard Leach and Hamada Shoji. As senior editor at Kodansha International he championed, edited, and sometimes functioned as ghostwriter for numerous illustrated books on Japanese crafts. After leaving Kodansha International he became the editor of the Ikebana International Magazine, the author of numerous articles on Japanese and other folk crafts, and a freelance editor obsessed with improving his authors' writing. He had an eye for detail and a knack for noticing things that others had missed. He was, said several of those who spoke about him, someone great to argue with, a master of the art of disagreeing on matters of taste without being disagreeable." -- By John McCreary

For more info on Kim, visit https://leachpotteryblog.com/2021/06/02/kim-schuefftan-former-arts-editor-at-kodansha-international-publishers-has-died/