Gates says Yamaguchi started out as an experiment in the politics of art and race: What would happen to his pots and bowls, which weren't selling so well, if he told people they were made by the mixed-race son of a Japanese master potter who had taught his methods to the neighbors of his black Mississippi bride? The answer, which he gleaned over the course of several rollicking soul-food dinners at his new place, didn't surprise him - people wanted to buy those bowls.

盖茨说，山口这个虚构的人物最初是用来做艺术和种族政治实验的：如果他告诉人们，他那些陶罐和陶碗（卖得并不太好）出自一位日本陶艺大师（这位大师向自己的密西西比黑人新娘的街坊邻居传授制陶技术）的混血儿子之手的话，会有什么情况发生呢？他在自己的新居里举办了几次热闹的黑人料理餐会，并在举行餐会的过程中得到了答案，答案不出他所料──人们愿意购买这些陶碗。

A moment like that could turn some artists cynical, but Gates learned something that changed him. In sketching out Yamaguchi's tall-tale virtues, many of which hinged on the artist as change agent, Gates says, 'I realized I believed in him, too. All that fiction was a way for me to work out my best self.'

这样的局面或许会让一些艺术家感到悲观，但盖茨领悟到了一些足以改变他的东西。盖茨说，在刻画山口传奇般美德（侧重于描述这位艺术家作为变革推动者的角色）的过程中，“我认识到自己也相信山口。我虚构的这一切都是完善自我的方式。

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