EDITORIAL: This issue of Andon brings you the three prizewinning essays of the first Heinz Kaempfer Fund Essay Contest. When the contest was launched in 1992 we did not have the faíntest idea what kind of studies could be expected - if any! But as the contributions started coming in, it soon became obvious that we were not going to be disappointed. The good quality of the essays was a great surprise and the variety of subjects surpassed our highest expectations. Who could have guessed that the winners of the first and second prize would both be students of ceramics? And, although the contest was especially addressed to younger researchers, few would have predicted that the majority would be under 30 years of age. These results are highly encouraging for the second Essay Contest which will be announced in January 1994. Our aim is to organize a contest every other year. We owe a lot to the distinguished members of the international jury, who reviewed and evaluated the essays with great care. The members of the jury were: Professor Willem R. van Gulík, chairman, Dr. Oliver Impey, and Ms. Ann Yonemura.
We hope you will enjoy reading the prize-winning essays as well as the other contributions to be published in forthcoming issues of Andon.