The world of Japanese ceramics is vast and varied. Here we divide them into four sections: “Traditional Kiln”, “Contemporary Artists”, “Industrial Products”, and “Ceramic Parts” to observe this versatile realm. One of the six ancient kilns, Bizen ware, can be traced back to Sueki ware in the Kofun period. Kouichi Uchida has been remarkably active in multiple fields. Hakusan Porcelain in Hasami, Nagasaki, has been producing popular, standard products in white porcelain for many years. Also, ceramic parts of products used in everyday life have been made since the beginning of the Showa period. Imagine in the extension of this versatility a grand view of Japanese ceramics.
Bizen Ware
Bizen ware is one of the six ancient kilns in Japan. It traces back to Sueki in the Kofun period, and its figures are unique, free from continental influences. Bizen ware uses no glaze at all. Their firmly densified texture and the organic patterns created by the natural glaze formed from the ashes during the firing are the features of these products.
Bizen ware is very chic, but has a profound attraction in tranquility, and were sought after for a tea-ceremony ceramic in the Momoyama period. In the later period inexpensive porcelain competed with Bizen and its production retreated to daily items such as water jars, mortars, and sake bottles. However, in the early Showa period, TōyōKaneshige revived the tradition of tea-ceremony ceramics for which he received recognition as the first holder of intangible cultural property for his Bizen ware.
There is a fundamental conflict between the traditional and the contemporary in Bizen today. However, the effort and enthusiasm of ceramicists towards an evolution beyond classics and tea-ceremony ceramics results in the continuous maturity of the artworks. We introduce here three artists: Yūhō Kaneshige, who gives graceful feeling to the orthodox; Ryūichi Kakurezaki, who challenges the cutting edge of Bizen; and Shunichi Yabe, who confronts Bizen tradition with sharp, youthful creation.
Works by Kouichi Uchida
Kouichi Uchida wandered all over the world to visit villages associated with the ceramic industry. During his stay in those villages he encountered many different kinds of clay. This is how he established his original method of artistic creation. From a gigantic vase created for a variant plant (shipped from a distant land) to a teapot and cup set for daily use, Uchida’s works embody the will to trace back each prototype. In his works the rustic and the sensitive live together. His works draw attention from different genres, and he creates fields of activity that differs from traditional ceramicists. It appears that his solid Japanese aesthetic supports his free creativity which is bound neither by the clay nor by techniques.
Hasami Ware: Masahiro Mori
In Hasami, Nagasaki, Masahiro Mori has been producing a line of mass-produced white porcelain products to benefit our daily lives. His achievement draws a clear line from the works by individual ceramic artists who create works which are distinctively one-of-a-kind. His works, such as rice bowls, teapots, and soy sauce containers, are designed by eliminating personal touches, focusing on function and utility, and perfecting precise industrial products. His works are so common in Japanese life that one could say that you find his works as a sort of standard product everywhere in any shop or restaurant. This group of products is the result of the good conscience of product making. “We receive demands to mass produce cheap products. We have to sustain the constant productivity of those mass numbers; otherwise the products cannot be considered as an industry.” Please study these works with the words of Masahiro Mori in your mind.
Porcelain Parts
These porcelain parts, with their remaining touches of Showa period and nostalgic shapes and textures unlike ceramic artwork, are becoming popular as collectors’items. One object is a pillow with an indented surface used for medical treatment of the head. Other items include a water tap handle, a power strip, and the base of an electric switch. Others include a funnel-like object, a tape cutter, a small hook to be attached to the wall with a screw, and even a toiletpaper holder.
Conventional categories for ceramics were once limited to objects such as vases, bowls, plates, bottles, and sake cups, but ceramic parts have been created and designed to function in the hidden places of our daily lives. Please enjoy their modest sign of happiness.
