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Tag: 多治見市陶磁器意匠研究所

Hoshino Gen: The Elemental Expression of Beauty

By:
Ai Kanazawa
September 23, 2014Ceramics Hoshino Gen

Celadon work by Hoshino Gen in our shop ->

The celadon work by Japanese potter Hoshino Gen offers distinct pleasures. Each piece is a masterful balance of movement and stillness, and presence and emptiness, and the effect is both powerful and meditative. The feeling is perhaps closest to what one may experience in a Japanese rock garden or karesansui.

Large square slip celadon plate by Hoshino Gen
Large square slip celadon plate by Hoshino Gen

When I came upon an image of his work on the Internet, it had a profound impact and I began to look for an opportunity to see Hoshino-san and his ceramics in person. When I found out that he was taking part in the Tajimi Creator’s Market during my spring visit to Japan, I made a long trek to Tajimi, which is near Nagoya in the middle of Japan. Hoshino-san was warm and soft-spoken, and his work was absolutely entrancing in person. I was very excited when he later agreed to work with us.

Japanese ceramic artist Hoshino Gen at his studio in Shiga, Japan
Japanese ceramic artist Hoshino Gen at his studio in Shiga, Japan
(Photo courtesy of Hoshino Gen)

Hoshino-san’s work expresses the beauty of slip, a watered down form of clay in its muddy state. In 2009, when he was adding the thickened slip from an old bucket to a new one, he noticed that the soft clay showed lines like water ripples and was excited by its beauty. “I became infatuated with slip and wanted to share its expression in my work”, he recalls.

It was also around that time that he decided to switch to functional ceramics instead of sculptures that he had been making for nearly a decade after graduating from Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center or Ishoken. From Hoshino-san’s powerful and emotional work, it is clear that he still draws from his studies in sculpture as well as from his childhood exposure to the sculptural ceramic works of his well-known artist parents.

Slip expressions on the plates.
Simple and elegant. Hoshino-san’s work is suggestive of nature.

Hoshino-san creates work by pouring thick slip into a plaster mold. When the slip dries to the texture of mud, he uses various spatulas by hand to scoop out excess slip in swiping motions. The marks left in the slip becomes the decoration for the vessel.

“The slip shows a variety of expressions depending on the amount of water in the clay”, Hoshino-san observes. Slip is also affected by the humidity and the general condition of the plaster mold, so he adds sodium silicate or waterglass in the slip to carefully create the ideal texture.  He says that the slip allows him to understand the precise relationship between clay and water, and controlling its texture is the most difficult aspect of his work.

Hoshino-san preparing porcelain slip at his studio.
Hoshino-san preparing porcelain slip at his studio.
(Photo courtesy of Hoshino Gen)

The celadon glaze is also notoriously difficult to fire because the glaze only turns blue when there is sufficient thickness and fired to a high temperature in reduction. The thick coat of glaze can also drip or crawl easily. But the rare attraction of Hoshino-san’s work is enhanced by the choice of this glaze, which is traditionally associated with symmetric, pristine designs.  The effect of combining celadon with the irregular, asymmetric design of Hoshino-san’s vessels is stunning, conjuring sand dunes or ripples in shallow flowing water.

Spatulas and a hand-broom used for scooping to create the decorations on his work. Each spatula is of different hardness.
Spatulas and a hand-broom used for scooping to create the decorations of Hoshino-san’s work. Each spatula is of different hardness.
(Photo courtesy of Hoshino Gen)

Right now his crush on slip continues, but his fascination extends to dryer forms of clay. “I’m curious about the expressions of earth and rock”, he muses. “I create work by stopping these beautiful expressions in time by adding heat to them. I feel joy in creating objects that remind us of the grace that nature brings”.

Slip celadon oval plate by Hoshino Gen
Slip celadon oval plate by Hoshino Gen

Hoshino-san’s work is a combination of passion, mastery of various techniques, and a unique creative approach. He is active internationally and has worked as a guest artist at Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan and participated in art events abroad, most recently in Finland and Czech Republic. We are excited to watch how this talented potter continues his artistic journey.

The Ancient Pottery Town of Tajimi Comes Alive with its Annual Spring Ceramics Festival

By:
Ai Kanazawa
May 27, 2014Ceramics Mino / Tajimi Travels

Japan has a historically rich and vibrant ceramics scene, but much of it is local and barely known beyond its shores. Stepping foot into this other world requires going to the pottery towns and other out-of-the-way places deep in Japan’s interior, which is what we at Studio Kotokoto find especially intriguing and rewarding.

This past spring, I visited the annual ceramics festival in Tajimi in Gifu Prefecture. It was my first visit to a ceramics festival being held in the hometown of Mino pottery, which is renowned for the green copper glazed Oribe and soft white glazed Shino style wares.

Narumi-Oribe
Narumi Oribe plate by a student from Tajimi Technical High School. It tastefully represents the traditional Narumi style, which is made using two clay bodies: white clay with green glaze, and red clay with white slip and vivid geometric designs.

Mino pottery dates back to the 7th and 8th centuries with the production of Sue ware (or Sueki). The remains of ancient kilns that produced these ceramics can still be found in the neighboring town of Kakamigahara. This region became well known in the 16th century for its Oribe ware, named after tea master and warrior Furuta Oribe who was a Mino native.

Capitalizing on its fame as a center of aesthetic pottery, Tajimi and the surrounding area of Touno have risen to become the largest ceramics-producing region in the country. Around half of Japan’s ceramics and tiles currently come from this area.

tile-art
The banks of Toki river that runs through the town of Tajimi are adorned with tile mosaics.
Tajimi is the biggest producer of ceramic tiles in Japan.

As Tajimi is only a short 30-minute ride by fast train to the north of Nagoya, the largest city in Chubu region, it has also become a sprawling commuter town. Overseas, Tajimi is perhaps best known for its International Ceramics Festival, which is a triennial event that features a world-class ceramics competition funded by numerous local government organizations and ceramics associations.

The show that I went to see, though, was a local event that Tajimi hosts annually. When I got off the train at JR Tajimi station on a bright spring morning, there were people handing out detailed maps and information about the ceramics festival and local attractions. The atmosphere was festive with all sorts of events taking place. There were wheel-throwing pottery demonstrations, performances by local school orchestras, and plenty of entertainment for families with small children.

Tajimi-creator's-market
The entrance to the arcade hosting Tajimi Creator’s Market.

My main purpose for visiting Tajimi was to see the Tajimi Creator’s Market, a small arcade of stalls organized by graduates of two local pottery schools in Tajimi called Ishoken and Tajimi Technical High School. This market was started 5 years ago as a venue to connect fledging potters working in the Touno area with end users.

I arrived in the early morning hoping to beat the crowd in order to see the best selection of work on offer and to meet many of the talented young potters on display.  There were around 50 potters showing their work in the Tajimi Creator’s Market, but even though I got there early, the arcade was already quickly filling up with people. According to one potter, the number of visitors that their event attracts has been growing every year. Nonetheless, I had a very rewarding time in finding an exciting young potter that we look forward to introducing on Studio Kotokoto in the near future.

A stall selling Oribe style pottery on Oribe street, the main thoroughfare of the festival.
A stall selling Oribe style pottery on Oribe street, the main thoroughfare of the festival.

After visiting the Creator’s Market, I made my way to Oribe Street, which is the main artery for the ceramics festival. The most significant difference between the Tajimi ceramics festival and the various craft fairs that I have visited elsewhere in Japan is that this festival hosts stalls operated by local stores selling Minoyaki at discounted prices. So if you know what you are looking for, this is a great opportunity to acquire beautiful Mino pottery at affordable prices.

Oribe-street
Tajimi Oribe street lined with vendors selling pottery.

On my way back to the train station, I came across a pottery stall run by several current students of Tajimi Technical High School who were helping to raise funds for their school. The pieces were so well made and beautiful that I picked up a piece of Oribe ware to take home.

manhole-cover-tajimi
Even the manhole covers of Tajimi feature ceramics. It is clear that Tajimi considers its ceramics heritage as an important part of its identity.

As I continued my walk back to the station, I thought about how difficult it must be for the budding potters that I came across at the beginning of their careers to be able to make a living in our fast-paced world. But these young artists residing in and around Tajimi have an important advantage. The Tajimi show was put together by the local community –from the local government to schools and businesses- to promote and support the local craft industry. There are few other places that I know of that goes to such great lengths to aid its ceramic artists.

After 13 centuries, the old pottery town of Tajimi continues to be a nurturing and inspirational starting place for future aspiring potters.

 

 

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