1899-1983
male
bizen pottery
living national treasure
Starting out with a passion for literatary studies, Fujiwara began submitting haiku and poems throughout his elementary and junior high school years to various publications and winning awards for some of his submissions. Leaving for Tokyo at the age of 19, he began working as an editor for Hakubunkan while also attending university and was producing poems under the pen name Fujiwara Keiji. However, due to poor health, he abandoned his aspirations of becoming a writer of literature and returned to his hometown in 1973.
After returning home, Fujiwara began to practice pottery at the suggestion of Manyoshu scholar Masamune Atsuo, going on to become the apprentice of Bizen potter Mimura Umekage.
Getting his first kiln in 1939, Fujiwara then started out on his own, and thanks to the guidance of Kanashige Toyo as well as deepening his understanding of the unique ko-bizen style of pottery, he developed works in the solemn style of Momoyama and Kamamura period ceramics. After the war he was recognized as a conservator of bizen ware techniques in 1948, was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property by Okayama Prefecture in 1954, became a regular member of the Japan Kogei Association in 1956, and in 1970 became the second person to be designated a Living National Treasure for bizen ware pottery after Kanashige Toyo.
In addition to this, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun 4th Class in 1972, received the Miki Memorial Award from Okayama Prefecture in 1973, and was also awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure 3rd Class on the day of his death in 1983.
