1872-1963
male
Graduated from Tokyo Art School (Tokyo University of the Arts) in the Sculpting Department.
Learned alongside students such as Okakura Tenshin and Takamura Koun.
He built a home at Tabata which also doubled as a workshop, and after installing a downdraft style kiln, he devoted himself to creating pottery in order to utilize the fruits of the research on pottery he had engaged in up until that point.
In 1907, he exhibited his work, “Jisei Kinshimon Kesshoyu Vase” at the Tokyo Industrial Exposition and won third place prize.
After winning many prizes, he was appointed an Imperial Household Artist in 1934. In 1945, his home and workshop was burned down in the Bombing of Tokyo. He temporarily evacuated to his hometown of Shimodate before rebuilding a workshop in Tabata again in 1950. In 1953, he became the first potter to receive the Order of Culture. In 1955, he declined the offer to be designated as a Living National Treasure.
As a potter who studied the foundations of art, he is a pioneer for establishing contemporary pottery art that is different from traditional pottery.
His representative works include, “Hokosaiji Chinkamon Vase” (property of Sen-oku Hakuko Kan Museum, Important Cultural Properties), “Saiji Enjumon Vase” (property of Idemitsu Museum of Arts), “Saiji Kinkamon Vase” (property of Tsurui Museum of Art), etc.
His students while he was a contract teacher in the Ceramics Department at Tokyo Higher Technical School included Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro.
