| 神山易久 Ceramic YASUHISA KOHYAMA |
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Felice Fischer
Curator of East Asia and Japanese Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
( 2002 )
Susan Jefferies
Curator of Contemporary Ceramics
The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
( 2002 )
Robert L. Yellin
The Japan Times Ceramic Art Columnist
( 2002 )
Michael R. Cunningham
Curator of Japanese and Korean Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art
( 1997 ) ( 1995 )
Yoshiaki Inui
Prof.emeritus, Kyoto University
The Japanese representative to the International Ceramic Academy
( 1992 )
Marjan Unger
Director of Dutch Form
( 1992 )
Felice Fischer
Kohyama Yasuhisa works in the traditional technique, using a wood-burning kiln. Each firing takes about two weeks, one for the preperation of the kiln and one for the actual firing. Kohyama deliberately leaves the coarse pebbles in the Shigaraki clay to give texture to the surfaces. He does not throw his pieces on a wheel, but sculpts them down from large shaped blocks of clay, using steel wire to carve the sides, and giving the surfaces a unique textural quality.
Some of Kohyama 's forms are reminiscent of a bird or a boat, perfectly balanced by the textured surface and subtle shading of colors in hues of brown and grey. One feels a great depth and vibrancy in his pieces and in the spirit of the artist who crafted it. Impression in Form makes a stunning addition to the growing collection of contemporary Japanese crafts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Felice Fischer
Curator of East Asia and Japanese Art
Philadelphia museum of Art
( 2002 )
Susan Jeffries
It has always seemed to me that one of the most difficult challenges in ceramics, and in order media as well, is to find ways of re-invigo- rating an old, venerable tradition. In order to do this, new ideas have to emerge, which are as valuable and as innovative as the original work itself. The modern master has to accommodate the past, but not be its slave.
Yasuhisa Kohyama is one of the few artists, who has been able, through his own skill and intelligence, to take that beloved Shigaraki clay and to transform it, while maintaining the high standard and spirit of this great Japaneses ceramic legacy. Now we can look again, reme,mber the fertile ground from which this work sprung and see clay, shaped and rough-hewn into new, vibrant vessel forms.
Inspired by the work of Henry Moore, Kohyama approaches the clay in a bold fashion, seeing mass and trajectories full of sculptural possibilities. He cuts the clay, recording irregular movements or thrusts, similar to the earth's tectonic plates, while realigning the tensions, the stresses, into striking geometric planes. Some areas remain rough, others are smoothed. Firing in an anagams kiln produces subtle colour variations on the clay surface while the projecting nuggets of feldspar, so typical of Shigaraki, decorate the bare, unglazed surface.
To my mind, artist have to be open to a world-view of histrical and contemporary art, but then to succeed in their own work, they have to translate that awareness and understanding into a very intense study of restricted ares of interest. It is only with a life-long focus and a limited number of goals, that one can truly achieve something significant. Yasuhisa Kohyama has brought his considerable intelligence and talent into producing just such a focused and exciting body of new work.
Susan Jefferies
Curator of Contemporary Ceramics
The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
Toronto, Canada
( 2002 )
Robert L.Yellin
Kohyama
On my large wooden desk is a small sake cup by Kohyama Yasuhisa. It's rather tall though, for a sake cup that is standing about seven cm. The color is subdued, gray with subtle shirts in hues across its body. Its has a stem for holding ( a bai-jo hai form, ' riding a horse') and an open-faced mouth with a thin rough lip. A small crack is on the lip and in the mikomi. There's not much else that could be said superficially about it.
Yet, in that simplicity of form, in those restrained colors, in the acceptance of imperfection, and in the unaffected way it shapes my space, I find a grate depth well beyond its size; I see a mirror of the potter's soul, and I hear a respectful song to Japan's ceramic heritage. In short, Kohyama has imbuted this sake cup with a living spirit.
It brings to mind a Kamakura period (1192-1336) sueki sake cup I also have; it too possesses the same spirit. In a way they are distant cousins. Keeping a tradition alove and fresh like that is not easy for any contemporary Japanese ceramic artist. No othrer Shigaraki artist, in my humble opinion, does it with the flair and diversity as Kohyama. His larger works, which speak of the wind, canyons, and mountains, would look equally at home in a traditional Japaneses alcove ( tokonoma) or a marbled penthouse in London. To have that spirit in form, whatever the size, cross borders with such ease is testament to the integrity and vision of Kohyama.
Ceramic art is indeed universal.
May we all refresh our hesrts and senses with Kohyama Yasuhisa's new works,. Just like the sake cup my desk does for me.
Robert L. Yellin
The Japan Times Ceramic Art Columnist
( 2002 )
Robert L.Yellin
.
THE JAPAN TIMES . WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2002
YASUHISA KOHYAMA
Remaking form, recapturing spirit
Hand grenades, gas burners and patio funiture are not items usually associated with ancient potting centers, yet in Shigaraki, southern Shiga Prefecture, even these odd items have been fired.
The Shigaraki staple most folks are familiar with, though, is the pudgy tanuki that stands in front of drinking establishment throughout Japan. It holds a sake flisk in one hand and in the other, a promissory note for the booze; it never pays, though. If you've ever been to Shigaraki, you cannot miss the numbing variety of garish tanuki that stand in front of many tourist shops.
Tanuki are synonymous with modern-day Shigaraki, just sa room-heating hibachi were during the postwar period. But there is so much more to this ancient potting center, first established in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), than this folksy novelty.
Shigaraki enjoyed its glory years in the Muromachi and Momoyama periods. However, as happened to many yakishime (unglazed high-fired stoneware) ceramic traditions, the natural beauty of the wares faded in the Edo Period- and even more so in the Meiji Era - due to changing technologies and a lack of interst.
It was't until the late 1960s that a revival of the ancient ways rekindled Shigaraki's true ceramic traditions. One pionner reawakening the energy and spirit of ancient Shigaraki is Yasuhisa Kohyama. He's having a long-overdue exhibition in Tokyo, which starts today and runs till April 16 at the sixth-floor gallery of Takashimaya, Nihonbashi.
When looking at the first products of Shigaraki, such as a 14th-century cinerary urn, one cannot help but appreciate the natural form and beauty of the unglazed clay. These qualities continue into works dating from the Muromachi and Momoyama periods, such as the famed large tsubo (tall jars) that have found their way into museums throughout the world.
Kohyama draws inspiration from these works and other ancient Japanese wares, like those of the Jomon Period (ca.8,000B.C.-300B.C.). He does so in a vital and energetic way, creating original sculptured forms that pay homage to his ceramic roots without being carbon copies of them.
Take, for instance, his trianglar works with sharp wavy edges. These have no decoration, only the warmth of their own muted orange clay. This allows the form of each to "speak", as if in a bold whisper. These works lack the ornate decoration of their distant Jomon cousins, fired 10,000 years ago, yet share something of the same verve and temperament. This also goes for Kohyama's gray, vertical pieces that hark back to the fifth-12th century sueki wares - the first Japanese pots fired in anagama ( a single chambered tunnnel kiln). Introduced via Korea, the anagama reshaped the Japanese ceramic scene.
Kohyama revolutionized Shigaraki in his own way when he became the first potter since medieval times to built an anagama. That was in 1968 and Kohyama was against the trend of the times: Japan was looking forward even as the potter was casting back centuries. The Tokyo exhibition of works from the first firing of the anagama caused quite a stir, with famouse potters such as Shoji Hamada coming to see what the buzz was all about. Collectors and museums snapped up pieces; Kohyama's work is in the permanent collectors of New York's Metropolitan and Blooklyn museum, as wellas many other institutions.
All the works in the current exhibition were fired for seven days in ( naturally) an anagama; temperatures reached just over 1,300 degrees in the front of the kiln. The white, gritty, feldspear-flecked Shigaraki clay metamorphoses to sunset orange upon first firing. Kohyama fires many of his works twice or three times, and this produces a grayfish buildup of ash that is reminiscent of those early sueki wares. Drippng ash glazes, like those seen on more standard Shigaraki wares, would interfere with the grandeur of the potter's forms.
And forms is the aspect of Kohyama's work that most impresses the viewer. Some pieces are curled up slabs with an " inner sactum". Others are broad expanses with wavy sides where their creator sliced them like a wedge of cheese. In these pieces we can see the radiance of Shigaraki clay: one side pitted withquartz stones, the other face matte, sharkskin-textured. A few do balancing acts, looking as if they might topple over at any time; others resemble clay wings, in which we can "feel" the wind.
His sake flasks are in a kamo-dokkuri (duck form), although they actually look more like turtles. They also make the most fabulous "tok-tok-tok" sound when sake is poured from them, and as any sake vessel connoisseur knows, such an accent is of utmost importance.
Of the 60 or so works shown, all (with the exception of the sake vessels) are sculptural. For a Shigaraki potter, that alone would be novel. This being Kohyama. though, we're in a realm beyond mere curiosity: This exhibition is the closest you'll come to finding spirit in form since the first Jomon potters touched clay.
Robert Yellin
The Japantimes Ceramic Art Columnist
www.e-yakimono.net