Yasuhisa Kohyama London Exhibition 2017
Yasuhisa Kohyama’s latest exhibition comprises 28 ceramics by Yasuhisa Kohyama and four paintings of Kohyama’s work by William Wilkins and is running till 30th November, 2017 at Erskine, Hall & Coe Gallery. Details here
Kohyama has played a very unique and significant role in reviving the use of the traditional Japanese ‘anagama’ wood firing kiln, as he was the first potter in Shigaraki to build such a kiln since the Middle Ages. He is also a contemporary master of the ancient practice of Sueki, a method that originated in southern China and which accounts for his unglazed yet glassy surface textures. His works are inspired by ancient Japanese Shigaraki, Jomon and Yayoi ceramics, and are collected internationally.
Yasuhisa Kohyama was born in 1936 in Shigaraki, a historically vital ceramics production centre in Japan. Kohyama was fifteen years old when he became employed by one of the largest ceramic factories in Shigaraki, Oumi Kagaku Touki. From 1958 until 1960, he took evening classes at a vocational training school, where he was taught basic techniques such as glazing and throwing on a potter’s wheel. A well-known ceramicist designer, Sakuzo Hineno, visited the factory in 1955 while he was working under a government scheme to improve the quality and originality of the ceramic arts in Japan. Following several workshops, Kohyama asked Hineno about being coached individually and was honoured by becoming an apprentice, specializing in tableware.
Yasuhisa Kohyama ceramic sculpture
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Kaze’,(wind)
2017 Erskine, Hall & Coe
William Wilkins – ‘Still Life III, Kohyama Vessels’
2017
Yasuhisa Kohyama
Yasuhisa Kohyama -‘Danpen’ {fragment), 2017
Yasuhisa Kohyama – Anagama fired stoneware sculpture vessel
Yasuhisa Kohyama with ‘Homura’ flame sculpture – 2017
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Kaze’ (flame)
2012
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Danpen’
-2012–
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Homura’
Yasuhisa Kohyama
Yasuhisa Kohyama
Yasuhisa-Kohyama-Danpen
2014
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Kakehana’ vase
Yasuhisa Kohyama -‘Kaze’ ceramic sculpture
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Sora’
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Kaze’
Yasuhisa Kohyama anagama kiln
“Every time I fire, I’ve come to recognize that I am in Nature; I am a small part of Nature. Intently I watch Nature over and over again; working with clay, inspired by Nature,
I am free to allow creation to happen, approaching the experience as the ancients did.”
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Suemono’
2016
Yasuhisa Kohyama — ‘Homura’ (flame),
2016
Yasuhisa Kohyama – ‘Suemono’
2017
Yasuhisa Kohyama- ‘Suemono’
2017
A video from the autumn of 2016, filmmaker where Cristobal Zanartu spent over two weeks at Kohyama’s studio in Japan.