MEISTER INTERVIEW Vol.2 Arita ware artist Takayuki Nishi / Saga Prefec
Takayuki Nishi Ceramic artist
Arita porcelain has history of 400 years, the first birth of porcelain in Japan in 1616.
Main feature of Arita Porcelain is made of powdered stone that has been crushed.
Nishi Takayuki, who works in Arita Town in Saga Prefecture which can be said to be a sacred place for Japanese porcelain, is focused on his unique materials selection and novel ideas.
This time, I asked him about how he was fascinated by pottery and his passion for manufacturing.
― How did you get into the world of pottery? -
I liked making something from an early age.
I majored in architecture at university, and after graduating, I worked for a external structure design at a construction company for about a year.
The architect designer can only design.
Only the carpenters could build by their hands.
So I thought that I would like to make things with my own hands from the very beginning to the end.
So I went to the pottery industory after leaving a job which I had belong just for a year. So, I started pottery since when I was 23 years old.
-There are several series in your pottery work. Can you tell me more about the representative works? -
"SHIZUKU series" characterized by flowing expression of glaze is often forcused on.
The soil is taken from Amakusa and it is called Arita's standard.
I think that porcelain soil is very smooth and beautiful soil and I want to put out the soil as it is.
Well, I do not apply glaze because I think that the soil is good smoothness of this soil, but other Arita potters are often glazed. Because it is said that if it is baked whithout glaze it gets dirty.
I firmly bake it and polish it with water-resistant paper.
I have a one which was made about 5 years ago but it is not dirty and it is white.
If you leave oil stains and stains for a long time, don't worry, kitchen bleach can use for porcelain , so it becomes white.
This glaze like tearing drops was created by painting glaze the upper half of cup with 5 to 10 times the normal thickness.
After that, it flows naturally during baking in the kiln. There is nothing the same cup.
photo: Representative work SHIZUKU series expresses the natural flow of liquid as if time had stopped
-What are some tips for ideas about this distinctive glaze? -
Originally, glazes are melted and accumulated in the kiln.
Glaze is like a glass as a property.
Arita is a style that draws stains and painting pictures on the porcelain, so if you make the gleze, you should make it glaze does not flow because it will fail if it flows.
However I always thought that the flow of glaze which is seen in Karatsu-ware was beautiful.
It depends on the way it flows, so I'm having a hard time to create this "shizuku" style of glaze, and I thought that I was trying to create is a flowing expression of celadon, and that was not a new thing itself.
But I thought that it was interesting how I convey this flowing glaze style.
In Japan, there are some artists who are making glazed flowing ceramic works.
However, this method is difficult, and absolute mass production can not be done.
So it is interesting because it is an expression that can only be achieved by an individual artist like me.
--That way of thinking is good. I am interested in the sense of bringing out the goodness of the material.
What do you think you are affected by? Where does the imagination come from?--
The most favorite thing when I started pottery was glaze, and the combination of glaze and material and the texture are interesting.
While studying the glaze of celadon, the SHIZUKU series was born by studying that the celadon became more beautiful.
Imagination, for example, I get it when looking at oil paintings and watercolors.
And I am interested in the texture itself, such as concrete and wood, in architecture.
Since I am a science, I like research.
The texture of pottery is large in science and chemistry. The deeper you know about pottery, the better your expression of work.
Takayuki Nishi :https://www.realjapanglobal.com/collections/takayukinishi