I started making pottery because I had a deep admiration for "Minto", a form of Japanese folk pottery which includes tea cups and rice bowls.

As an apprentice under Koishiwara-Yaki potter in Fukuoka, I spent 2 years learning to use a potter's wheel, to glaze pottery, to put pottery into a kiln, and to bake pottery. I also learned to plant and harvest rice.

While working with clay, I became interested in creating objects from formless masses of clay.

Because I experienced pottery from Koishiwara to Kyoto to Italy, my original understanding that "pottery" was just dishes has been shattered. Now that my understanding of pottery is no longer limited, I think to myself, "what else can I make?"

Now I feel little difference between making dishes and making other objects.

Koichi Yamamoto
Taishojin, Kawachimachi, Kumamoto-city, Kumamoto, Japan

menu

The next exhibition with Takeshi Kai will be held at Kumamoto Prefectural Traditional Crafts Center, KumamotoCity from March 9 to 14.
In Okinawa, the exhibition with Takumi Arita will be held from March 30 to April 5 at Riubou department store.