Interview: Ryotaro Kato (Ceramic Artist)
VOICE VOL.7
“White and Blue and Black” – Takeshi Imaizumi Solo Exhibition
Tea bowls and flower vases
From the left: white stoneware, yohen tenmoku, ice crackle
A solo exhibition of ceramic artist Takeshi Imaizumi was held at Kaiden Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo from July 15 to 21, 2021. The gallery has been hosting Takeshi’s solo exhibitions regularly for the past 10 years, and this was his sixth exhibition in the last two years. The exhibition featured more than 80 works, including new bowls and flower vases, as well as tableware that can find its place in daily life. The contents of the exhibition showed the richness of Takeshi’s ceramic activities.
Takeshi, who lives and works in Saitama Prefecture, began making pottery while still at university and studied at the ISHOKEN (Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center) in Gifu Prefecture. Immersed in the wonder of pottery, he is passionately pursuing the expression created by clay, glaze, and fire. His main works include celadon and white stoneware with beautiful kan-nyu (often referred to as ‘crackle’), and tenmoku bowls with a variety of iron glaze tones. Takeshi’s tenmoku pieces are known as “yohen tenmoku,” reflecting the infinite variations of scenery created by those “changes in the kiln” – the literal meaning of “yohen”. This time, too, there was a wide variety of tenmoku works on display, from those that reminded me of the tranquil night sky to those with a modern, metallic glow and complex coloration that call to mind the aurora borealis.
Beautiful sake cups with various expressions
