The Kiyomizu Rokubei family has almost 250 years of history, with the family now in its 8th generation of potters, headed by Kiyomizu number 8. Also known as Kiyomizu Masahiro, Kiyomizu 8 (b. 1954) is known for taking his family’s kiln to an extremely contemporary space. The surfaces of his works evoke the quality of steel and metal, evoking influences from international artistic movements, while also grappling with questions inherent to Japanese ceramics as an industry and culture.

Influences from Korea and the U.S. are notable in his work. With Nam June Paik and Lee Ufan spearheading questions about object relativity in the realm of Fluxus during the 1960s and 1970s- a question explored also by Isamu Noguchi in his time in America- it is unsurprising that questions of materiality come through in the work of Kiyomizu 8.

Questions about material objecthood are present in Kiyomizu 8’s work. Therefore, not only do his works take on the initial consideration in Japanese ceramics, from functional to sculptural (with influence from the Sodeisha group), but it also takes on more contemporary questions that go beyond its fundamental identity. In other words, he doesn’t only ask “What is this ceramic object?”, he also asks “How does this ceramic object relate to other, non-ceramic objects?” These issues of objecthood are most visibly asked in his work through material and how it is expressed through surface and color, imitating the sheet-like, hollow, and burnished quality of metal and industry.

The title “Unit 88-5” only further amplifies this contemporaneity. Considering that the field of ceramics cross the threshold of categories of design, art, and craft (which, inherently, are not as rigid as they are made to seem), the title also evokes the matter of categorical identity.