Publications
ASIA WEEK 2015
ASIA WEEK NEW York 2015
Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. is proud to present The Grandeur of Japanese Ceramics: From Tea Ware to Sculpture during Asia Week New York 2015, at Hollis Taggart Galleries. This exhibition will feature a wide range of contemporary Japanese ceramics that reexamine notions of tradition in both glaze and form, created both by artists who have been widely recognized for their contributions to the field and by innovative new artistic voices...
ASIA WEEK 2016
Asia week NEW YORK 2016
SEDUCTIVE beauty aims to explore the different ways in which the natural world informs Japanese ceramics. Serving as both material and inspiration, nature provides the clay from which these beautiful pieces are formed, and often influences the shape they take and the final surfaces they carry. The exhibition is broken into four parts, each highlighting a different facet of this core relationship between nature and the ceramic arts....
ASIA WEEK 2017
ASIA WEEK NEW YORK 2017
Trade and travel between Japan and the Western world steadily increased over the second half of the twentieth century, and has only grown in the twenty-first. Alongside this exchange of people and goods grew a healthy artistic dialogue between East and West. Many Japanese artists took Western ideas and used them in their own art, interpreting them through an Eastern lens. With this exhibition, we investigate the confluence of West and East in the context of ceramics. What we have found is an exciting communal experiment, one that fuses modern art and traditional aesthetics in some truly groundbreaking works....
Cheers!
Cheers!
When size is not an issue
Whether you drink sake or not, a good sake cup makes your heart sing. These precious creatures embody all of the characteristics of good pottery. Some are fierce and cunning, some are sweet and cute, others funky and bold. The artists have packed all of their message into these small vessels. There is a cup for every mood: perhaps you enjoy a contemplative cup decorated with geometric or mosaic pattern. Or you are feeling fun and wild, and would prefer to drink from a cup painted with brightly colored animals or held by a sumo wrestler! Each one is as unique as the hand that made it. Touch it, hold it, play with it – you feel it with your lips, drink from it, and you have a slice of that artist inside of you!...
SUZUKI Goro
SUZUKI Goro: BORN IN CLAY, PLAY IN CLAY
For over 50 years, artist SUZUKI Goro has honed his extraordinary craftsmanship and channeled his creative free spirit into on engaging body of work that delightfully joins tradition and innovation. Even from the young age of 16, Goro showed an unusual talent for the ceramic arts. As he says, "I do thing other people don't do." He continues to push his own limits in the pursuit of his art, and as he combines his skills in throwing and building with a lifetime's knowledge of material, you can truly say that he was born in clay and play in clay....
Scented Splendors
Scented Splendors -The Art of Incense Burners-
The spread of Buddhism from China to Japan in the 6th century brought many new rituals and practices to the island country, including paper, incense, medicine, tea leaf and Chinese Character, Kanji 漢字. Many ceremonial items also served functional purposes: tea was originally utilized for medicinal purposes, so did incense, Buddhist priests incorporated fragrant wood into their garments and Buddhist scriptures to repel insects. Wood from fragrant trees such as cedar, cypress, and others has been burnt during religious ritual since time immemorial. Incense was also used as a marker of class. "Kneaded incense" - in which aromatic ingredients are blended and kneaded into soft pieces, which are then left to mature - was used in the homes of noble families and warriors, and court ladies were often found wearing a piece of fragrant wood as a sign of status and their identification. An incense appreciation can even be found in the 11th century masterpiece of Japanese literature, the Tale of Genji...
ORIBE
ORIBE
Most recognizable for its green copper glaze and bold painted designs, Oribe is a quintessentially Japanese creation. Oribe ware originated in the 16th century and takes its name from the tea master Furuta Oribe 古田織部(1544–1615). Furuta Oribe was a samurai and tea master who lived at the height of the cultural renaissance of the Momoyama Period (1573-1603) in Japan. He favored a specific style of ceramics for his tea ceremonies, and this style eventually became known by his name, Oribe. After Furuta Oribe performed seppuku (ritual suicide), a dark cloud was cast over the work that bore his name, one that only passed when Oribe was reinvented in the 20th century by the artist Kitaoji Rosanjin 北大路魯山人(1883-1959)...
YAKISHIME
YAKISHIME
The unique Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi is key to understanding Yakishime ceramics. Literally meaning “fire” (yaki) “tight” (shime), any unglazed ceramics that have been fired in a wood or any other kind kiln can be labeled Yakishime. These unglazed works feature dry, unadorned surfaces that perfectly embody wabi-sabi’s reverence for natural imperfection and blend beautifully with the tea aesthetic.
Japanese ceramic connoisseurs have been known to go to extremes to find the perfect clay texture and ash deposits. They call it 土の味 (the flavor of clay) or 景色 (the marks from wood fire). The perfect texture must start with the perfect clay. A specific clay deposit can pass from one generation to the next, a carefully guarded resource. Some potters pick their clay by chewing it to determine quality, others pick with their hands, their noses – it is a fully sensory knowledge of material. Certain clays and certain textures produce different ash colors depending on the kind of wood, and each potter must calibrate his materials and his kiln carefully to achieve the desired result, a perfect wabi-sabi balance....
Jar and Jars
Jar and Jars
“Jars hold a special place in the world of ceramics and are the workhorses of any ceramic collection. Their function as vessels can be utilized in infinite ways: they hold water, seeds, teas, ashes, mud, or nearly anything one can imagine. According to Nihon Shoki, the second oldest book on Japanese history, tsubo, or jar, was originally tsubu, a word originating from the term for flower bud, tsubomi.One can see the bell shape of the unopened flower bud in the upright form of the jar, both holding a similar potential for beauty and subtlety.. The Ainu people propose another etymology, in which tsubo descends from tsupu, meaning room, space, or womb......
FIRED WITH PASSION
FIRED WITH PASSION
The publication of “Fired with Passion: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics” is that rare event when important, beautiful art is first introduced. Although Japanese wood-block prints, flower arrangements, some films, cartoons, fashion and industrial design are well-known, its remarkable achievements in post-1945 ceramic sculpture are virtually unknown outside Japan. The privilege of participating in making this great art better known in the West has been undertaken by the co-authors who bring wide multi-cultural art backgrounds as experienced connoisseurs: a major collector and the leading dealer. They have selected over 230 images from noted Western collections and premier Japanese museums. All are strikingly photographed in full color, and represent some of the greatest masterpieces of Japanese ceramic art.
This ground-breaking, lavish, over-sized volume has been written in a style directed toward enhancing aesthetic appreciation by a close, non-academic analysis of the exciting works. The authors discuss, in plain English, with no artspeak jargon, specifically what they believe is Artistically meritorious in each piece.Contemporary Japanese ceramists, well aware that they are the heirs of the world’s oldest ceramic tradition of some 15,000 years, are unrivaled. To better understand today’s artists, a survey of the history of Japanese ceramic art is included, which offers a glimpse of its wealth of formal invention, exuberance and sheer decorative pleasures. The ceramics illustrated in this book promise to be a revelation to the general art-loving public, Asian art aficionados, and practicing potters.
MEDIA
03/10/16 | The New York Times : Highlights From Asia Week
12/09/16 | Wall Street International Magazine : They Broke The Glass Ceiling
12/01/15 | C File.org : Art | Hayashi Yasuo: Two Works from his House Series
Japanese Ceramics Today, Part 1: Masterworks from the Kikuchi Collection
Musee Tomo, 2003. 11 ¼”x 8 ¼”, 121 pp.The catalogue features color images of 100 pieces of contemporary works such as by Sueharu Fukami, Kyo Tsuji, Kimiaki Takeuchi, Shugo Takauchi, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Kakiemon XIV Sakaida, Yasokichi Tokuda, Toshisada Wakao, Mineo Okabe, Koheiji Miura, Seimei Tsuji, Shinobu Kawase, etc. Forward by Seizo Hayashiya, director of the museum, and an essay by curator, Mari Hanazato, both in English and Japanese. Artists’ biographies in Japanese.
Momoyama Revived: Shino & Oribe Work by Toshisada Wakao
The catalogue introduces Wakao’s latest works in the style of Shino & Oribe which are on view at Dai Ichi Gallery, September – October 2003. 12 Color images. 10”x 8” 17pp.
Mutsuo Yanagihara and Contemporary Ceramics
14 Pioneers in Contemporary Ceramics – Out of Stock
Kochi Prefecture Museum, 2003. 11”x 8 ¼”, 110pp. & 92 pp. A catalogue introduces Yanagihara’s major works, interview with the artist, as well as a forward and artist’s biography in Japanese. Another catalogue includes 14 contemporary artists such as Harumi Nakashima, Yuriko Nakashima, Chieko Katsumata, Ayumi Shigematsu, Shoko Koike, etc. Essay by Akiyo Kawamura and artists’ biographies in Japanese.
Leaders of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics – Exploring Techniques and Forms for the New Century
Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, 2001. 11 ½”x 9”, 143 pp. $45 plus shipping
The catalogue features 48 pieces of sculpture works such as by Yo Akiyama, Kosho Ito, Ryoji Koie, Yasuyoshi Sugiura, Sueharu Fukami, Shigeharu Nagae, Harumi Nakashima, Kinpei Nakamura, Kichizaemon XV Raku, etc. Forward by Mitsuhiko Hasebe, director of the museum, essays by Kenji Kaneko and Kazuko Todate both in English and Japanese.
Celebration of The First Decade (1990-2001):
Ceramics by Japanese & American Artists
Dai Ichi Arts, 2001. 8” x 8”, 32pp. Over 40 selected ceramic works exhibited in the gallery between 1990 and 2001 are featured in this compact catalog. Featured artists: Shoji Hamada, Anjin Abe, Eiko Kishi, Yoshihiko Yoshida, Takao Okazaki, Naokata Ueda, Peter Callas, Walter Hahn, Takao Okazaki, Takushi Haraguchi, Ryoji Koie, Tobei Tahara, Seiko Kondo, Shigemasa Higashida, Randy Johnston, Tadashi Kanai, Yasuhiro Kohara, Enryu Kano, Takashi Nakazato, Shiro Tsujimura, Fiona Wong, Hikaru Shimamura, Yasuhisa Kohyama, Katsuyuki Sakazume, Yuriko Matsuda, Hideo Miyaoka, Tacy Apostolik, Malcolm Wright, Kyo Tsuji.
Oribe Today
Dai Ichi Arts, 2003. 10” x 8”, 17pp. This mini catalog is published along with a group exhibition of Oribe works by Goro Suzuki, Shugo Takauchi, Shotaro Hayashi, Kiheiji Takiguchi, Ryoji Koie, Toshisada Wakao and Shigemasa Higashida.
Kawai, Hamada & Japanese Masters
Dai Ichi Arts, 2003. 8½” x 8½”, 44pp. This mini catalog features signature works by Japanese master pottery artists such as Kanjiro Kawai and Shoji Hamada along with contemporary Japanese ceramic artists such as Yuriko Matsuda, Harumi Nakashima, Shigemasa Higashida, etc.
Ayumi Shigematsu: Ceramic Works
Ayumi Shigematsu 2003, 12” x 8¼”, 30pp. This catalog introduces 46 artwork by one of today’s most leading woman ceramic artists Ayumi Shigematsu made in 1988 though 2003. Text by Kazuko Todate, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum Senior Curator. Written in Japanese and English.
Yasuo Hayashi
Gallery L, 1995, 8¼”x 8 ¼”
Yasuo Hayahi: Illusion of Ceramic Objects
Paramita Museum, 2006. 12” x 9”, 78pp. This catalog is published in conjunction with a retrospective “Yasuo Hayahi: Illusion of Ceramic Objects” at the Paramita Museum from October 1st to December 25th 2006. 80 artworks are featured from his early years through 2006, including his Japanese paintings made in 1940s. Written in Japanese.
Yasuo Hayashi
Maya Behn Galelry, 1986. 8¼”x 8 ¼” Portrait of Yasuo Hayashi by Yoshio Hata
Yasuo Hayashi Catalog Raisonné
A & A Publishing, 1998. 12¼”x 12 ¼”, 200 pp.
The Charm and Magic of Clay and Fire: 50 Objects
Inax Publishing 2005, 12” x 8½”, 176pp.The catalogue presents 50 ceramic art exhibitions held at the INAX Tile Museum from 1999 to 2005. The artists featured in the book include Masamichi Yoshikawa, Ryoji Koie, Akira Yagi, Takashi Hinoda, Harumi Nakashima, Takuo Nakamura, Yo Akiyama, sharing each artist’s insights. Written in Japanese.