Yasuhisa Kohyama

Testimonials

I first became acquainted with Kohyama-san’s work some ten years ago. It was an eye-opening experience for a number of reasons. First, his work encompassed the world of functional “crafts” and “fine arts” with graceful ease. Secondly, his work clearly benefitted from a studied familiarity with the past: The shapes and skin textures of his vessels for instance acknowledged Sueki or Hajiki wares. Finally, it seemed to me at the time that Kohyama-san possessed the gift of being able to imbue each of his pieces with an individuality; there was little in the way of repetition or dependence upon technique to achieve results.

Recently, Kohyama-san’s work appears to me even more rich in texture, complex in form, and challenging as visual ideas.

— Michael R. Cunningham
Former Chief Curator of Asian Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art

All of Mr. Kohyama’s works show simplicity as well as originality. Many geometric forms are used, but, nevertheless, the forms are asymmetrical and delicately different. The rich variation of Kohyama’s work is a most noteworthy characteristic of his creative abilities.

— Yoshiaki Inui
Japanese Representative of the International academy of Ceramics
Geneva, Switzerland

Yasuhisa Kohyama

It has always seemed to me that one of the most difficult challenges in ceramics, and in other media as well, is to find ways of re-invigorating an old, venerable tradition. In order to do this, new ideas have to emerge, which are as valuable and as innovative as the original work itself. The modern master has to accommodate the past, but not be its slave.

Yasuhisa Kohyama is one of the few artists, who has been able, through his own skill and intelligence, to take that beloved Shigaraki clay and to transform it, while maintaining the high standard and spirit of this great Japanese ceramic legacy. Now we can look again, remember the fertile ground from which this work sprung and see clay, shaped and rough-hewn into new, vibrant vessel forms.

Inspired by the work of Henry Moore, Kohyama approaches the clay in a bold fashion, seeing mass and trajectories full of sculptural possibilities. He cuts the clay, recording irregular movements or thrusts, similar to the earth’s teutonic plates, while realigning the tensions, the stresses, into striking geometric planes. Some areas remain rough, others are smoothed. Firing in an Anagama kiln produces subtle colour variations on the clay surface while the projecting nuggets of feldspar, so typical of Shigaraki, decorate the bare, unglazed surface.

To my mind, artists have to be open to a world-view of historical and contemporary art, but then to succeed in their own work, they have to translate that awareness and understanding into a very intense study of a restricted area of interest. It is only with life-long focus and a limited number of goals, that one can truly achieve something significant. Yasuhisa Kohyama has brought his considerable intelligence and talent into producing just such a focused and exciting body of new work.

— Susan Jeffries
Curator of Contemporary Ceramics
The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
Toronto, Canada