Kuniyoshi Seisho Homage Exhibition

Kaikai Kiki Gallery is pleased to present “Kuniyoshi Seisho Homage Exhibition” for two days only on August 24 (Sat.) and 25 (Sun.), 2024.

This is a follow-up to Kaikai Kiki Gallery’s previous exhibitions of ceramic art, including the “Tsuchitomo no Hakaba” exhibition (August 2023) and the “Tsuchitomo: Tokyo Wild Clay” exhibition (April 2024).

The impetus for this series of exhibitions came from an encounter between Takashi Murakami, owner of Kaikai Kiki Gallery, and Okinawan ceramic artist Yuji Toma. Murakami first encountered Toma’s work in October 2020 at an exhibition organized by Tonoto, a Kyoto-based ceramic art dealer, and in May 2021, he visited the “Dai-Tsuchitomo Ten (Grand Tsuchitomo Exhibition)” in which Toma was participating. There he met Toma in person for the first time, as well as the core members of Tsuchitomo, Naoki Wada, Ryuichi Haga, and Masaya Kondo. In June 2022, Murakami traveled to Okinawa to see a two-person exhibition of Wada and Haga’s works. In the process of digging up the roots of each artist, Murakami learned that Seisho Kuniyoshi was one of the creative origins for both Wada and Toma, and that Wada first came to know Toma’s work through the works of Kuniyoshi. This was the first time Murakami himself had learned of Kuniyoshi’s existence.

Naoki Wada, one of the core members of Tsuchitomo and who is based in Wakayama, has always been a central figure in the movement, for example spearheading a project that digs up soil from all 47 prefectures in Japan and producing works from them. He works with ceramic artists from various regions while accepting new participating artists for each iteration of the project. Wada was the one to propose and realize this “Seisho Kuniyoshi Homage Exhibition” as well, gathering artists who hold similar admiration towards Seisho Kuniyoshi and inviting them to create works based on their own feelings for the master.

The five artists participating in the exhibition are Naoki Wada, Yuji Toma, Masaya Kondo, Ryo Azuma, and Yukiharu Kumagai. In addition, the exhibition will include works, photographs, and documents of Kuniyoshi gathered for this occasion by Wada through his own efforts. Please don’t miss this opportunity.

Seisho Kuniyoshi was a potter from Okinawa born in 1943. After training in Tsuboya and Mashiko, he continuously confronted the art of pottery making in Okinawa. In 1999, at the age of 55, he surrounded himself with bricks, doused himself with kerosene, and died by self-immolation. The first time I encountered Kuniyoshi’s pottery, I was struck by how tremendously gentle and charming it was. I had no idea it was possible to create such works! His pottery occupied a completely different dimension from any works I had seen before. It feels as if his works are alive… as though Kuniyoshi himself and his works are fused together… They seem to contain the presence of life, along with an emotional essence. There’s an intense, almost terrifying kindness to his work that encompasses fierceness, darkness, fear, tranquility, and the dichotomy of life and death. I don’t understand how, but it’s incredibly moving. What does this all mean?

Thanks to Takashi Murakami and the staff at Kaikai Kiki Gallery, we have been given the opportunity to express our admiration towards Kuniyoshi as fellow potters, in the form of the “Seisho Kuniyoshi Homage Exhibition.” I am sincerely grateful to all the collaborators who have enthusiastically agreed to participate in this exhibition. Toma-san, Kondo-san, Azuma-san, Kumagai-san, and myself, five individuals who share the same sentiments and passion, will all be committed to tackling Kuniyoshi’s work straight on with all our might. Please take this opportunity to see Kuniyoshi’s works in person as well. I am sure that you will have a remarkable revelation of your own!

Naoki Wada

Born on September 28, 1943 in Shurijo Nanden, Kuniyoshi passed away on May 10, 1999 at the age of 55.
Obsessed since his high school years in karate and collection of antique pottery, Kuniyoshi began his pottery training in Tsuboya, Naha City after graduating from high school in 1963. In 1966, he went to Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture for further training before returning to Okinawa in 1968 to open his own kiln (Himehabu Kiln) in Yomitan Village (located in the Okinawa main island). He vigorously continued to hold solo exhibitions until 1999, just before he took his own life at the age of 55.

The following is a selection of works by Seisho Kuniyoshi that were gathered by Naoki Wada, the organizer of this exhibition. They will be on display in the gallery during the exhibition period.

Naoki Wada
Born in Wakayama in 1981, Naoki Wada studied pottery techniques under Yoshinari Mitsuboshi in 2009 and, in 2012, built a kiln in Hirabara, Koya and began making pottery in earnest. He uses clay, stone, and wood from the Kii Peninsula to create pottery in multiple wood-fired kilns. He is one of the core members of Tsuchitomo and, since 2023, he has made “Kokohore Ten (Dig Here Exhibition)”, in which he aims to travel to each of the 47 prefectures in Japan to make pottery from clay from each region, a part of his life-long project.

Yuji Toma
Born in 1986 in Gushigawa City (now Uruma City), Okinawa Prefecture. In his final year of high school, he began helping his uncle, a master potter and Shisa maker, and learned the art of modeling. In 2008, he won the Urasoe Mayor’s Prize at the 60th Oki Exhibition, and in 2017, he won the 69th Oki Exhibition’s Oki Exhibition Prize for his powerful ceramic work “Wind God and Thunder God”.
He currently resides in Kosa, Okinawa City, where he has a kiln. A solo exhibition of his work at Kaikai Kiki Gallery is planned for October 2024.

Masaya Kondo
Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1995, Kondo majored in ceramics at Musashino Art University, Department of Crafts and Industrial Design. While in college, he studied ceramics under earthenware artist Yukiharu Kumagai.
After graduation, he returned to his hometown, a village in Tomata-gun, Okayama Prefecture, where he lives with his grandparents while producing his work.

Ryo Azuma
Born in 1988 in Mie Prefecture, Azuma graduated from the Metal Crafts Course at Osaka University of Arts in 2011 and worked as an assistant professor at his alma mater from 2011 to 2014.
Currently residing in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, he has been working for a social welfare organization since 2015, while creating objets d’art using materials such as copper plates, tinplate, iron, and other drifting objects found in nearby parks and riverbanks.

Yukiharu Kumagai
Born in 1978 in Kanagawa Prefecture. While studying in the Department of Industrial Design and Ceramics at Musashino Art University, Kumagai was deeply impressed by Jomon pottery he saw at a folk history museum and began creating pottery. After graduating in 2003, he became one of the few independent earthenware artists in Japan. He moved his base from Tokyo to Uenohara City, Yamanashi Prefecture, where he produces earthenware, clay masks, clay figures, and objets d’art.

Dates: August 24th (Saturday) and 25th (Sunday), 2024
Opening hours: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Location: Kaikai Kiki Gallery
Address: Motoazabu Crest Building B1F, 2-3-30 Motoazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0046