Gendai tōjiki

 現代 陶磁器

       The Joy of Beauty 

 Satsuma pottery can be breathtakingly beautiful, and this website has "The Joy of Beauty" as its subtitle for a reason. Beauty offers joy, and Satsuma ceramics at their best, is such a source of joy. The intriguing works of Naruse Seishi, the meticulous details of Ryozan or Seikozan, the refined mastery of Ito Tozan, Kinkozan or Chin Jukan have lost none of that beauty even after more than 100 years, they are still admired, collected and exhibited in important museums.
The Joy of Beauty" certainly applies to Satsuma pottery, but not only to Satsuma pottery. And while this website focuses primarily on Satsuma and Satsuma style ceramics, especially export Satsuma from the Meiji and Taisho periods, it does not close its eyes to the beautiful ceramics that were and continue to be made in Japan in more recent times. For art evolves, and so do ceramics. Young artists are adding new views and techniques to the existing ones, arriving at a new language of form, a new aesthetic and new ways of expressing individual emotions.

On our new website Gendai-Tojiki, we want to give you an idea of contemporary ceramic artists and their work.
Since there are literally hundreds if not thousands of ceramic artists working in Japan, many of whom deserve special attention because of their extraordinary works, this can only be a small and rather personal selection. We have therefore limited ourselves to those working in the past 50 years, that is, during the latter part of the Showa period, the Heisei period and the present Reiwa period. However, we did not select by style, themes or techniques used, nor were age or fame in the West a criteria for us. Some are renowned and have already received much recognition during their lifetime, others are still relatively young and have a long career ahead of them.

If any criterion can be mentioned for the artists and their work presented here, it is that the work is of "special beauty," at least in the eyes of the compiler. Because of the elegance or on the contrary the robustness of the design, intriguing by form and construction, exuberant and colorful or on the contrary sober and restrained. However, the emphasis will be more on innovative and less on tradition, on sculptural rather than utilitarian ceramics. But always: "of special beauty", which allows us to say that also for this website "Gendai-Tojiki" the subtitle "The Joy of beauty "applies.

If you are interested, please click here: Gendai-tojiki