Ken Matsuzaki - The Intangible Spirit

Ken Matsuzaki goldmark

Ken Matsuzaki

goldmark 2018

Ken Matsuzaki Ken Matsuzaki does not allow his kiln to rise beyond 1250˚c.

Five or ten degrees in excess of this limit, for even a few minutes, could make an eight-day firing, containing nine hundred pots – half a year’s income - and consuming upwards of fifty sacks of charcoal and two-and-a-half thousand bundles of split chestnut and pine, totally worthless.

Pottery is, at its essence, a numbers game; but it is one of inherent contradiction. The immensely pressurised way in which Matsuzaki works should be understood as a marriage of precision with the imprecise. Firings as protracted as his involve innumerable numerical and chemical fluctuations – temperature changes, atmospheric reduction and oxidation – the sum of which are pots that defy enumeration.

This duality between precision and imprecision, chaos and order, lies at the heart of wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi, until recently the prevailing aesthetic in traditional Japanese culture, is a philosophy of imperfection and impermanence, a term much overused and misinterpreted. It takes solace in decay and obfuscation, in the degeneration of all things into nothingness and the genesis of life. Like Matsuzaki’s pots, it is enigmatic, idiosyncratic: more potent in the not knowing.

Matsuzaki’s pottery, the yohen ware and the glass-green oribe, is an embodiment of the wabi-sabi aesthetic. It speaks the wabi-sabi decorative language of discolouration, cracking and splashing, splitting and mottling, trickling and pooling.

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2. Yohen Rectangular Vase Natural ash glaze 25 x 12 cm

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Between the shino, brushed thick like milk-white marble, and the beads and veils of molten ash, it bears the earthly colours of rain, mud and smoke. It is elemental in the deepest sense of the word.

Like wabi-sabi, Matsuzaki’s work loses something in the analysis, is nullified in the explanation. It prefers the discrete comfort of shadows, the realm of the inexpressible where chemistry remains alchemy: where clay, silica, feldspar, and wood ash transcend their materiality, bridging the worlds of measurable substance and intangible spirit.

35. Yohen Toukaiseki Water Container Natural ash glaze 18.5 x 17.5 cm next page:

13. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 21 x 11 cm

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Seeking Something Invisible 40 years ago in Mashiko, I set up my own studio and kiln after I finished my apprenticeship with Tatsuzo Shimaoka. I kept his style of working as his successor, then 15 years later decided to leave the style of Shimaoka behind to explore my own.

Oribe-ware was such an innovative idea, like the Japanese Renaissance, spreading out to most of the pottery towns in the west of Japan, mainly in Kyoto, led by Oribe Furuta. When this style of pottery came to my attention, I made up my mind to start a new body of work.

As I was once an apprentice myself, I felt that ‘Shu-ha-ri’ should be the way to establish my own world of creating pots: ‘Shu’ 守 - to echo and to discipline myself to fully absorb the tradition and the style of the master. ‘ha’ 破 - to educate and refine myself by learning from other styles then incorporating the good characteristics from them. ‘ri’ 離 - to leave everything I learned behind and open a new door to establish my own unique style.

This ‘embodies my pottery’.

For me, the most important part of making pots is the firing. For the firing I want, I use many clay bodies, adapting my methods with each and looking for shapes that suit the clay. After those stages, I place them in the kiln and fire for 8 days straight. When

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43. Small Yohen Vase Shino 15 x 14.5 cm

24. Rectangular Vase Shino & natural ash glaze 21 x 16.5 cm

Yohen occurs naturally within the Anagama, it is accidental, but I work to make it happen intentionally. If you simply wait for Yohen to happen, it never will. Although I can envision in my mind what I think will occur in the kiln, it is impossible to see inside it, therefore I must strive beyond to find what I’m looking for. Yohen occurs between the limits of the clay, the communication between me and the kiln, and the collaboration of the pots and the flames within.

I am always firing for something invisible.

Ken Matsuzaki Translated by Reiko Matsuzaki

29. Yohen Toukaiseki Vase Natural ash glaze 26.5 x 18 cm next page:

4. Rectangular Vase Tetsuji hakeme 27.5 x 23.5 cm

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5. Yohen Vase Shino 32 x 16.5 cm

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107. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze

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108. Yohen Vase Shino & natural ash glaze

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7. Yohen Square Vase Soda goshuji 26.5 x 10.5 cm next page:

49. Yohen Sake Bottle Soda 13 x 8 cm

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16. Vase Kiseto 21.5 x 8.5 cm

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9. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 30 x 13 cm next page:

6. Yohen Rectangular Vase Shino 27 x 22.5 cm

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00. Title Subtitle size cm

27. Yohen Toukaiseki Vase Shino 17 x 13.5 cm next page;

10. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 26 x 15 cm

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11. Yohen Vase Shino & natural ash glaze 29 x 17.5 cm next page:

25. Toukaiseki Vase Shino 30 x 13 cm

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12. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 24.5 x 9.5 cm next page:

52. Sake Bottle Shino 12.5 x 9 cm

48. Yohen Sake Bottle Natural ash glaze 13 x 7 cm

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47. Yohen Sake Bottle Shino 17.5 x 8 cm

42. Censer Oribe 16.5 x 11.5 cm

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Biographical Notes 1950

Born in Tokyo, Japan, the third son of Nihonga painter Matsuzaki Shuki

1972

Graduated from Tamagawa University, School of Fine Arts, ceramic art major Began a pottery apprenticeship with Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Mashiko (Tochigi Prefecture)

1977

Built a kiln and established a workshop in Mashiko, where he presently lives

1980

Received the Kokugakai Arts Association Nojima Award.

1982

Became an associate member of the Kokugakai Arts Assoc.

1984

Received the Associate Members’ Prize of Excellence Award from the Kokugakai Arts Association

1986

Became a full member of the Kokugakai Arts Association

1993

Modern Japanese Ceramics Exhibition, Elysium Art, New York

1995

Group Exhibition, Gallery Dai Ichi Arts, New York, NY Six Master Potters of the Modern Age Exhibition, Babcock Gallery, New York, NY

2001

Solo Exhibition, Rufford Gallery, Nottinghamshire, England

2002

Tradition Today Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2003

Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

2004

Elemental Force Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2005

Solo Exhibition, Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales UK International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK

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Solo Exhibition, Rufford Gallery, Nottinghamshire, England 2006

Transformation and Use Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, M

2007

Solo Exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, England

2008

Burning Tradition Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2009

Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK

2010

Exploring the Exquisite exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2011

Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK

Ken Matsuzaki, Utsunomiya Aoki Gallery, Japan 2012

Ken Matsuzaki Platters, Utsunomiya Aoki Gallery, Japan Solo exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2013

Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK

2014

Solo exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2015

Solo Exhibition, Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store,Tokyo

2015

Establishment of Ken Matsuzaki Scholarship Program in Chile

2015

Voice of the Rain, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK

2016

Solo Exhibition, Kanoya Gallery, Mashiko

2016

Solo Exhibition, Yamani Ootsuka Gallery, Midori, Mashiko

2017

Solo Exhibition, Kanoya Gallery, Mashiko

2017

Solo Exhibition, Yamani Ootsuka Gallery, Midori, Mashiko

2017

Workshop, Clay College Stoke, England

2017

Enjoy Sake and Pottery, Aoki Gallery, Utsunomiya, Tochigi

2018

Workshop, Centro De Arte, Curaumilla, Chile

2018

Solo Exhibition, Kanoya Gallery, Mashiko

2018

Solo Exhibition, Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store,Tokyo

2018

Solo Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

2018

Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK

53. Sake Bottle Mashiko Hakekarakusa 17.5 x 8 cm

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52. Sake Bottle Shino 12.5 x 9 cm

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Selected Exhibitions in Japan Fukuya Department Store, Hiroshima Hankyu Department Store, Osaka Keio Department Store, Tokyo Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store,Tokyo Takashimaya Department Store, Yokohama Group exhibitions with Tatsuzo Shimaoka Matsuzaki Family Exhibitions with father and two brothers (painting, ceramics and lacquer ware)

Selected Museum Collections Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Sackler Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Tikotin Museum, Haifa, Israel Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA Museum of The City of Landoshut, Germany, (Rudolf Strasser Collection) Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, Japan Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Tochigi, Japan

98. Platter Beni Shino 60.6 x 11 cm

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Text: © Goldmark 2018 Photographs: © Jay Goldmark Design: Goldmark / Porter ISBN 978-1-909167-55-1 Goldmark, Uppingham Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 goldmarkart.com

goldmark Uppingham Rutland