As Osaka prepared for the World Expo, a boy picked up a piece of earthenware—Manabu Yamagami of Hotaru Kiln (Part 1)

A boy who picked up earthenware at a development site before the Osaka Expo went to Okinawa after attending schools that followed the traditions of Seto, Kyoto, and the Wiener Werkstätte. Manabu Yamagami of Hotarugama's life as a potter was a journey into a "cosmology" that went beyond simply acquiring skills. We will explore the worldview of Mr. Yamagami, an artisan and artist whose themes are the universe and nature itself, from the concept of "Shuhari" to the advanced stage of "rihin" (mastery beyond rules).

Chapter 1: The path to pottery, which began with collecting earthenware

The memory of Jomon, encountered by a boy on the eve of the Osaka Expo

──Could you tell us what inspired you to start pottery?

I’ve always liked collecting earthenware since I was a child. It was one of my favorite things, as much as riding a bicycle or playing baseball.

When I was living in Settsu, Osaka, it was about 10 years before the 1970 Osaka Expo.

They were developing the land, and places like Senri New Town were being built.

I lived in Ibaraki City, and many new residential areas for阪急 (Hankyu) railway line commuters were being built on bamboo forest land.

At that time, when they dug up that area, a lot of earthenware came out.

As an elementary school student, I saw junior high school students picking them up at construction sites, so I joined them.

It was quite interesting. The things that came out were fresh and exciting.

Looking back now, it seems they were Yayoi pottery, but I also liked Jomon pottery quite a lot. My favorite is Jomon pottery.

──Did your interest in earthenware continue after that?

Yes. After the Osaka Expo ended, there was the Tower of the Sun, right?

While looking at that, the National Museum of Ethnology by Tadao Umesao was built, and I often went there to see earthenware. There were various artifacts from all over the world.

Also, it was a museum built by Kisho Kurokawa, one of Japan's leading architects, and I often went there instead of school during high school.

──Even so, I heard that your path to becoming a potter wasn't straightforward.

I also wanted to go to university for baseball, and there were various things. But somehow, I felt the limits of sports.

When you're in high school, you start to think about various things, don't you?

As I was thinking, I started to wonder, "What kind of job is a potter?" It was very vague, though.

And when my teacher asked me, "What are you going to do? Where are you going to go for higher education?" I said, "I'm thinking of becoming a potter," and he asked, "Have you ever done it?"

I was told that taking the art university entrance exam was one way, but I hadn't done anything at all.

I decided to try for an art university, and when I saw what the examinees were studying, everyone was doing plaster drawing.

It was like a private cram school, and everyone had been going there since about their first year of high school.

Only art geeks from the art club were gathered there, and I thought, "No, art isn't really for me."

It was the year the Center Test was introduced for university entrance exams when I was in high school. I had to get in as a current student, so I thought, "This is impossible."

Chapter 2: The path to becoming a potter opened up by a history of dabbling

Trade school, and specialized learning

──So that's why you chose the path of vocational training school.

My father was quite knowledgeable about art-related people, so he took me to a fairly famous pottery teacher.

Then I was introduced to a school, and he said, "You don't necessarily have to go to an art university to become a potter. There's a school like this."

That was a pottery training school under the Ministry of Labour in Seto, Aichi Prefecture.

General studies are related to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. This one was under the Ministry of Labour.

In short, it's a school for work, for artisans. It's like a vocational university now, a school to study the potter's wheel.

Only the sons of kiln owners come there.

Some of them are not interested in pottery at all but are forced to come by their fathers, some want to become potters after quitting their corporate jobs, some want to become novelists but also want to do pottery, and various other people come. Their ages also vary.

──After studying the potter's wheel at the ceramics training school, did you immediately become a potter?

After learning the potter's wheel in Seto, I went to a glaze*1 school in Kyoto and studied Kiyomizu-yaki.

*1 Glaze: A glass-like coating applied to the surface of ceramics and tiles.

Pottery is chemistry, so there are many teachers from the Kyoto Industrial Research Institute, Ceramic Center, where I studied glazes.

Originally, famous potters like Kanjiro Kawai and Shoji Hamada became potters while researching at that institute.

──After that, you also attended a school that followed the Wiener Werkstätte tradition, didn't you?

After that, I went to a school that followed the tradition of the Wiener Werkstätte in Austria. There was the Wiener Werkstätte, a world-famous school alongside Germany's Bauhaus.

There was a teacher named Tsuneji Ueda, the only Japanese person who went there, and I attended his disciple's school for about three years.

Tsuneji Ueda's wife was Lisa Ueda, who had solo exhibitions at places like the Tokyo Station Gallery. I studied at that school, which followed the tradition of the Wiener Werkstätte.

──So you chose and studied at various specialized schools.

Instead of going to art universities and the like, I dabbled in various specialized places. I only needed what I wanted to learn, and I didn't really need anything else.

My background is that I've mainly attended practical training schools.