Gifu: The art of the potter
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
“Flying mountains, gushing waters. Lush green mountains soar sky high. Bountiful clear waters quench the earth beneath”.
Today is a very special day as we are visiting the Koubei-gama Studio in Tajimi, founded by Koubei Kato in 1804.
Today the weather in Gifu is smiling, the sun shines a rippling light through the myriad of leaves above us, sun light dancing on everything below. There is a greenness all around us.
Today we visit a pottery, which not so long ago, was the home of a National Living Treasure.
Today the weather in Gifu is smiling, the sun shines a rippling light through the myriad of leaves above us, sun light dancing on everything below. There is a greenness all around us.
Today we visit a pottery, which not so long ago, was the home of a National Living Treasure.
Koubei-gama Studio in Tajimi
It is late in June 2019. We make the drive from Gifu City to Tajimi City with the Creative cowboy films Gifu crew, there are five of us. In the car we discuss why we all love Gifu so much. There are many reasons. We all seem to be thinking similar things, the warmth of the people of Gifu who take so much effort to be welcoming and to do the best they possibly can to create something truly memorable. Whether that is a meal, creating an art object or a stay at a beautiful Onsen, you just know that things are going to be done well and with care and courtesy.
We think of Gifu as a land of memories, the unforgettable experiences, reflecting an older way of life where tradition and culture are still strong. This is a place where Japan is still very much Japan. It has always felt like the heart of Japan with its central location on Honshu. It is here you can reach out and touch the history passed down from the ancestors. In a similar way, on high mountain, it feels you can reach out and touch the sky.
The traditional industries in Gifu Prefecture include paper making, made possible by nature because of the clear and fast flowing rivers and the various plants required for this ancient craft. Gifu is the heart of a brilliant artist potter ceramic tradition of beauty and excellence combined.
There is of course woodwork and the astounding interiors of houses and Onsens, beautiful wooden furniture and objects, all made with the skilled hands of generations of families immersed in their craft. There is also the art of the sword, metal smiths beating out the blades of perfection, in its more recent context, knives and scissors and other tools. So this is a highly skilled and hard working place.
There is the coming together of modernity and tradition, the Internet is fast as the trains are fast. Gifu City close by Nagoya, soon to be just 40 minutes from Tokyo (currently about 1.5 hours on the Shinkansen).
So we can step in a seamless way from a new world to an older world with its greater depths and its endless discoveries. Yes, we do keep finding extraordinary people who do extraordinary things.
“The kingdom of clear waters”.
There is the natural world in Gifu, butterflies flutter by on soft warm wind, the mountains soar to the sky. The forests march on every hillside. We walk in clean air along gushing rivers, above waterfalls and across narrow bridges to ancient towns with their particular products and the defined knowledge and skills of the people who live in these ancient places, the food is always astoundingly good.
Our lives are of course centred on culture and nature, so just as in the way we work, Gifu delivers these things together, the arts and the natural world, as one in one harmonious place.
When you are visiting and travelling in different places, the people you meet make all the difference and when there are opportunities to work with artisans skilled at their craft, there is friendship and there is learning. In this way we build close and lasting relationships.
So now let’s get back to Tajimi City, so well-known for its potters and ceramic industry.
Here there is the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art and the Mosaic Tile Museum. There is also an extensive collection of the most beautiful sake cups at the Ichinokura Sakazuki Art Museum. So there is a lot to see and a lot to learn.
These things reflect the history and evolution of Gifu society and culture. Many small and skilled family enterprises steeped in long traditions and methods. We should all remember that in these traditions and skills, the discipline of excellence, laid the foundations that have driven the success of major Japanese corporations. The high tech of Japan comes from very deep roots that grew along time ago.
Today is a very special day as we are visiting the Koubei-gama Studio in Tajimi, founded by Koubei Kato in 1804. In the early days of making pots here, the customers included Nagoya Castle, the Edo Castle and the Kyoto Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
The present master at the Koubei-gama Studio is also called Koubei Kato, he is the seventh generation of his family to work here.
His father Takuo Kato was a very famous artist. He was known for his dedication to research and development in the field of ceramics and part of his fame was his ability to rediscover lost techniques.
“Takuo Kato enjoyed the irregularity of his forms and would consider a symmetrical form quite sterile. We also see the altering of the symmetrical wheel thrown form by cutting the surface of the outside and pressing out from the inside to further develop his form”.
Takuo Kato was also a potter who used a range of glazes and experimented with design and form. Takuo Kato was highly influential, helping to shape Japan’s ceramic culture over his long career. His research activities and enquiry took him to investigate the techniques of Persian ceramics over a period covering almost 40 years and in 1975 Takuo Kato rediscovered the long lost Persian lustre glaze technique, the Persian blue glaze and the three colour glaze techniques, Sansai, and Persian colour artwork ware of centuries past. To these rediscoveries and new works he added a Japanese sensitivity.
In creating his three coloured forms, Takuo Kato was given the Mukei Bunkazai designation (Intangible cultural property). He also was designated the status of a Living National Treasure in Japan following work to research and restore ceramics of Shousouin, Japanese National Treasures, in Nara.
It is here we also visit the studio’s Museum of old ceramics in a building that is about 200 years old, relocated to its current site about 50 years ago. Behind the museum is the Anagama kiln built in 1972 to replicate the firing style of the Momoyama Period.
We spend a happy morning filming the potters and working with studio director Kazuma Imagawa. Andrea and Bryan work with the potters, each decorating a plate, during our visit.
The studio is keen to invite visitors to experience what it is like painting on pots in a traditional Japanese studio. It is in these ways that we make new friendships and learn about the traditions in Gifu Prefecture.
Koubei-gama Studio in Tajimi
It is late in June 2019. We make the drive from Gifu City to Tajimi City with the Creative cowboy films Gifu crew, there are five of us. In the car we discuss why we all love Gifu so much. There are many reasons. We all seem to be thinking similar things, the warmth of the people of Gifu who take so much effort to be welcoming and to do the best they possibly can to create something truly memorable. Whether that is a meal, creating an art object or a stay at a beautiful Onsen, you just know that things are going to be done well and with care and courtesy.
We think of Gifu as a land of memories, the unforgettable experiences, reflecting an older way of life where tradition and culture are still strong. This is a place where Japan is still very much Japan. It has always felt like the heart of Japan with its central location on Honshu. It is here you can reach out and touch the history passed down from the ancestors. In a similar way, on high mountain, it feels you can reach out and touch the sky.
The traditional industries in Gifu Prefecture include paper making, made possible by nature because of the clear and fast flowing rivers and the various plants required for this ancient craft. Gifu is the heart of a brilliant artist potter ceramic tradition of beauty and excellence combined.
There is of course woodwork and the astounding interiors of houses and Onsens, beautiful wooden furniture and objects, all made with the skilled hands of generations of families immersed in their craft. There is also the art of the sword, metal smiths beating out the blades of perfection, in its more recent context, knives and scissors and other tools. So this is a highly skilled and hard working place.
There is the coming together of modernity and tradition, the Internet is fast as the trains are fast. Gifu City close by Nagoya, soon to be just 40 minutes from Tokyo (currently about 1.5 hours on the Shinkansen).
So we can step in a seamless way from a new world to an older world with its greater depths and its endless discoveries. Yes, we do keep finding extraordinary people who do extraordinary things.
“The kingdom of clear waters”.
There is the natural world in Gifu, butterflies flutter by on soft warm wind, the mountains soar to the sky. The forests march on every hillside. We walk in clean air along gushing rivers, above waterfalls and across narrow bridges to ancient towns with their particular products and the defined knowledge and skills of the people who live in these ancient places, the food is always astoundingly good.
Our lives are of course centred on culture and nature, so just as in the way we work, Gifu delivers these things together, the arts and the natural world, as one in one harmonious place.
When you are visiting and travelling in different places, the people you meet make all the difference and when there are opportunities to work with artisans skilled at their craft, there is friendship and there is learning. In this way we build close and lasting relationships.
So now let’s get back to Tajimi City, so well-known for its potters and ceramic industry.
Here there is the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art and the Mosaic Tile Museum. There is also an extensive collection of the most beautiful sake cups at the Ichinokura Sakazuki Art Museum. So there is a lot to see and a lot to learn.
These things reflect the history and evolution of Gifu society and culture. Many small and skilled family enterprises steeped in long traditions and methods. We should all remember that in these traditions and skills, the discipline of excellence, laid the foundations that have driven the success of major Japanese corporations. The high tech of Japan comes from very deep roots that grew along time ago.
Today is a very special day as we are visiting the Koubei-gama Studio in Tajimi, founded by Koubei Kato in 1804. In the early days of making pots here, the customers included Nagoya Castle, the Edo Castle and the Kyoto Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
The present master at the Koubei-gama Studio is also called Koubei Kato, he is the seventh generation of his family to work here.
His father Takuo Kato was a very famous artist. He was known for his dedication to research and development in the field of ceramics and part of his fame was his ability to rediscover lost techniques.
“Takuo Kato enjoyed the irregularity of his forms and would consider a symmetrical form quite sterile. We also see the altering of the symmetrical wheel thrown form by cutting the surface of the outside and pressing out from the inside to further develop his form”.
Takuo Kato was also a potter who used a range of glazes and experimented with design and form. Takuo Kato was highly influential, helping to shape Japan’s ceramic culture over his long career. His research activities and enquiry took him to investigate the techniques of Persian ceramics over a period covering almost 40 years and in 1975 Takuo Kato rediscovered the long lost Persian lustre glaze technique, the Persian blue glaze and the three colour glaze techniques, Sansai, and Persian colour artwork ware of centuries past. To these rediscoveries and new works he added a Japanese sensitivity.
In creating his three coloured forms, Takuo Kato was given the Mukei Bunkazai designation (Intangible cultural property). He also was designated the status of a Living National Treasure in Japan following work to research and restore ceramics of Shousouin, Japanese National Treasures, in Nara.
It is here we also visit the studio’s Museum of old ceramics in a building that is about 200 years old, relocated to its current site about 50 years ago. Behind the museum is the Anagama kiln built in 1972 to replicate the firing style of the Momoyama Period.
We spend a happy morning filming the potters and working with studio director Kazuma Imagawa. Andrea and Bryan work with the potters, each decorating a plate, during our visit.
The studio is keen to invite visitors to experience what it is like painting on pots in a traditional Japanese studio. It is in these ways that we make new friendships and learn about the traditions in Gifu Prefecture.
Related Stories
No items found.