Dominique Corlett speaks to the Japanese porcelain artist about cultural inheritance and reinventing traditional ceramics for a contemporary audience
HEIRLOOMS OF THE FUTURE
Hippo, Giraffe and Zebra, 2022.
For ceramic artist Kensuke Fujiyoshi, the Japanese term, utsushi, sits at the heart of his work. It sums up, in a word, the philosophy of his making, and the inspiration for the decorated porcelain boxes, topped with animal figurines, that he has become renowned for, both here in the UK and in his native Japan. Google Translate gives the English definition as a ‘copy’, ‘duplicate’ or ‘facsimile’, but if ever there was a case of meaning being lost in translation, here is a prime example. ‘Emulation’, ‘inspiration’ or ‘attribution’ as suggested by Wikipedia might come closer. Utsushi is a tradition of respecting and learning from the masters of the past, of skills being passed down the generations to allow new works to be created, based on time-honoured styles and techniques. Or, as Kensuke puts it, ‘It doesn’t mean making degraded copies, but making superior objects, exceeding the original. What I’ve been doing since I started making my own work is the utsushi of old master pieces of Hizen jiki, also known as Old Imari.’
Kensuke’s work follows the oldest tradition of Japanese porcelain making, which originated in Arita, Saga (formerly Hizen Province), in western Japan in the early 17th century. Porcelain is believed to have first been fired in Arita in the early 1600s, and the wares made in its kilns for the next 250 years, known as ‘Hizen jiki’ or ‘Imari’ (after the local trading port), dominated the Japanese porcelain industry. For 100 years, from the middle of the 17th century, huge quantities of Imari export ware were sent from the Dutch East India Company’s port in Nagasaki to Europe, where they were prized for their elegance, painterly decoration and colourful glazes.
Kensuke’s colourful boxes, which range in size from around 10cm to 23cm tall, are slab-built or wheel-turned porcelain, hand-painted with designs inspired by nature or Old Imari patterns. Each is topped with an animal figurine, which doubles as a handle for removing the perfectly fitting lid, revealing further intricate decoration inside. As the Sladmore Gallery – which represents Kensuke’s work in the UK – observes, he uses the combination of creature and pattern ‘to reflect some of the character or habitat of the animal’, and each box is endowed with ‘his own special wit and love of the natural world’. Take, for example, the Hound and Long
