Professor Koji Hatakeyama (b. 1956) is one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary metal artists, internationally recognised for his cast bronze boxes and vessels with richly patinated surfaces. He was born in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, a mountainous region northwest of Tokyo that has been a centre for bronze, copper and lacquerware production since the early seventeenth century.
Hatakeyama studied metalwork at Kanazawa College of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1980, and later served as Professor of Metal Casting in the Department of Craft at Kanazawa College of Art from 2017 to 2022. Throughout his career, he has remained deeply committed to the ancient process of bronze casting, using traditional sand-casting methods before subjecting each work to months of complex patination. His surfaces, created through carefully controlled chemical processes, evoke erosion, mineral deposits, weather systems, volcanic terrain and vast Japanese landscapes.
His works are rooted in Buddhist philosophy and the aesthetics of the Japanese tea ceremony. The exterior of each box often appears darkened, weathered or ancient, while the interior may be lined with gold, silver or platinum leaf. This contrast transforms the act of opening the box into a contemplative experience, suggesting ideas of emptiness, consciousness, memory and spiritual awakening.
Although often modest in scale, Hatakeyama’s boxes possess a powerful physical presence. Their faceted forms recall reliquaries, architectural structures and ritual objects, while their patinated surfaces suggest landscapes viewed from above, celestial bodies or ancient walls marked by time. Each work rewards close and sustained looking, revealing subtle shifts of colour, texture and reflected light.
Hatakeyama’s work is held in major international public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The British Museum, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. A work from his 2024 exhibition Scenes in Bronze at The Scottish Gallery was acquired for the collection of National Museums Scotland.
In 2022, a major retrospective of his work was held at Musée Tomo in Tokyo, tracing the development of his bronze box forms and pioneering patination techniques. A major new monograph on the artist’s work was published in 2026, further confirming his reputation as one of the most important contemporary metal artists working internationally today.
Hatakeyama has exhibited widely in Japan, Europe and Australia, and has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with The Scottish Gallery, with solo exhibitions in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2024.
