This August we present A Japanese Design, in the spirit of the International Festival. Our exhibition brings together an impressive selection of Japanese makers, many of whom have trained in the UK or have made their home here and have been represented by The Scottish Gallery for the span of their professional careers. The Gallery has been instrumental in placing many of the artists’ works in Public Collections. Many disciplines are explored by artists specialising in ceramics, glass, jewellery and metalwork and we can remark on the Japanese creative ability to master and innovate in a chosen medium; embracing and advancing tradition.

The Scottish Gallery would like to thank Adrian Sassoon London, who represents Hiroshi Suzuki and Hitomi Hosono, for their generous help and input.

A Japanese Design features work from: Miki Asai, Professor Koji Hatakeyama, Akiko Hirai, Professor Yasuki Hiramatsu, Hitomi Hosono, Koichi Io, Takuya Kamiyama, Tsubusa Kato, Miyu Kurihara, Kazuko Mitsushima, Yoshiko Okada, Yuta Segawa, Masaaki Shibata, Etsuko Sonobe, Hiroshi Suzuki, Yusuke Yamamoto.

Miki Asai

Born: 1988

Miki Asai is a graduate of Silversmithing and Jewellery from The Glasgow School of Art. Miki’s intricate jewellery collection is strongly based on the Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in impermanence, imperfection, transience and the ephemeral.

‘My work is based on the Japanese philosophical concept called Wabi-sabi, which means finding beauty in imperfection and transience. I read a book on the subject that said, ‘things are beautiful because they are fleeting.’ This can apply to various aspects of life, whether it be emotions or something as simple as a bunch of leaves in the street. The fact that everything will one day be nothing is beautiful; flowers grow up and then they die, that is the nature of life.’

She has won several awards for her work during her studies including the Prize for Graduation Work at Musashino Art University 2011, Japan Jewellery Designers Associations Student Class Award 2012, Japan Craft Design Association Student Class 2014, The Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council Awards 2016 Design Section Pearl Jewellery Award and the Japan Jewellery Design Association General Category 2017.

Professor Koji Hatakeyama

Born: 1956

Place of Birth: Takaoka

Koji Hatakeyama was born in 1956 in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, a mountainous region northwest of Tokyo that has been a centre for bronze, copper, and lacquerware production since the early 1600s. He studied metalwork at the Kanazawa College of Arts and Crafts in 1980 and has since concentrated primarily on creating patinated, cast bronze boxes. From 2017 to 2022 Hatakeyama taught at Kanazawa College of Art as Professor of Metal Casting in the Department of Craft. Years of dedicated experimentation with bronze has led to an outstanding career and his work has been exhibited internationally and is held in numerous museum collections worldwide.

‘I create contained vessels; I try to convey the sense that something is concealed or hidden within. I try to provoke a sense of the spiritual world in my bronze boxes. The patterns and facets I create on the outside are a direct response to the landscape. I find that when using gold or silver leaf within the interiors, there is a sense of enlightenment when opening the lid, my intention is to enter a different world, a different place. This place has no darkness. My consciousness is veiled in bronze.’ – Koji Hatakeyama

Public Collections include:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London; British Museum, London; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Aberdeen; Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham; The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; Musée Guimet, Paris, France; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA; National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Denmark Royal Family, Copenhagen, Denmark; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; Musee Tomo, Tokyo, Japan; MOA Museum of Art, Atami, Japan; MIHO Museum, Shigaraki, Japan.

Akiko Hirai

Born: 1970

Place of Birth: Shizuoka, Japan

Akiko Hirai was born in Japan in 1970. She moved to London in 1999, studying ceramics at the University of Westminster and Central St. Martins. Akiko’s work is both a blend of Japanese and British studio pottery traditions resulting in asymmetrical, ‘imperfect’ organic forms.

‘My preference of choosing types of clay when making white ware is the dark and coarse clay most of the time. The whiteness acts as a membrane or a veil. The hints of the true nature of the material appear slightly on the surface. Dark clay which consists of many impurities induces strong chemical changes in heat and the trace of events remains under the veil when it cools down. White, on the other hand, is more stable because of its purity. It is already settled and has a feeling of stillness. Superficially my work appears to be quiet in white. It does not show the rawness of Mother Nature directly. A symbolic figure always looks more perfect than the actual person he/she is. Imagination and fantasy always reinforce the imperfection and achieve the perfection with its own originality. Therefore the completion of my work is done by the viewers. My work is a creation on its own.’ – Akiko Hirai

2002-2003 Central Saint Martins, School of Graphics and Industrial Design, London
2000- 2002 University of Westminster Harrow (transferred to St. Martins)
1989-1993 Aichi Gakuin University, Japan

Public Collections include:
Hepworth Wakefield Collection; Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of Ireland; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Keramikmuseum Westerwald (Westerwald Ceramic Museum), Germany

Hirai was shortlisted for the LOEWE craft prize 2019.

Professor Yasuki Hiramatsu

Born: 1926

Place of Birth: Osaka

Died: 2012

Professor Yasuki Hiramatsu was born in Osaka in 1926. He had a prestigious career as an educator and had been Professor at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He had also been the Director of the Japan Jewellery Designers Association. His work can be seen in many international collections.

Yasuki Hiramatsu was a pioneer of contemporary jewellery in Japan. He explored and re-interpreted traditional metalworking skills in order to create modern art. Hiramatsu’s works radiate simplicity, purity and strength.

Concentrating on textures, form and light, his pieces capture an inner beauty and warmth that seem to come alive as light gently reflects across the surface. “The metals which I mainly use are also like living things,” he said, “when I make a piece, I play, worry, struggle with it and encourage it.”

Throughout Hiramatsu’s distinguished career, he won several prizes. In 1991 he was bestowed with the forty-first Crafts Award in Excellence by the Japanese Government Ministry of Education and in 1994, was the first non-European to be awarded ‘the ring of goldsmiths’ from Gelleschaft fur Goldschmiedekunst in Germany.

Public Collections include:

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo; Kumamoto Museum of Traditional Art and Craft, Japan; Museum für Kunstandwerk, Hamburg, Germany; Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany; Royal College of Art, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; and The Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo.

Hitomi Hosono

Born: 1978

Place of Birth: Japan

“I sculpted a leaf that I found in the garden at home. It was a simple leaf, not particularly special amongst other leaves. However, when I started sculpting its shape with clay, I was drawn into its intricacy; the manner in which the veins were branching, how the margins ended. I found many details that I admired in this small leaf. It is my intention to transfer the leaf’s beauty and detail into my ceramic work, using it as my own language to weave new stories for objects.” Hitomi Hosono

Hitomi Hosono’s exquisitely delicate and detailed sculptures began when she sculpted a simple leaf from the garden and found herself drawn into its intricacy.

Hitomi Hosono’s ceramics are rooted in both Japanese and European traditions. Hitomi studied Kutani Pottery at Kanazawa College of Art, Japan from 1998-2002, before studying Ceramic Product Design at Danmarks Designskole, Copenhagen, Denmark from 2005-2006. She then completed an MA in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art, London from 2007-2009. Hitomi Hosono has exhibited both nationally and internationally and received the 2014 Jerwood Makers Open Prize, Jerwood Visual Arts, London and the Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize, London in 2013. Hitomi is now based in London and is represented by Adrian Sassoon, London.

Public collections include: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums; Oriental Museum, Durham University; The British Museum, London; The Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris, France; Porzellanikon – Staatliches Museum für Porzellan, Selb, Germany; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA

Hitomi’s work was featured in A Natural Selection, May 2019 and also featured in A Japanese Design, 30 July – 29 August 2020.

Koichi Io

Born: 1987

Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan

Japanese metalsmith Koichi Io’s award-winning metalwork demonstrates traditional hand raising and chasing techniques; resulting in elegant and fluid metal vessels that showcase his incredible talent for metalworking. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Koichi Io studied metalwork at Musashino Art University before completing his Masters at Seoul National University, College of Fine Art in 2012.

Awards include:
2011 Finalist in Tableware, Inhorgenta Award 2011, Munich; 2009 Merit Award, 6th Cheongju International Craft Competition, South Korea

Public Collections include:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Cheongju City, South Korea

Koichi Io’s work featured in the exhibition A Japanese Design in August 2020.

Takuya Kamiyama

Born: 1989

Place of Birth: Tochigi, Japan

Takuya Kamiyama was born in Tochigi, Japan. In 2017 he graduated from Musashino Art University, in Tokyo. Takuya studied traditional craft and metalwork under Hiroshi Suzuki and worked for a time as a Metal Departmental Assistant. He has recently graduated from Bishopsland in the UK and has recently been working with silversmith Ndidi Ekubia in Manchester.

“My style is inspired by the natural world, from observing very closely the surface qualities and textures in nature, experimenting with them and then translating them into my work, often using hand raising, punching and chasing. Aesthetics are a priority for me, but I always keep functionality in mind, and mix old and new techniques – my influences are more contemporary but I have great respect for the historic, too. I have been inspired by Hiroshi Suzuki, an influential contemporary silversmith, who I’ve been lucky enough to work under, learning raising techniques. I graduated from Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and worked for a time as a Metal Department Assistant. I came to the UK to study with Bishopsland Education Trust to further my silversmithing skills.”

Takuya Kamiyama won the Goldsmiths’ Company Bursary Award 2017, London.

Takuya’s work was featured in A Natural Selection, May 2019 and also featured in A Japanese Design, 30 July – 29 August 2020.

Tsubusa Kato

Born: 1962

Place of Birth: Gifu, Japan

Tsubusa Kato was born in Onadacho, Tajimi, Gifu prefecture, Japan and he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Centre Gifu in 1979. His work is defined by the manipulation of a New Zealand porcelain combined with a celadon glaze and while much of his work takes on a dynamic and indefinable form, the end result is subtle and sensitive. The glaze and clay are not restricted to a defined form, but change with each viewing. Traditionally glaze is applied with decorative purpose but Kato is motivated by a desire to express the true form of glaze as a material.

He is an instinctive artist and uses incredible physical force to manipulate a temperamental material. The end result is unforced, organic and speaks of nature. We are very grateful to Sokyo Gallery who have produced a film that gives further insight into the work of Tsubusa Kato.

Public collections include:

Tomo Museum, Tokyo; The Brooklyn Museum, USA; The Art Institute of Chicago, USA.

Tsubusa’s work featured in A Japanese Design, August 2020

Miyu Kurihara

Born: 1989

Place of Birth: Frankfurt, Germany

Miyu Kurihara is a Japanese artist who makes hand-painted ceramics. Miyu draws upon her heritage when creating her ceramic pieces; inspired by both Japanese kimono design and traditional Asian ceramics. All pieces are made by hand and individually drawn with intricate detail. Having learned brush techniques and textile design in Japan and London, she incorporates these skills into her work and uses traditional blue and white porcelain processes that originate in China and Japan.

Miyu lives and works in London. She originally graduated from the Department of Product and Textile Design at Tama Art University, Tokyo before completing her Masters in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London in 2016.

Yoshiko Okada

Born: 1972

Place of Birth: Tokyo

Yoshiko Okada was born in Tokyo in Japan in 1972. From 1990-92 she studied clothing and kimono design at Seitoku Technical college in Japan, before coming to the UK in 1995. After a prolonged education studying engraving and stained glass, Yoshiko graduated in three-dimensional design and glass from The Surrey Institute of Art and Design in 2004. Yoshiko works from her studio in London and works primarily with kiln formed glass, using simple forms symbolically related to the piece, often with small jewel-like elements. Her inspiration is drawn from her own Japanese background in conjunction with her personal experience of western culture. A personal narrative runs through her work.

‘My work explores themes of memory, identity, time and the human condition. Although seemingly complicated this often leads me to simple forms of expression and symbolism. Another concern for me are my childhood memories which are a sort of puzzle; to find and piece together the missing pieces, which do not always fit together precisely. I like exploring the surface image,deliberately veiling or reflecting the image.’ – Yoshiko Okada

Yoshiko Okada’s work featured in the exhibition A Japanese Design in August 2020.

Yuta Segawa

Born: 1988

Place of Birth: Shizuoka, Japan

Originally from Japan, Yuta Segawa lives and works in London specialising in producing miniature pottery. He honed his ceramic skills in Japan, China, and London; completing a BA at Musashion Art University, Toyko and his MA at Camberwell College of Arts, London. All of Segawa’s miniature pots are thrown individually by hand and he has more than five hundred original glazes which he applies to each miniature. Working in miniature poses a real challenge – testing the limits of what a human body can make on such a small scale. Segawa’s work has been exhibited both in the UK and internationally.

Masaaki Shibata

Born: 1948

Place of Birth: Tokyo

Masaaki Shibata was born in 1948 in Tokyo. He studied at Chuo University, Tokyo and then was apprenticed to Kazutaka Ikuta in Tamba for 4 years. In 1975 Masaaki Shibata established his Sasayama pottery in Tamba, Japan, where he is still based today. He has received numerous awards for his work over the intervening years and is now one of the most respected slipware potters in Japan.

Masaaki Shibata exhibited for the first time at The Scottish Gallery alongside Clive Bowen in Masters of Slipware: East & West in April 2020. Masaaki’s work also featured in A Japanese Design, August 2020.

Etsuko Sonobe

Born: 1955

Etsuko Sonobe is an established Japanese jewellery artist who trained at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Over the past twenty years, her striking understated gold jewellery has been exhibited and is collected internationally. There is a formal strength and invention to her pieces, as she says: ‘the form, the material and the structure must relate to one another: I am always aware of this necessity when I am making a piece’.

Please contact the gallery for available work.

Hiroshi Suzuki

Born: 1961

Born in Japan, Hiroshi Suzuki initially trained in Industrial design in Tokyo before moving to London in 1994 to study metalwork at Camberwell College and then at the Royal College of Art. After establishing a studio in England in 1998, he now lives and works in Japan and is a Professor at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Hiroshi Suzuki has had two solo exhibitions at The Scottish Gallery. His hammer raised vessels are iconic and his work is recognised internationally for its outstanding quality. In 2010, he was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London. Hiroshi Suzuki is represented by Adrian Sassoon, London.

“Intuition and feeling are core to my creative process, allowing me to maintain sensitivity with the material. The thematic influences in my work explore the subtleties within fluidity and sensuality, a very personal expression applied with an all-encompassing hand.”

Public Collections include: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Aberdeen, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London, Royal College of Art, London, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, National Museums Liverpool, Merseyside, The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

Hiroshi Suzuki’s work featured in the exhibition A Japanese Design in August 2020.

Yusuke Yamamoto

Born: 1979

Place of Birth: Kanagawa, Japan

Yusuke Yamamoto was born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1979 and now lives and works in North Wales. He trained in silversmithing at the renowned Musashino Art University, Tokyo. In 2011 Yusuke met Anna Gordon (currently the Head of the Silversmithing and Jewellery at Glasgow School of Art) and she invited him to take up an academic research position at GSA in 2012. In 2011 he visited Musashino Art University in Tokyo which has a world class reputation for metalwork, headed by Professor Hiroshi Suzuki.

Yusuke shapes metal by hammer raising and chasing techniques and draws inspiration from the natural world. With each stroke of the hammer, he tries to evoke an expression, atmosphere and emotion.

Public Collections include:
The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; The Clothworkers’ Company, London; The New College, Oxford

Yusuke’s work featured in the exhibition A Japanese Design in August 2020. Yusuke presents new work as part of Malcolm Appleby & Friends, August 2021.

A Japanese Design

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