Kaneshige Toyo

Kaneshige Tōyō ( Japanese 金 重 陶 陽 ; born January 3, 1896 in Inbe, Bizen , Okayama Prefecture ; † November 6, 1967 ) is a Japanese potter and ceramic artist. It was declared in 1956 as a living national treasure for the important intangible cultural asset “ceramic production”.

overview

Tōyō was born as the eldest son of Baiyō Kaneshige (real name: Shinsaburō) under his real name Isamu Kaneshige in Bizen. After graduating from normal school in Inbe in 1910, he was trained in pottery by his father until his death in 1916. From 1918 onwards he worked with colored Bizen ceramics ( 色 絵 備 前 , iroe Bizen ). During this time he also took the name Tōyō and adopted the belief of the new Shinto religion Ōmoto . To learn the basics of tea sets, he entered a tea school in the Omotesenke direction. From 1922 he made his first tea bowls.

After he had already experimented with a German muffle furnace in 1921, but the material to be fired had deformed, he succeeded in 1928 with a charcoal-fired furnace, a compromise between the muffle furnace and the kilns used in Bizen. The year 1928 was to remain eventful, because in 1928 Tōyō's mother died, he married Ayako Agino and he presented the Tennō with several art ceramics, including an Onigawara roof tile with a dove as decoration. A year later his eldest daughter Tsuneko was born, followed by his second daughter Yukie in 1931. In 1938 he opened his first solo exhibition in Osaka .

Together with the potter and later politician Handeishi Kawakita (1878-1963), Toyozō Arakawa and Kyūsetsu Miwa X. he founded the Karahine Society in 1942. In 1949 he brought tea bowls, water vessels ( mizusashi ) and sake bottles with incised decorations to Naohi Deguchi, the third daughter of the Ōmoto founder . In 1955 he was involved in the founding of the Japanese Society for Crafts ( 日本 工 芸 会 , Nihon Kōgeikai ).

In 1956, Tōyō Kaneshige was named a Living National Treasure for his Bizen ceramics. In the same year he exhibited together with five other potters at the Art Institute of Chicago on the occasion of an exhibition on contemporary Japanese art ceramics. In the summer semester of 1954 and 56, Tōyō stayed as a lecturer at the University of Hawaii. Throughout his life he sought international exchange, for example with the English potter Bernard Howell Leach. In 1956 Kaneshige received the Medal of Honor on the purple ribbon.

Kaneshige died in 1967 at the age of 71 in Okayama State Hospital. Posthumously he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (merit class officer). In 1981 the Kaneshige Tōyō Prize was established in his memory.

Tōyō Kaneshige deserves the merit of Bizen ceramics, which in the middle of the Edo period lost its popularity through the Imari ( 伊万 里 焼 ) and Kutani porcelain ( 九 谷 焼 ) due to its design and helped it to gain new meaning and prosperity . He also trained many potters in the art of making Bizen ceramics. His younger brother Sozan (1909–1995), his eldest son Michiaki (1934–1995) and his third son Kōsuke (* 1943) are ceramic artists.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} 金 重 陶 陽 . In: 20 世紀 日本人 名 事 典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 20, 2015 (Japanese). 

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Kaneshige Tōyō . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 735.

Web links

• 金 重 陶 陽 . Kano Museum of Art, 2015,accessed March 20, 2015(Japanese. With an illustration and audio guide in Japanese. The museum has 112 pieces by Kaneshige.). 
• 金 重 陶 陽 . In:岡山 県 総 合 文化 セ ン タ ー ニ ュ ー ス No. 38, No. 8.Okayama Prefectural Library,accessed March 20, 2015(Japanese). 
• 金 重 家 . Tenpyodo,accessed March 20, 2015(Japanese). 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Kaneshige is the family name, Tōyō the first name.