Shimaoka Tatsuzo

Shimaoka Tatsuzō ( Japanese. 島 岡 達 三 ; born October 27, 1919 in the Minato district , Tokyo Prefecture ; † December 11, 2007 in Mashiko , Tochigi Prefecture ) was a Japanese potter and artisan. It was declared in 1996 as a living national treasure for the important intangible cultural asset “ceramic production”. The German studio ceramicist Gerd Knäpper was one of his students .

Tatsuzō was born in Tokyo in 1919 as the eldest son of the potter Yonekichi Shimaoka. From 1939 he studied at the Tokyo Technical University , which he graduated in 1941. In 1942 he took part in a pioneer company in the Burma campaign and was taken prisoner at Nakhon Nayok . After his return in 1946, he immediately began his apprenticeship as a potter at Hamada Shōji . After completing his training, Shimaoka first worked for the ceramic research center in Tochigi Prefecture for three years, then opened his own pottery in 1953 and his first exhibition of his own works a year later. In 1964 he received the Prize of the Museum of Japanese Folk Art ( 日本 民 藝 館 ).

Tatsuzō Shimaoka has shown his work in many exhibitions around the world, including an exhibition in Boston in 1974, one at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg in 1977 and exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum , the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Israel Museum . Tatsuzō Shimaoka was named a Living National Treasure on May 10, 1996 for his ceramics in the Jōmon zōgan style. Ceramics with the Jōmon zōgan technique were made in the Korean Joseon dynasty . For this purpose, patterns are imprinted into the clay with cords that are wound onto sticks in different ways and with different surface properties. These impressions are filled with slip so that ceramics with a very plastic surface and a peculiar decoration can be produced.

In 1999 Shimaoka was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (Officer Merit). In 2007 he died of liver failure in Mashiko at the age of 88.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 島 岡達 三 . In: 美術 人名 辞典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 23, 2015 (Japanese). 

Web links

• 島 岡達 三 . In:日本 美術 年鑑 . National Research Institute for Cultural Properties Tokyo, October 27, 2014,pp. 394–395,accessed March 23, 2015(Japanese). 
• 島 岡達 三 に つ い て . waneibunkasha,accessed March 23, 2015(Japanese). 
• 島 岡達 三 . と よ ​​だ 民 芸 店, 2014,accessed on March 22, 2015(Japanese, with illustrations of Shimaoka's works). 

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