Tomimoto Kenkichi

Tomimoto Kenkichi

Tomimoto Kenkichi ( Japanese 富 本 憲 吉 in Ando , Ikoma County , Nara Prefecture ; June 5, 1886 , † June 8, 1963 ) was a Japanese potter of the Taishō and Shōwa period .

Life

Tomimoto graduated from the "Tokyo Art Academy" ( Tōkyō bijutsu gakkō , today Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku ) in the Department of Architecture. In 1908 he went to England and continued his education at the Central School of Art and Design in London. When he returned to Japan in 1910, he met the potter Bernard Leach and became friends with him. Gradually he turned to pottery himself. At first he tried to work in his homeland, but then moved to Tokyo in 1915 and built an oven in Soshigaya and now began to work mainly as a potter. According to the style of the Taishō period, he dealt with white porcelain, with porcelain painting, with the expansion of his color palette.

In 1927 the artist society Kokugakai ( 国 衙 Künstler ) was expanded to include a pottery department, of which Tomimoto became a member. In 1935 he became a member of the Japanese Academy of Arts, in 1944 professor at the Tokyo Art Academy, but resigned from this post after the end of the Second World War and moved to Kyoto. Since then he has used gold and silver to achieve a personal, sumptuous color scheme. In 1949 Tomikichi became a professor at the “ Municipal Art School Kyoto ” ( 京都 市立 美術 大学 , Kyōto shiritsu bijutsu daigaku ), in 1955 he was awarded the “ Living National Treasure ” for his work as the keeper of the color-decorated porcelain. In 1961 he received the Japanese Order of Culture .

Tomimoto also created woodcuts, namely "self-designed, self-cut and self-printed", so in the style of Sōsaku-hanga . In his hometown of Ando there is a "Tomimoto Kenkichi Memorial Museum".

Fonts (selection)

• Tehen zakki , 1925 ( 窯 辺 雑 記 , "Mixed memories at the kiln")
• Rakuyaki kōtei , 1930 ( 楽 焼 工程 , "The process of the raku brand")
• Seitō yoroku , 1940 ( 製陶 余 録 , "Porcelain Manufacture Records")

literature

• Suzuki, Toshihiko (ed.): Nihon daihyakka zensho (Denshibukku-han) , Shogakukan, 1996.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, Tokyo 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, Tokyo 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .