• Magazine
  • About us
  • Submissions
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
No Result
View All Result
Ceramics Now
Newsletter
  • News
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • Ceramic art
  • Editorial
    • Interviews
    • Articles
  • Resources
    • Ceramics job board
    • Calendar of events 2023
    • Ceramic artists list
    • Pottery classes
  • Magazine
Ceramics Now
  • News
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • Ceramic art
  • Editorial
    • Interviews
    • Articles
  • Resources
    • Ceramics job board
    • Calendar of events 2023
    • Ceramic artists list
    • Pottery classes
  • Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Ceramics Now
Home Archive

Interview with Murata Yoshihiko – Japanese lacquer artist

October 2, 2011
in Archive, Interviews
Interview with Murata Yoshihiko – Japanese lacquer artist

Murata Yoshihiko Japanese Lacquer art on Ceramics Now Magazine

You are a very young and talented artist. What was your first experience with art and with lacquer?

I wasn’t exposed to the arts that much and didn’t know about Japanese lacquer work very well until I entered the art collage. I was interested in design and woodwork working and wanted to make the furniture for our daily life when I was a teenager. When I was a sophomore student, I choose the Urushi department for my major, but it was something uncomfortable for me. At first, I made many chaotic pieces. However, those pieces are supposed to be an origin of my work today.

Your works have an extraordinary sense of space and light, their shadows contrasting with the colors and the surroundings. How do you make these fantastic lines of dark? It has to do with the slim silhouettes of your works. 

I simulate the three-dimensional shapes in my mind, for example, how lines will be flowing or how they are placed on the pedestals or attached to the walls. I believe that only lines that look beautiful from any angles can make the lithe and sharp silhouette.

image

Talking about Silhouettes, what can you tell us about this series, “whose lines twist and turn, swell and fade, like the sounds from a musical instrument”? Tell us about the constructing process and its motifs.

I use maple wood for my work, because it is flexible and doesn’t snap easily, though it is hard and difficult to carve.

I got a lot of inspiration from nature’s creatures. I currently live in Toyama prefecture in Japan and it is filled with the beauty of nature and many birds and animals play around my house. We can encounter snakes, wild cats, weasels or frogs every day. Since I was raised in a farmer’s family, the circumstances were not very different, but after seven years of collage life in the city, the nature in Toyama was just perfect for me. I think that everybody has memories or episodes with the animals in the bottom of their heart, but we usually don’t think about that very frequently. I am very happy if the audiences evoke those memory while they are looking at my pieces.

Murata Yoshihiko Japanese Lacquer works - Ceramics Now

Ornamental Creature-07, 2008, Maple wood, lacquer, 4” x 4” x 3/4” each – View his works

Living in Kanazawa, a famous entertainment district, exposed you to images of courtesans whose extravagant attire and richly ornamented hair styles had captured a little bit of your imagination. Where else do you get your inspiration from? 

I have lived in Kanazawa for seven years, but haven’t seen the real Geisha. However when I was looking at a book for woodcuts in the library in the collage, I found the images of s Geisha decorated with the gorgeous hair ornaments. Those images grabbed my heart and I immediately decided to make the Urushi hair ornaments. (Actually, if I think better, I made them four years later.)

What can you tell us about being a young lacquer artist in Japan. Are you a full-time artist?

I am working as a part-time teacher in a middle school as well as a conservator for the cultural heritage in my prefecture, because it is hard to live as a fulltime lacquer artist.

I have been working as a lacquer artist for about ten years, and really appreciated the supports of many people. My artist friends asked me to join group exhibitions or to introduce myself to galleries, so I truly can’t thank enough to those friends. I also feel that I could help young artists who are struggling.

I will have a solo exhibition at KEIKO Gallery in April 2012.

Murata Yoshihiko Japanese Lacquer artist - Contemporary Ceramics

Silhouette – 01, 2009, Maple wood, lacquer, 3” x 4” x 9” – View his works


Among an increasing number of well-trained and gifted young Japanese lacquer artists, Murata Yoshihiko’s work relies heavily on the external play of light that creates silhouettes which continue his forms and flow indistinguishably from the sculptural pieces themselves.  This engaging illusion teases one’s perception of where the black lacquer ends and the shadow begins.  

Like his slender anthropomorphic forms, his occasional use of the contrasting brilliance of raden (mother-of-pearl) reflects his early fascination with the exquisite hair ornaments once worn by Oiran, the high ranking goddesses of Japan’s traditional entertainment world.  As a student in lacquer at the College of Art in Kanazawa, a city once famous for its entertainment district, he was exposed to images of these courtesans whose extravagant attire and richly ornamented hair styles had captured the imaginations of most artists of Ukiyoe, wood block prints of the Floating World.
After the form is carved and made smooth, he applies more than 20 coats of lacquer, each coat of which is polished, requiring several months to complete a single piece. It was his satisfactory mastery of lacquering that led him to develop his recent lyrical Silhouette Series whose lines twist and turn, swell and fade, like the sounds from a musical instrument.

By Vasi Hirdo.
Published in Ceramics Now Magazine Issue 1.

Visit Keiko Gallery’s website.

Keiko Gallery feature - Japanese artists

Tags: ArtArtistCeramics magazineCeramics NowcontemporaryContemporary artcontemporary lacquer artfeaturedInterviewsJapanese artistjapanese lacquerKeiko Gallery Interviewslacquerlacquer artMagazinemodern artMurata Yoshihikourushi

Related Posts

Makoto Yamaguchi: The Philosophy of Oribe at The Stratford Gallery
Archive

Makoto Yamaguchi: The Philosophy of Oribe at The Stratford Gallery

February 15, 2023
The Stratford Gallery
Interviews

A gallery dedicated to Japanese ceramics. Interview with the co-founder of The Stratford Gallery

December 20, 2022
Interview with Dr. Wendy Gers, the curator of Handle with Care
Interviews

Interview with Dr. Wendy Gers, the curator of Handle with Care, on view at the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics

December 20, 2022
Irit Rosenberg Ceramics
Articles

Creating New Life: Recycle. Upcycle. Repurpose. An interview with Irit Rosenberg

August 11, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *



Join the discussion

Follow Ceramics Now on Instagram

  • The Cheongju Craft Biennale Organizing Committee announced the competition guidelines for the 2023 Cheongju International Craft Competition. The application period is from March 31 to May 7, 2023.

📍 Read more on www.CeramicsNow.org - https://cnow.site/cheongju2023

@craftbiennale_2023

#ceramicsnow #ceramics #ceramicart #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #cheongju #cheongjubiennale ##CheongjuInternationalCraftCompetition #craftcompetition #craftbiennale #ceramicscompetition #陶芸 #도자기 #ceramique #keramik #seramik #keramiek #ceramiche #ceramica #ceramicsofinstagram
  • Nina Malterud is today
  • Playroom / Changing room / Kinky are on view at Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, Tel Aviv

📍 View the photo gallery & read more on www.CeramicsNow.org

@benyamini_center

#ceramicsnow #ceramics #ceramicart #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #exhibition #artexhibition #ceramicexhibition #telavivart #telavivartscene #陶芸 #도자기 #ceramique #keramik #seramik #keramiek #ceramiche #ceramica #contemporaryart #artgram #ceramicsofinstagram
  • Claire Mayet is today
  • CRMCS #3 – A selection of contemporary ceramics is on view at Galerie Zwart Huis, Brussels

📍 View the photo gallery & read more on www.CeramicsNow.org

Curated by Kris Campo 
Artists: Johannes Nagel, Alberto Scodro, Patrick Loughran, Sien Godderis, Nathalie Doyen, Caroline Andrin

@zwarthuis @krishortensecampo @carolineandrin @alberto.scodro @patrickloughranceramic @doyenatalie @siengodderis

#ceramicsnow #ceramics #ceramicart #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #exhibition #artexhibition #ceramicexhibition #brusselsart #brusselsartscene #陶芸 #도자기 #ceramique #keramik #seramik #keramiek #ceramiche #ceramica #contemporaryart #artgram #ceramicsofinstagram
  • Michael Dela Dika: Shaping Rhapsody is on view at the Berman Museum, Collegeville

📍 View the photo gallery & read more on www.CeramicsNow.org

@bermanmuseum @mcmichaeldika

#ceramicsnow #ceramics #ceramicart #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #exhibition #artexhibition #ceramicexhibition #bermanmuseum #陶芸 #도자기 #ceramique #keramik #seramik #keramiek #ceramiche #ceramica #contemporaryart #artgram #ceramicsofinstagram
  • Katrina Schneider is today
  • Alison Britton: Plattering is on view at Corvi-Mora, London

📍 View the photo gallery & read more on www.CeramicsNow.org

@corvimora

#ceramicsnow #ceramics #ceramicart #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #exhibition #artexhibition #ceramicexhibition #alisonbritton #londonarts #londonartscene #陶芸 #도자기 #ceramique #keramik #seramik #keramiek #ceramiche #ceramica #contemporaryart #artgram #ceramicsofinstagram
  • I Contain Multitudes, the 2023 NCECA Annual exhibition is on view at Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati

📍 View the photo gallery & read more on www.CeramicsNow.org

@westonartgallery @nceca @extremecraft @bariziperstein @jamescwatkinsini4 @britny_wainwright @albrechtartco @kaitarndt @joshua_r_clark_89 @kabaczeski @bethloceramics @corybrownceramics @oestreich_jeff @hcceramics @storytellershouse @virginiascotchie @meguminaitoh @chickensarecuter @creechoftheeast @emmalaceyeveryday @colleen_toledano @yu_chengou

#ceramicsnow #nceca #nceca2023 #ceramics #ceramicart #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #exhibition #artexhibition #ceramicexhibition #cincinnatiarts #cincinnatiartscene #陶芸 #도자기 #ceramique #keramik #seramik #keramiek #ceramiche #ceramica #contemporaryart #artgram #ceramicsofinstagram
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn
Ceramics Now

Ceramics Now is a leading independent art publication specialized in contemporary ceramics. Since 2010, we promote and document contemporary ceramic art and empower artists working with ceramics.

Pages

  • Magazine
  • About us
  • Submissions
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Subscribe to Ceramics Now Weekly

Join a fantastic community of over 12,000 readers who receive this premium newsletter dedicated to contemporary ceramics.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE

© 2010-2023 Ceramics Now - Inspiring the next generation of ceramic artists.

  • News
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • Ceramic art
  • Editorial
    • Interviews
    • Articles
  • Resources
    • Ceramics job board
    • Calendar of events 2023
    • Pottery classes
    • Ceramic artists list
  • Magazine
    • About us
    • Submissions
    • Advertise
    • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter
No Result
View All Result

© 2010-2023 Ceramics Now - Inspiring the next generation of ceramic artists.

escort bayanescort bayan