Kazuo Yagi (八木 一夫, Yagi Kazuo, 1918–1979) was a Japanese potter and ceramic artist best known for spearheading the introduction of nonfunctional ceramic vessels to the Japanese pottery world. With an innovative ceramicist as his father, Yagi was sent to art school to study sculpture, instead of pottery. After graduating in 1937, he continued to train in the progressive circles, such as the National Ceramic Research Institute and the Japan Ceramic Sculpture Association. Following a short period of military service in 1939 and through the early postwar years, he was involved in a series of collectives that sought to transcend the traditional aesthetic values in not just ceramics but also in a range of visual media.
It was not until 1948 that Yagi established his own ceramics collective, Sōdeisha, a group which rejected extant models of pottery and deliberately sought to blur the line between pottery and sculpture. Inspired in part by Isamu Noguchi's work in Japan in the early 1950s, which used ceramic materials to create modern abstract forms, Yagi and other members debuted so-called obuje-yaki ("kiln-fired objet "), or pottery with no functional purpose. The introduction of obuje-yaki was considered extremely radical at the time, because it questioned the very basis of ceramic objects. Yagi also introduced other experimental ceramic methods later in his career, such as burnishing his pottery objects black (so-called kokutō).
Through his ceramic works, Yagi questioned the boundary between pottery and sculpture. However, his steadfast dedication to ceramics ultimately resulted in the nonfunctional ceramic vessel becoming an accepted type within Japanese pottery practice today. His legacy was felt through Sōdeisha, which continued even after his death, and his teaching at Kyoto City University of Arts.
Biography
Early life (1918–1937) Yagi was born in Kyoto on July 4, 1918. He was the first son of the potter Issō Yagi, whose workshop was in the Gojōzaka neighborhood of Kyoto, the traditional center for kyōyaki (Kyoto ceramic wares). Issō was an early reformer of pottery, asserting the potential of ceramics to be a form of art. Perhaps for this reason, Yagi was sent to take classes in sculpture.Bert Winther-Tamaki, "Yagi Kazuo: The Admission of the Nonfunctional Object into the Japanese Pottery World." Journal of Design History Vol. 12 No. 2 (1999): 128. In 1937 he graduated from the sculpture program at Kyoto Shiritsu Bijutsu Kōgei Gakkō (Kyoto City School of Art and Craft, today Kyoto Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku or Kyoto City University of the Arts).編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸 1910-1940』京都国立近代美術館、1998、 p. 227.
Early career (1937–1946) After graduating from university, Yagi became a trainee at the Kokuritsu Tōjiki Jikenjō (National Ceramic Research Institute), which had been run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce since 1920. He joined the Nihon Tōchō Kyōkai (Japan Ceramic Sculpture Association) at the invitation of its founder, the ceramic sculptor Ichiga Numata. Numata was trained at the French porcelain manufactory in Sèvres and spent time in Auguste Rodin's studio, learning the art of ceramic sculpture. Numata created sculptures of animals in coarse red clay, which inspired Yagi to try creating similar works.Louise Allison Cort, "Veiled References: the role of glaze in Japanese avant-garde ceramics," in Ceramics and Modernity in Japan, ed. Meghen Jones and Louise Allison Cort (New York: Routledge, 2020), 177. Yagi also worked at Numata's studio.
In 1939, he was conscripted into the army and sent to China for military service, but was released the following year due to illness. Upon his return, he joined the avant-garde nihonga exhibition society Rekitei Bijutsu Kyōkai (Progress Art Association). Working against traditional aesthetics, the group explored avant-garde European trends in painting by Wassily Kandinsky, Surrealist artists, and the Bauhaus. In addition to paintings, the society showed works of ceramics, photography, ikebana, and embroidery in its exhibitions.「歴程美術協会」DNP Museum Information Japan artscape. Accessed 6 August 2021. https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E6%AD%B4%E7%A8%8B%E7%BE%8E%E8%A1%93%E5%8D%94%E4%BC%9A Through this exhibition society Yagi became familiar with European avant-garde artworks.『没後二十五年 八木一夫展』日本経済新聞社、2004年、pp 7-8 However, after the society disbanded due to World War II, Yagi temporarily stopped working in ceramics and became a teacher for the duration of the war.
Early postwar (1946–1950) With the end of World War II, Yagi left his teaching job and devoted himself again to ceramics. His works were exhibited at the second and third Nihon Bijutsu Tenrankai ("Nitten", the government-sponsored salon exhibition). He also exhibited works at the annual Kyoto Municipal Exhibition ("Kyōten"), winning an award for his work Kinkanshoku ("Annual Eclipse"), and at exhibitions of the Pan-Real Art Association. He participated in the establishment of the Seinen Sakutōka Shudan (Young Pottery-makers' Collective) in 1946, a group that sought to establish new expressions in pottery appropriate to postwar society. The collective organized three group exhibitions before disbanding in 1948.編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸, 1945-2000』京都国立近代美術館、2001、p. 12Cort, "Veiled References: the role of glaze in Japanese avant-garde ceramics," 170. Yagi was also involved in avant-garde art activities outside of pottery and ceramics – for example, he was a founding member of the Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai (Contemporary Art Discussion Group) in 1952.編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸, 1945-2000』京都国立近代美術館、2001、263
Founding of Sōdeisha (1948) In 1948, Yagi and his colleagues Osamu Suzuki, Hikaru Yamada, Yoshisuke Matsui, and Tetsuo Kano from the Seinen Sakutōka Shudan established the Sōdeisha ("Crawling through Mud Association"), an avant-garde ceramic arts group. Their manifesto drew from Surrealist language to declare its radical goals for ceramics, proclaiming: "We are united not to provide a 'warm bed of dreams', but to come to terms with our existence in broad daylight."Louise Allison Cort, "Japanese Encounters with Clay," in Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics: A Close Embrace of the Earth, eds. Louise Allison Cort and Bert Winther-Tamaki (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 157. As a group, they vowed to stop referencing older models of pottery, and to stop submitting their works to the NItten and other salon exhibitions. Rather, they launched their own independent annual group exhibitions. Unlike juried salons, Sōdeisha exhibitions did not distinguish between fine art and pottery, blurring the boundary as reflected in their works.Winther-Tamaki, "Yagi Kazuo: The Admission of the Nonfunctional Object into the Japanese Pottery World", 129. Sōdeisha continued to be active past Yagi's death in 1979, and eventually disbanded in 1998.編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸, 1945-2000』京都国立近代美術館、2001、p. 14
Groundbreaking experiments and international recognition (1950s) In 1950, Yagi received early international acclaim when several of his works were included in an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Japanese Household Objects. The works were purchased by Antonin Raymond and Noémi Raymond at the request of Philip Johnson, then the Architecture & Design curator at MoMA.Cort, "Japanese Encounters with Clay," 161.
Yagi and Sōdeisha members continued to experiment with new expressions in pottery. Yagi drew significant inspiration from the work of Isamu Noguchi, who visited Japan in 1950 and 1952 and produced a number of ceramic works inspired by prehistoric Japanese pottery from the Yayoi and Kofun periods with abstract sculpture.Winther-Tamaki, "Yagi Kazuo: The Admission of the Nonfunctional Object into the Japanese Pottery World", 131-132. His ability to create sculpture with clay as a synthesis of Japanese and Western aesthetics encouraged Yagi's own aspirations to push ceramics in new directions. However, unlike Noguchi who was merely using clay as a medium, Yagi did not aspire to completely destroy the ceramic tradition in Japan – rather, he intended to push that heritage to its limits with new types of pottery.Winther-Tamaki, "Yagi Kazuo: The Admission of the Nonfunctional Object into the Japanese Pottery World", 132.
In 1954, Yagi famously debuted his first work of non-functional pottery, Zamuza-shi no sanpō (Mr. Samsa's Walk). By rejecting the functionality of the ceramic vessel, Yagi's work effectively opened up a new genre in the Japanese pottery world: the so-called obuje-yaki ("kiln-fired objet "). Following the debut of this work, Yagi and Sōdeisha members began to gradually reject more and more components of traditional pottery, such as the use of the pottery wheel and the use of glaze. Sōdeisha members began to experiment with completely unglazed ceramic works.
By the late 1950s, Sōdeisha members had begun to work in distinctly individual styles, rather than working in similar materials and methods.Cort, "Japanese Encounters with Clay," 179. For example, in 1957, Yagi began working with kokutō ("black pottery").Cort, "Japanese Encounters with Clay," 171. These works were included in the exhibition The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture, which was organized by The Museum of Modern Art in New York and opened at the San Francisco Museum of Art before traveling to other locations.MoMA Press Release. Accessed 6 August 2021.https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_326476.pdf?_ga=2.252000331.355675806.1628115577-2007352764.1627004696&_gac=1.180544085.1628178016.CjwKCAjwmK6IBhBqEiwAocMc8sxm59R5io1Be4syvo3-N35lNrvNjgpxdwearwBbnBOFwsBwpgyQdRoC0nwQAvD_BwE編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸, 1945-2000』京都国立近代美術館、2001、p. 267
Later career (1960–1979) In 1962, Yagi and his Sōdeisha colleague Yamada founded Mon Kōbō (Corner Workshop), an industrial design business where they designed functional ceramic objects intended for mass production.Cort, "Japanese Encounters with Clay," 179-180.編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸, 1945-2000』京都国立近代美術館、2001、p. 265 The designs were painted with clock gears dipped in black pigment painted over white slip, recalling Chinese Cizhou ware.Cort, "Veiled References: the role of glaze in Japanese avant-garde ceramics," 184. These designs are evidence of the artists' ongoing interest in ceramics as functional objects.
Yagi became a professor at Kyoto City University of the Arts in 1971.編集京都国立近代美術館『京都の工芸, 1945-2000』京都国立近代美術館、2001、p. 267 The same year, he and the graphic designer Ikkō Tanaka designed the medals for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. Yagi designed the front of the medal, which was meant to evoke the snow and ice of Japan, and Tanaka designed the back.
Works
Early postwar experiments