Robert Yellin’s Newsletter: Japanese Pottery by Yokoyama Naoki

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Framed photographs by Mishima photographer Okabe Minoru

Greetings from Mishima,

With autumn in the air in this part of our world, the senses are filled with glorious sights and smells as nature prepares for her winter hibernation. We hope this finds all well and also enjoying the season, whatever it may be where you are.

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Thanks so much to all who visited our recent Miyao Masahiro exhibition and we continue with the Bizen theme in a very different realm though, namely shizen-nerikomi or natural marbled Bizen. This is the world of Yokoyama Naoki.

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Our last Yokoyama exhibition was in May of 2006 and the works offered in the current exhibition were all fired very recently; I went down to his kiln on October 12th to select the works. Most of very much in an autumn tone-themed with rich oranges and browns created from the two or three different toned clay he uses. Yokoyama told me it takes 10 times more labor to make his shizen-nerikomi compared to regular Bizen. The forms range from very strong and stoic to more organic and natural; the larger rectangular forms acting as a canvas for the rich clay landscapes. Some of the cups and guinomi are of a black Bizen marbled type that was achieved by placing the works in
saggar-fire-proof casings and then adding charcoal towards the end of the firing. Each piece was carefully selected and as you’ll see in the following exhibition preview links Yokoyama is a superb Bizen ceramic artist taking Bizen in brilliant directions with his unique vision of marbled Bizen. (There are a few yohen Bizen and other non-marbled Bizen works to be seen as well.)

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Yokoyama (b.1970) lives in the hills of Bizen where he established his kiln in 2000. Before that he studied with Kawabata Fumio and at the Bizen Pottery Center. His works have been accepted into juried exhibitions that include the Tanabe Museum’s Contemporary Tea Forms exhibition, Okayama Prefecture Art exhibition, Japan Traditional Arts and Crafts Chugoku region exhibition, Japan Ceramic Art exhibition and the Japan Traditional Arts and Crafts National exhibition, some of these
numerous times. As with Miyao, Yokoyama is an extremely talented
Bizen ceramic artist and one who’s star will surely rise even higher.

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The hidden preview links are below, additional photos of any work gladly sent on request and the exhibition will go online for public viewing this Friday:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.