Forms of "elegance" and "ambiguity"—Yasushi Yasushi Okada 's pale blue glazed vessels

A moment of peace and tranquility, observed in the delicate shades of light blue.

Yasushi Okada 's pottery possesses the power to guide viewers and users into a state of tranquility. This power lies in the expressiveness of the bright and elegant glaze tone, which he calls "pale blue glaze."

It has been less than 10 years since he began expressing himself through the form of vessels adorned with this clear glaze. I hear that the pale blue glaze color, created by layering copper glaze over a white Hagi glaze made from straw ash, is difficult to stabilize and required considerable effort. However, Okada quickly mastered the brightness and saturation that surpasses the moon-white Jun ware of the late Northern Song to Yuan dynasties of China, which he had aimed for from the beginning of his pottery career.

And now, the sharp forms of his vessels, adorned with pale blue glaze, embody a Japanese sensibility, a kind of "bleeding" beauty, that is completely different from the vibrant and robust forms inherited from the Jun ware of the past. It possesses a delicate and ethereal charm.

Here, we can see the remarkable skill of this young artist who relentlessly pursues the expression of pure sensations in the form of a vessel, a "neatness" so refined that it strips away the superficial embellishment of meaning from the form, and the "ambiguity" that arises from the boundless expansion of space (volume).

Yasuyuki Ishizaki (Deputy Director and Head of Curator, Yamaguchi Prefectural Hagi Museum of Art and Urakami Memorial Hall)