For people from Kyoto, the concept of "Kyoto ware" doesn't really exist. What exists is that master craftsmen like Ninsei and Kenzan were active in the past, the Raku family, which began with Chojiro, is still active today, and pottery such as Kiyomizu ware and Awataguchi ware are produced in different regions. There wasn't a specific type of pottery called "Kyoto ware." However, Kyoto pottery is characterized by its refined decorative qualities and astonishing diversity, which are unique to Kyoto. It is likely that outsiders referred to this type of Kyoto pottery as "Kyoto ware."

The "Ku-ku" in "Kyoto Ku-ku Nine Artists Exhibition" means "various" or "diverse." This exhibition features nine ceramic artists, including herself, selected by artist Kasumi Ueba through her own eyes. As you can see from the members, they are all highly individualistic ceramic artists. There is porcelain, earthenware, and unglazed stoneware, and the works range from traditional to sculptural. Kyoto has a unique cultural strength that has always produced top runners of their time, whether in tradition or sculptural art. That has remained true both in the past and the present.

This time, a special commemorative tea ceremony by the exhibiting artists will be held at the Kakiden Tea Room on Thursday, September 12th. Perhaps for this reason, each artist will exhibit their representative works and tea ceramics (tea bowls, flower vases, water containers, tea utensils, waste water containers, side dishes, bowls, sake vessels, etc.). It will probably be anything but straightforward to see what kind of works will adorn the tea ceremony. I'm already excited.

Tetsuya Ishiyama was born in Saitama Prefecture. Without attending art school or studying under a specific teacher, he created his works through self-study, based on the techniques and expressions of his predecessors, acquired by touching and copying ancient ceramics. Based in Shigaraki, he has gained recognition for his unique works that utilize high-level ceramic techniques, such as inlay, gold and silver decoration, and the Suimensho series, in which glass is used to represent the surface of water, in Jingdezhen, China, Taiwan, and India. From a young age, he had an extraordinary passion for antique art and even participated in archaeological excavations himself, but he felt a sense of loss because of the unbridgeable distance between the viewer and the antique art. However, I believe that true appreciation cannot exist without considering the logic of creation.

Kasumi Ueba is a ceramic artist born and raised in Kyoto. She graduated from the Department of Ceramics, Faculty of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts in 2001. Her work fuses classical patterns with modern, vibrant colors, and unique forms, exemplified by the "Chimera" (a fire-breathing monster from Greek mythology with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake). She creates her works without any preliminary sketches or color drawings, concentrating intensely and completing them in one go. This sometimes means she doesn't sleep for two days. Like the refined sensibilities of ancient people, the continuous patterns that Ueba creates possess a mysterious power that is also found in the rope patterns and swirls of the Jomon period. Recently, in addition to the "Chimera," she has been actively creating other types of tableware such as tea bowls and sake vessels.

Aki Katayama was born in Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture. In 2002, she graduated from the Department of Crafts, Ceramics Major, at Kyoto City University of Arts. She developed her artistic career in Kyoto and moved her base to Mihara City in 2018. In 2008, she received the Jury Encouragement Award at the 26th Asahi Contemporary Craft Exhibition, among other awards. Katayama says, "I don't aim to surpass natural objects, but rather I want to express forms and functions that are only possible through human hands, making the most of the power of clay, which undergoes diverse changes through firing." One technique is called layered carving, in which she carves out shapes from a block of layered clay. Another technique is called colored slip, in which she layers colored clay, then covers everything with white clay or porcelain clay, and then polishes the surface to try to create an aged look.

Daiki Kosaka was born into a family of pottery wholesalers in Kyoto. He is the youngest exhibitor in this exhibition. He graduated from Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2010. Kosaka began creating tableware for kaiseki meals because many restaurants that were clients of his family business requested blue and white or overglaze enamel tableware that would complement their cuisine. In 2018, he won the Encouragement Award and the Kyoto Prefectural Governor's Award for his "Shell-shaped Lidded Serving Dishes (Set of Five)" at the "3rd Japan Ceramic Society Encouragement Award Kansai Exhibition." These serving dishes are stylish in that when the lid is opened, shrimp, crabs, octopuses, and other creatures are depicted on the inside using the blown-ink technique. In this exhibition, he will likely exhibit delightful kaiseki tableware that draws inspiration from old blue and white porcelain and Tenkei red porcelain.

Mutsumi Takayanagi was born in Toyama Prefecture and graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts Graduate School in 2010. Before moving to Kyoto, she worked in Yao Town, Toyama Prefecture, and is now based in Kyoto. When Takayanagi entered university, she had no intention of working with pottery. It was in Kyoto that she encountered pottery and was drawn to the great potential of clay as a material. Kyoto is a place where materials and techniques from all over Japan gather, and these intertwine with the tastes of the people of Kyoto to create crafts. That is Kyoto's culture. When creating her works, Takayanagi says, "Of course, I bring out the beauty of the material, but I also seek the beauty of something that is made by a person." She is a promising young ceramic artist in her 30s.

Aiko Tsumori was born and raised in Shiga Prefecture, and graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts in 2002. She has received numerous awards, including the Newcomer Award at the "Women's Ceramics Exhibition" in 2003, the Encouragement Award at the "Chozo Prize Ceramics Biennale" in 2007, the Excellence Award at the "Kikuchi Biennale" in 2015, and the 43rd "Shiga Prefecture Cultural Encouragement Award" in 2018. She creates "human figures" by hand-building clay, applying a slip to red clay and then painting with pigments. She applies porcelain powder to the face and hands like face powder, and finally adds overglaze with gold and silver. There are two types of human figures: those with eyes and those without, leaving them vacant. Recently, however, she seems to be expanding the variety of her works to include animal themes, as well as sake cups and pitchers.

Derek Larsen was born in Kansas, in the Great Plains region of the United States. He developed an interest in pottery during high school, and while seriously studying ceramics at university, he was struck by a book on old Iga ware in the library and began building his own anagama kiln. He currently has an anagama kiln in Suberiishi, Keihoku, Kyoto, and uses Shigaraki and Karatsu mountain clay, mainly chestnut wood, for firing. He is a man of pure spirit. That's why his creations are so generous and uplifting. His natural glaze tsukubai (stone basin) and flower vases, in particular, possess a beautiful form and have a "bright sabi" aesthetic, and he says that orders for sake cups and plates have been increasing recently.

Fuku Fukumoto (Fuku) is a ceramic artist born and raised in Kyoto, who is active both in Japan and overseas. She completed her graduate studies at Kyoto City University of Arts in 1999 (and received her doctorate in 2019). In 2001, she exhibited a series of porcelain works titled "Usurahi (Thin Ice)" at the Asahi Contemporary Craft Exhibition and won the Grand Prix, after which she began working with porcelain seriously. Subsequently, she received the "Kyoto Prefecture Emerging Artists Selection Exhibition Grand Prize" in 2002, the "2003 Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award for New Artists" in 2003, the "2007 Kyoto City New Artist Award" in 2008, the "30th Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Award Encouragement Prize" in 2012, and in 2018, she received the Encouragement Prize and the Kyoto City Mayor's Award at the "3rd Japan Ceramic Society Encouragement Award Kansai Exhibition" for her "Tsukikage" series, which expresses "wavering" using three bowls of different diameters.

Toshiharu Yoshimura was born in Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from Kyoto Seika University in 1996 and Kyoto City University of Arts Graduate School in 1998, and attracted attention as a promising young artist. His method is based on the surreal world of surrealism, and his works are free from preconceptions and fixed ideas about ceramics. In his own words, he works on a wide range of things from objects to vessels, centering on "creating based on actual experience." In his work that won the Grand Prix in the ceramic design category at the 10th International Ceramics Exhibition Mino, he said about his relationship with design, "It is an objective way of thinking to clarify and organize matters and solve problems in order to give form to the 'charm,' 'necessity,' and 'emotion' of ceramics as a material." In this, one can feel the attitude of an artist who is always seeking the essence of things.

Kouichi Mori (Art critic, Standing Director of the Japan Ceramic Society)