At the very core of Kohyama’s work and creativity is his relationship with the Earth, the local Shigaraki clay, coarse and feldspar-rich known for its durability and earthy texture. Though Kohyama did throw on the wheel, rather than exclusively relying on the potter’s wheel to fashion classic functional vessels, Kohyama developed a signature technique using a piano wire to cut, slice, and slice through thickly created and hand-built forms of clay. The immediacy and physically and visually tactile method leaves raw, subtlety rippled facets and sharp, crisp, geometric edges that mimic natural geological formations, appearing all-natural and evoking wind-sheared cliffs or tectonic plates. Many of his works features sweeping, wedge-like forms, like wind (Kaze) dynamically balanced, sometimes precariously and other times quite solidly though both challenge much of the generally accepted sense traditional symmetry of Japanese ceramic art.
Central to his unique style is the absence of applied glazes, they are made and fired, “au-natural”, known as shizen-yu to the Japanese. To complete his work and his vision, Kohyama relies entirely on the unpredictable atmosphere of the wood-burning anagama kiln, a single-chamber tunnel kiln he helped reintroduce to the Shigaraki region in the late 1960s which is usually fired continuously over a number of days with temperatures exceeding 1,200°C, his pieces interact directly with flying ash and roaring flames where experience and serendipity work hand-in-hand. This intense process yields natural ash glazes, where the surface shows off a pebbly like surface together with rich hiiro and thin coats of olive-green glassy deposits formed where circulating ash melts against the clay surface. The physical placement of each object or pot within the kiln becomes a precise architectural decision based on an experienced understanding of the clay, the wood, the pathway of the flame and the void that is the anagama where Kohyama orchestrates how the velocity and currents of the fire and ash will sweep across his carved planes.
Kohyama’s work occupies a compelling middle ground flirting between vessel, object or pure sculpture. While his pieces often retain functional interior voids and volume capable of a wide array of functional duties, to some degree their monumental presence demands consideration as freestanding art, where the visual and intellectual interaction are the concluding act of this multi-part play. By allowing the intrinsic qualities of Shigaraki earth, fire, and air to dictate the final surface landscape, Kohyama achieves an organic minimalism and his work pays homage to the medieval kilns and varying traditions of Japan while putting forth a bold, contemporary voice that has earned him acclaim in major public collections worldwide.
On a personal note, I was very fortunate to spend time with Kohyama Yasuhisa back in the early 1990s. I was working as a tech at CSU at the time and had had a variety of experiences but this exposure gave me a real understanding of how this potter worked and what it would mean for me as a potter moving forward. From the creative process, materials and firing, it was an invaluable experience and this photo shows Kohyama-san in the mouth of the dragon, loading and getting prepared for his next firing of which I am sure that have been many, many more since then!
“Many kinds of impressions inspire me to create art; nature manifests itself in my work.” Kohyama Yasuhisa as translated by Wakamoto Nakae (Cleveland Magazine)
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