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Confidence and Freedom: The Art of Yasuhiro
Kohara
by Patricia Pelehach
Please note: This
article first appeared in Ceramics: Art
and Perception, 2005, Issue 60 and is
reprinted here courtesy of Ceramics Art
and Perception Pty Ltd
Born in 1954, Yasuhiro Kohara at age 50
is in full possession of his artistic
skills and aesthetic vision. Totally
acquainted with his clay and kiln,
Kohara works with a maturity and
assurance that allow him to soar into a
place of perfect freedom. He creatively
exploits the possibilities inherent in
his handsome and tactile Shigaraki clay
and sets up the conditions for "kiln
accidents" so appropriate and beautiful
in their results that it is clear they
are the results of careful calculation.
Self-taught, Kohara had no formal
schooling in ceramic art, and he
apprenticed to no master. This, perhaps,
is what gave rise to his notably free
and intuitive approach.
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Kohara works in a variety of forms:
vases, teabowls, baskets, covered boxes,
rectangular and circular platters and
distinctive wall-mounted flower holders.
His forms exhibit a bit of bravado; they
are always just a little bigger, a
little longer, a little stronger than
one would expect. The long hanging vases
are particularly difficult to make,
because they must be drawn out of the
kiln by means of a long metal pole, and
Kohara notes that as he gets older it is
harder to handle the weight of the pole.
Kohara manipulates ash glaze, clay and
form in a delicate balance of strength
and fluidity. He handles thick,
muscular hunks of clay with lightness
and dynamic lyricism. His objects are
characterized by elaborate green glaze
washes and rivulets and pools and
exquisite red-orange flashings against
the grainy, buff-to-grey Shigaraki
clay. Vases and teabowls often exhibit
the desirable “dragonfly eye”, created
when the glaze collects and solidifies
into a prominent jewel-like drip.
Kohara’s aesthetic sense and technique
have been shaped by the strong
Shigaraki tradition. The lush, green,
and mountainous vistas of Shigaraki
find expression in his work, which is
evocative of volcanic forces,
waterfalls, pristine pools.
Neighboring artists Michio Furukata,
and Naokata Ueda are frequent
companions and Kohars notes that
Shunsai Takahashi has been his
inspiration for how to be true to the
calling as an artist, never settling,
always looking for something new.
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While giving tradition its due, Kohara
is an exuberant modernist,
international in his tastes, and
passionate about his many interests,
which range from jazz to scuba diving.
Other influences include Miro (the
paintings, not the ceramics) for his
use of negative space, Picasso and
Jean-Michel Basquiat. A jazz buff, he
admires Louis Armstrong and Ella
Fitzgerald, and one can see a kind of
improvisation in his ceramic art. The
artist likes to surprise. His boxes,
square and squat, shibui (sober,
quiet, refined), give little
indication of the surprise inside –
elaborately colored and gilded
interiors.
One is tempted to judge Kohara a
romantic. Or one might speculate that
the circular decoration on his
platters are a form of “enso” or
Buddhist circle. But Kohara denies any
emotive or spiritual intention,
stating firmly “No philosophy.” Rather
he judges his work in purely formal
terms, noting how a well-situated drip
is balanced by a corresponding
rivulet, how a neck and lip are
ideally sized on a well-proportioned
body. This is self-assured work –
spontaneous, direct, emotional – much
like the artist himself, and the
landscape he calls home.
MOCA/NY is a tax-exempt
503(c)(3) educational organization
devoted to the collection,
exhibition, study, and
appreciation of ceramics from
ancient traditions to spaceage
technology.
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