Special Exhibition“Kuroda Taizo”

The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, OsakaMessage
Kuroda Taizo was born on January 1, 1946. After attending Osaka City Kogei High School, he moved
to Paris in 1966, where he met potter Shimaoka Tatsuzo. He studied pottery in Canada through Shimaoka’s
introduction and began to pursue a career as a potter. Returning to Japan in 1980, Kuroda set up a studio in
1991 in Ito City, Shizuoka Prefecture. Since then, he has been producing unique, tranquil white porcelain
inexhaustibly. In 2019, a gallery was built adjacent to the studio by his esteemed friend Ando Tadao.
The white porcelain works by Kuroda, now a world-renowned artist-potter, are characterized by theirsimple modeling through which he attempts to express his original view of the universe. Starting fromtraditional forms of ceramic vessels such as bowls, vases and dishes, he eliminates decorative elements to theutmost limit, achieving a minimalist expression of the eternity of existence. Kuroda’s white porcelain works
open an original world which gives a feeling of tranquility and timelessness. While maintaining the forms ofbowls or vases to a certain extent, they transcend the field of craft works, liberating themselves fromfunctionality and purely focusing on formation.
This exhibition introduces Kuroda Taizo’s world of white porcelain, his recent culmination of artistry,
mostly from the collections of the Ise Cultural Foundation and The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka.

We are extremely grateful to Mr. Ando Tadao and Mr. Kuroda Taizo for their wholehearted
cooperation as well as the Ise Foundation for their tremendous support and sponsorship. We would also like toexpress our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Obayashi Takeo, Mr. Son Taizo and Mr. Toda Hiroshi for understanding ourmuseum’s mission and activities and generously donating their valuable works, as well as all the individuals
and institutions for making this exhibition possible.
Degawa Tetsuro, Director
The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka
November 2020

Notes
While the item numbers given on the captions correspond with the catalog numbers, they do notindicate the order of the display.
The caption of each work is given in the order: title of the work, production date, material,measurements (in centimeters, “h” for maximum height, “w” for maximum width), name of owner,
accession number.

14.
Kuroda Taizo
TSUBO (Vase)
2019
White porcelain h: 26.9 w: 21.2
The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (Gift of Mr. SON Taizo)
Accession No. 05655
At around the age of forty-five, when he began to produce white porcelain, Kuroda Taizo
determined the essential elements needed in his white porcelain works: the work must be “wheelthrown”, must have a “vessel” form and must be “monochrome.” As a lump of clay is formed on thepotter’s wheel, it autonomously becomes a rotating body with walls standing upright—a form to becalled a “vessel.” In Kuroda’s view, though, a vessel is not necessarily a practical container but is anartistic, abstract form. This work, having a small mouth and a swollen shoulder, its body tapering
toward the bottom, is known as Kuroda’s meiping vase. The carefully burnished, smooth surface
and the well-proportioned body having an elegant, generous curve well exemplify thecharacteristics of Kuroda’s works.

24.
Kuroda Taizo
TSUBO (Vase)
2018
White porcelain h: 30.5 w: 27.1
The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (Gift of Mr. OBAYASHI Takeo)
Accession No. 05648
Kuroda Taizo, who had moved to France in 1966 at the age of twenty, happened to meet potter
Shimaoka Tatsuzo (designated Important Intangible Cultural Property in folk pottery [Jomon inlay],1919–2007) who casually visited the Japanese restaurant for which Kuroda had been working. Later,
Kuroda began to study pottery under Gaétan Beaudin (1924–2002), a Canadian potter living inQuebec, who Shimaoka had introduced to Kuroda. Initially, he was not aiming to become a potter but
when he sat in front of the potter’s wheel for the first time, he recollects, he instantly began to devotehimself to it, thinking, “This may be my lifework.” When he temporarily returned to Japan, he stayedat Shimaoka’s studio in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture, and studied pottery. Kuroda moved back to Japan
in 1980 and built his own kiln in Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture the following year, securing abase for his creative activities in Japan. From 1992, when he presented his white porcelain works tothe public for the first time, he began to focus on producing white porcelain.

29.
Kuroda Taizo
HACHI (Bowl)
2015
White porcelain h: 8.3 w: 22.5
Ise Cultural Foundation

Kuroda Taizo’s works are based on the symmetrical form produced by the rotation of the potter’swheel. On the other hand, he also made vessels with deliberately disproportioned forms or tea
bowls with warped mouth rims, reminiscent of coarse Chinese blue-and-white porcelain produced
in private kilns of the Ming dynasty.
Kuroda’s works have often been used in tea gatherings. The form eliminating anything
unnecessary, delivering a feeling of tension, as well as the white color that creates a sacredatmosphere was probably preferred by tea masters.

40.
(Center)
Kuroda Taizo
TSUBO (Vase)
2003
White porcelain h: 34.0 w: 6.5
Ise Cultural Foundation
At the time Kuroda Taizo began to focus on white porcelain, he covered the works with atransparent glaze. From around 1997, however, in order to maintain the freshly-formed sharpness
even after firing, Kuroda attempted to fire his work unglazed in oxidizing atmosphere, thenburnish the surface with sandpaper of several different grit sizes.
One of the ways Kuroda exhibits his works, which is to skillfully arrange multiple works into asingle display, can be found in the images in White Porcelain: Kuroda Taizo hakuji sakuhinshu[Collected works of Kuroda Taizo] (Amus Arts Press, 2001), the first collection of his works. Suchdisplay recalls to one’s mind the installation by Edmund de Waal (1964–), which is an arrangementof a large number of cylindrical ceramic vessels. It inspires the viewers to imagine the works
interacting with one another.

16.
Kuroda Taizo
TSUBO (Vase)
2019
White porcelain h: 28.7 w: 17.8
Ise Cultural Foundation

Kuroda Taizo has been naming his works after the terms expressing traditional forms, such as
meiping, and inscribed them on the storage boxes of the works. As a name for the flower vase, hereplaced the term hanaire (vase to insert the flower) with hanaike (vase to keep the flower alive).
On the other hand, he mentions that recently he feels some doubt about adopting names that
reminds people of traditional vessels, as the artist has always been having “modernity” in mind
whenever producing his works. He says, “Even though the work is made by me today, it must besimilar to how it will look many years later, being beautifully changed over time,” describing themas “a work inhabited by true words.”

45.
Kuroda Taizo
TSUBO (Vase)
2005
White porcelain h: 29.8 w: 12.6
The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (Gift of Mr. TODA Hiroshi)
Accession No. 05659
This work has a cylindrical body with a conical top, a unique form producing a sharp impression.
The thin mouth rim, producing a gentle undulation, has been delicately potted. Kuroda mentions
that he has been fascinated by “the material with which I can draw a line in the air like magic, byusing my own hands, fingers and the potter’s wheel.” He compares the act of throwing to “creatinga one-time-only abstract painting in the air.” Although at first glance this work seems to have ageometric, minimalist form, the wheel marks and traces of burnishing on the surface make one
realize the rich texture and the subtle nuance embedded in the body.

6.
Kuroda Taizo
ENTO (Cylindrical Vessel)
2013
White porcelain h: 9.5 w: 8.5
Ise Cultural Foundation“Ento” or cylindrical form is one of the major forms of Kuroda’s works. The cylinder is a simple
form consisting of circles and straight lines produced by raising the walls vertically, using therotary motion of the potter’s wheel. The extremely thin mouth rim was made by low-speed rotationof the potter’s wheel. The unglazed surface was carefully burnished. It can be said that this is anappropriate size of a wheel-thrown, handmade work that enables maintenance of the atmosphereof tension. The “ento” is embedded with Kuroda’s determination to fulfill his responsibilities as anartist to “represent the invisible by a visible work.” The elegant “ento” is a beautiful embodiment of
the artist’s ideal.

64.
Kuroda Taizo
ENTO (Cylindrical Vessel)
2012
White porcelain h: 9.5 w: 12.5
Artist Collection

It is said that Kuroda began to produce “ento (cylindrical vessel)” in around 2012, when he displayed his works
in the exhibition “Gendai no zahyo—Kogei wo meguru 11 no shiko” [New footing—Eleven approaches tocontemporary crafts] held at the Craft Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Since he began tofocus on white porcelain, he had been mentioning, “I even think that the ultimate goal for white porcelain is‘not to make it.’” By working on “ento,” however, it seems that he is about to overcome this emotional turmoil.
Although the form of a cylinder is commonly found in daily life, Kuroda’s thinly-potted, pure-white “ento” is aheterogeneous object in a living space. Its ambiguous use or purpose also makes it difficult to place his works ina certain category or draw a clear line between his works and others. As long as it is an object, though, it cansimply “exist.” As one of Kuroda’s notes about “ento” describes, “(‘Ento’ is) an expression of the people’s minds
which will not or cannot be verbalized (such as the thought between ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ or ‘presence’ and ‘absence’),”the artist accepted the contradiction and sublimated his struggle by realizing the possibility of expressing thesubtleties of mind, which cannot be put in words, into forms of objects.

4.
Kuroda Taizo
ENTO (Cylindrical Vessel)
2016
White porcelain h: 8.5 w: 9.5
Ise Cultural Foundation

In an interview, Kuroda Taizo described his idea of holding an exhibition showing only one “ento”
work as follows: “On a table that is said to have been used by Georges Braque (1882–1963), I would
place a fine knife and fork, and my ‘ento’ would be placed in the center. The knife and fork
symbolize tools, the ‘ento’ symbolizes vessel, and somewhere on the table I would like to place
Galileo Galilei’s Letters on Sunspots (1613) symbolizing wisdom.” He mentioned about this idea
when he recollected his attempt to acquire the Letters on Sunspots in an antiquarian bookstore inItaly (which he failed to obtain).

51.
Kuroda Taizo

WARE-DAIZARA (Cracked Stand)
2018
White porcelain h: 22.5 w: 35.6
Ise Cultural Foundation

This work has a small foot from which the walls make a gentle, elegant curve as they open widelyupwards, raising its center of gravity and producing a sense of lightness and a floating feeling. Alarge crack was deliberately made into the top section before firing. While it reminds one ofparticular Iga water jars known as Yaburebukuro (‘burst bag’) that display bold cracks, it is also inline with the idea of Lucio Fontana, who sought “to create a new dimension in art and connect withthe universe” by producing his series of works Concetto Spaziale (‘Spatial Concept’). The sharp,
powerful slash made as if breaking through the tranquil atmosphere of the work may be an
attempt by the artist to seek an approach contrary to his other works.

47.
Kuroda Taizo
TSUBO (Vace)
2007
White porcelain h: 30.0 w: 37.3
Ise Cultural Foundation

Although this conical work with a hollow interior and a small mouth at the top may be categorized
as a “vessel”, it is a rare wheel-thrown form. While a cone is triangular when viewed from the side,
it is a three-dimensional object consisting of a curved surface. The vessel, made of simple
components, interacts with the space and anything adjoining it, encouraging unfetteredinterpretation to the viewers. Kuroda says, “I want to pursue truth from the methodology called‘white porcelain’.” Unlike the approach of contemporary art, which reflects social phenomena,
Kuroda’s creative activities may be an attempt to express his “quest for truth” using a visual form.

In 1991, Kuroda Taizo built his own kiln in Futo, Ito City, Shizuoka Prefecture, which became thebase of his creative activities. Also built on the vast grounds are his studio with the potter’s wheel,
the workshop, the gallery designed by Ando Tadao, his present residence as well as the building
which had been his previous home. The studio’s garden, which is abundantly blessed with nature,
gives a splendid view of Izu Oshima in the front and the lighthouse of Jogasaki beneath one’s eyes.
When I moved to Futo, my artistic activities were coming to a standstill. While building astudio and laying out a garden, however, I was able to “find” white porcelain. For me, theprocess of building a studio or making a garden was perhaps something like a practice ofmeditation which cleared up my brain.
(Kuroda Taizo, Kuroda Taizo Hakuji-e [Kuroda Taizo: His path toward white porcelain] (Tokyo:Heibonsha, 2017), 26.)
As suggested in the above words by the artist, one can experience his aesthetic sense andworldview from the space well-prepared by the artist himself.

Ando Tadao
Drawing: “Gallery of Water”
2018
Private Collection

In 2019, Kuroda Taizo built a new gallery adjacent to the workshop to display his works. It wasarchitect Ando Tadao who designed this gallery. Kuroda and Ando became acquainted with eachother in 1997, and Ando took the charge of exhibit design of Kuroda’s works at the “DesignMiami/Basel” (at Switzerland) held in 2008. This gallery was designed so that the floor could befilled wit water, and Kuroda’s works were displayed in a way as if they were floating on the water.
To the eyes of the viewers, Kuroda’s works, reflected on water surface, were blended into the spaceas they slightly sway along with the ripping of the water.

Photograph: T. MINAMOTO