Tomokazu Kawasumi: Five Series, from Antique to Phantom

Seen from across the room, the pieces by Tomokazu Kawasumi look like metal or wood rather than pottery.

The sheen of antique metal. The rings of a tree. Torn bark. Zebra stripes. And a blue that looks like a galaxy sunk into the surface. All of it is made of clay.

His work wears a completely different face from one series to the next. People are surprised to hear it comes from the same maker. Here we go through five series, starting from what each one is and how it is made.

Carrying on the intent of those who came before, in Kasama

The studio is in the city of Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture. In his own words:

"Carrying on the intent of those who came before, I make the pottery I love, aiming at work that can move people and give them something."

That one short line contains the character of Kasama as a pottery region. Kasama ware has no fixed style that says "this is Kasama ware". It is a region with a history going back to the Edo period, yet it never bound its makers to a style, and the result was that it drew in makers of every kind.

So in Kasama, "carrying on" and "making it new" are not in conflict. What is carried on is technique and attitude, not appearance. That is why five series this different can all still stand as Kasama work.

The five series

Here they are side by side first.

Antique | Metal born out of clay

What Kawasumi has pursued on his own in Kasama is a metallic glaze. Over a dark brown ground, a bronze-like sheen travels across the surface depending on the angle of the light. Plenty of people take it for cast metal until they pick it up.

But it is light in the hand, and warm as clay against the lip. It looks like metal and it is clay. That is the strongest thing about his work.

The flower vases show it best. On a slim form that recalls an industrial component, a "screw" sits proud of the surface like a rusted bolt. A roughly fired base holds the texture of the earth as it is, while a deep bronze glaze runs around the neck. Inorganic crossing organic, it stands closer to an object than to tableware.

The sheen comes from iron in the glaze, which changes character according to the state of the flame inside the kiln and surfaces as a metallic light.

Wood | Work carved like a cut log

As the name says, what is carved is the cross-section of a log cut through.

Concentric circles run outward from the centre, layer on layer. Short radial lines cut across them. The rings of a tree, and the cracks that open as it dries. All of it carved into clay.

The rim is a straight vertical wall, and the glaze pools there more heavily. The carving in the centre sinks into matte, and the standing rim catches the light. Two expressions living in a single piece.

The rings are different on every piece. Even among the same "wood plate (large)", no two share the same spacing of circles or the same run of cracks. It looks nothing like clay, and yet it varies from piece to piece the way wood does. That is what makes choosing one interesting.

As a way of drawing pattern by carving, it is close in spirit to shinogi, but where shinogi raises ridges, this carves the surface down.

Rock Bark / Sand Bark | Pieces with a surface torn like rock

This series is made with the cracking technique. The name is built from two words.

• Sand　The colour of the raw Kasama clay body itself, likened to the earth
• Bark　The sense of a wood-grain pattern being torn apart. Tree bark

So Sand Bark is "torn bark in the colour of the earth". Rock Bark adds the face of rock to that. Because it lets the colour of the clay speak, the result is plain and warm to the touch, the opposite pole from the metallic Antique.

A mug shows it clearly. The cracks running across the brown ground fall in a completely different shape on every single piece. They cannot be aimed at the same place twice. How fast the clay dries and how the pressure falls are different every time.

Zebra | Work whose black and white contrast recalls a zebra

This is the most unusual of the five in the way it is made.

After a pattern is worked into the clay, it is scorched with a burner. The clay expands and the surface collapses of its own accord. A white glaze goes over that, pooling in the broken texture and producing a contrast of black and white.

Because that black and white resembles the markings of a zebra, the series was named ZEBRA (ZB).

How the flame is applied, and how much of what collapses, cannot be fully controlled. So this is the series where the largest part of the result is beyond the maker's reading. It is the series where "one of a kind" applies most literally.

Phantom | Work built on the image of a galaxy sunk in blue

There is a blue that Kawasumi researched over many years and finally brought to completion. Phantom is the series that uses it.

The way blue and black weave together looks like looking down into a nebula or a galaxy. The blue shifts in depth across the piece and changes with the angle and the light. There is a green and black combination too, closer to the colour of deep forest.

Quiet, and impossible to look away from. It brings the feeling that space itself slipped onto the table for a moment.

Why every piece is different

"One of a kind" is a phrase used loosely, but with Kawasumi, the reason the differences arise is clear for each series.

The forms, and living with them

The range of forms is another mark of this maker.

Making everyday pieces, his hand still reaches as far as tea utensils. The range of forms is also evidence of how much pottery a person has looked at.

The look of it can suggest something difficult to handle. In fact the opposite is true.

These are pieces for everyday use. The glaze covers them fully, so no medome is needed either. The basics of care are covered in caring for Japanese ceramics.

What to serve changes with the series. Antique and Phantom are dark, so white and bright things show up well on them: white fish, tofu, egg, cream-based pasta. Brown dishes such as simmered food can sink into the surface. Sand Bark is the colour of the clay, so it takes both Japanese and Western cooking.

For drinking, the colour inside a guinomi reflects into the sake. A flower vase suits a single stem, with just one branch in it.

Related reading

The region

• Kasama Ware: Japan's Most Free-Spirited Pottery Town
• Mashiko Pottery: Where Japanese Folk Craft Still Lives
• Japanese Pottery Glazes: The Main Types Explained

Technique and terms

• Shinogi: The Carved Ridges on Japanese Pottery
• Kodai (Foot Ring): The Part Collectors Check First
• Medome: How to Seal Unglazed Pottery Before First Use

Choosing by form

• Japanese Plates | Handmade Ceramic Plates from Japan
• Japanese Mugs | Handmade Ceramic Mugs from Japanese Potters
• Japanese Ceramic Vase | Handmade Flower Vases from Japan
• Japanese Sake Set | Ochoko, Guinomi Cups & Tokkuri