Hiroshi Koie

Hiroshi Koie’s works extend from teaware to artistic ceramic sculpture, and though all of his creations are based firmly in the Tokoname style, they prominently feature Koie’s own innovative techniques. For Koie is a true innovator in the field: his signature “dawn-glazed” works, for example, feature a blending of black-oxidized clay with Koie’s uniquely developed opaque white feldspar glaze, and are reminiscent of the first rays of morning light creeping over the horizon. Koie has also adapted the hidasuki (“flame-wrapped”) glaze technique to his own needs. Commonly found in Bizen-style works, hidasuki glazing features bands of crimson glaze painted linearly across an otherwise unglazed piece, granting the piece the appearance of being wreathed in flame. With this as his inspiration, Koie pioneered a similar technique in silver glaze, giving it the name nishiki-dasuki (“brocade-wrapped”). Both of these techniques were created and named by Koie himself.

Koie has also pioneered a variety of techniques centered on the coloration of the clay he uses. For example, Koie was the first to implement a technique in which portions of a black-oxidized clay piece are carved away, revealing the red color of the clay beneath. It is this and other newly developed techniques that have solidified Koie’s reputation as a star in the field.

The Koie family has a long and illustrious history as a ceramics dynasty – the family has been in the business ever since the creation of Tokoname-style pottery end of the Heian period (around the year 1200). Since the beginning of the Meiji period (1868), the family’s business has been operated by the master ceramics artist Koie Hōju and his descendants, and remains a shop of considerable pedigree. The family’s start in the business of teaware came during the generation of Koie Hiroshi’s father.

During Koie’s childhood, in the 1950s, Tokoname was a thriving center of all types of ceramics manufacturing, from earthen jugs to clay pipe. Koie was drawn to the clay all around him from a young age: he would often pick up clay that had fallen off of the horse-carts on which it was loaded, and see what he could do with it. During middle school, he began to imitate his father, and began working on the pottery wheel. He began to study the ceramics business in earnest in high school, and decided then to devote his future to the craft. Though he learned the basics of crafting teaware from his father, his acquired his skills at making vases and other art works completely through self-study.

Koie’s genius quickly caught the eyes of prominent artists, including the third-generation Yamada Jōzan, who was later designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government. As soon as Koie graduated, he joined the Society for Tokoname Teapot Manufacture – of which Yamada was the founder and president – as a new member.

Yamada was 31 years Koie’s senior, and advised Koie as he would his own son. “I remember him complimenting one of my teapots – ‘that’s a good pot – you’ve used sharp lines very well,’” says Koie. Koie was also awarded the first Jōzan Prize, a prize for outstanding works of ceramic art that was established after Yamada was designated a Living National Treasure.

Until shortly before Koie entered the field, the teapot had been seen first and foremost as an everyday tool, with little margin for artistic creativity. Koie was therefore one of the first in the field to focus on teapots, and was able to submit to and display his work at high-profile ceramics exhibitions from the outset. He worked hard to transform teapots into sophisticated, artistic objects, at a time when the only other artist making such efforts in Tokoname was Yamada Jōzan himself.

“I worked hard to make creative, unique pieces, so that I would be recognized in the sea of artists in Tokoname,” says Koie. Creative and unique he was – Koie was the first to affix bottom rims to his teapots, lifting them slightly above the table on which they rested, and was also the first to create a teapot in the shape of Mt. Fuji, now a well-known teapot design.

Constantly developing and incorporating new techniques into his work, Koie creates teapots that, in addition to being thin, light, and easy to use, are perfectly suited to Japanese homes design-wise – at once modern and distinctively Japanese. “I feel that young people in Japan today are moving farther and farther away from traditional Japanese objects,” worries Koie. However, his will is still strong: “Moving forward, I want to continue to make pieces that will appeal to people of all age groups, whether they’re in Japan or around the world.”

Koie’s wife, Yōsui, is also an accomplished carver specializing in fine, detailed writing. Always an accomplished calligrapher, Yōsui began carving when she married Koie Hiroshi, and has built up a career of over 30 years. Though the characters are vanishingly small, all of the writing that she carves is perfectly legible – a difficult, unusual feat. In 1986, Yōsui took first place at the Chōzashō Ceramics Exhibition, which recognizes outstanding artists from areas in the Chita Peninsula (including Tokoname).

From here forward, both husband and wife will continue to work as one in creating beautiful and innovative works.