Kumamoto Shō

Kumamoto Shō’s masterpiece, his Ryokusai (“Shades of Green”) style, is truly a sight to behold. Atop a base of white porcelain, with grooves and marks from the pottery wheel still clearly visible, sits smooth, half-transparent glaze tinged with green. Highlights of deep jade and soft, subdued purple complete the pieces, making their white background shine all the brighter.

Kumamoto works primarily in hard-paste porcelain, but his oeuvre holds rich variation. He lives and works in the famed pottery town of Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, in the south of Japan, and takes hints from the style of the area, commonly referred to as Karatsu ware. He is by no means constrained by the conventions of the style, however, and instead effortlessly carves out his own unique approach to pottery.

“Though I work in hard-paste porcelain, I use a soft, flowing glaze style to produce a texture and quality to my pieces reminiscent of the local form of earthenware, i.e. Karatsu ware. Creating the soft look and sensation of earthenware in a piece made of porcelain is really the distinguishing characteristic of my work,” says Kumamoto.

Kumamoto produces a variety of pieces, from teaware and tableware to fine vases, but all hold in common their elegance and subtle beauty. His thin teapots are particularly well known, and are universally held in high regard. Kumamoto shapes the pots according to his own mood and thoughts at the time of creation, meaning that each is unique. The glazing and pattern of each piece, too, produces an irreplicable tone in each pot, making each new work truly one of a kind.

Kumamoto was born in 1977, in Saga Prefecture’s Karatsu City, into the world of pottery. His father is the ceramics artisan Kumamoto Chiharu. Despite his pottery lineage and his upbringing in one of Japan’s ceramics capitals, however, Kumamoto claims that he wanted nothing to do with the art when he was a child. Rather, he was drawn to the world of music, and aimed to become a performer. Around the time he turned 25, however, Kumamoto suddenly began to take an interest in his father’s work.

However, Kumamoto received no training from his father. Instead, he attended a technical pottery school in nearby Arita and, after graduation, entered into an apprenticeship under Karatsu artisan Oka Shingo, where he spent three years studying and learning to create in a variety of Japanese pottery styles. Kumamoto amassed a particularly large amount of experience working with hard-paste porcelain, which he prefers as his medium to this day.

Though Kumamoto formed his own workshop comparatively recently, in 2010, he has already gathered followers and acclaim.  “During my years as an apprentice, I was able to test out a whole variety of different glazes, and I eventually discovered new and interesting combinations and patterns. That experience informs my work today,” he explains.

Kumamoto’s pieces are of course practical and easy to use, but above even practicality, he prides himself on creating works that “are beautiful enough to stand up to artistic criticism on their own terms.”