Yusuke Wakasa

Yusuke Wakasa’s various pieces have one key element in common: they showcase the rich range of textures clay can create.

His ibushi, or smoked, works resemble ancient earthenware pieces brought up from the ground, while his the matte black of his kuronibiyu, or “piercing black”, pieces takes on a metallic gleam in the right light. Wakasa’s other work, too, allows the natural, varied texture of the clay they are made of to shine through in all its glory, unsmoothed and untamed.

“I want the people looking at or using my pieces to feel the essence of the material that is clay,” Wakasa says. “I aim to create works that are both sufficient as objects of display and which, when put to use, invite the user to consider the full range of what that might entail.”

Wakasa was born in 1978 in Hiroshima.

His maternal grandfather, a dentist by trade, was also something of an amateur potter. After World War II, his grandfather moved to Etajima, a small island in Japan’s Inland Sea belonging to Hiroshima Prefecture, to become the only dentist in that community.

Through his dental work, Wakasa’s grandfather came into contact with specialized ceramics, which in turn kindled an interest in more artistic pottery. While his involvement with the art was never more than a hobby, it was one of intense dedication, to the point that he eventually bought a kiln of his own.

Growing up in Hiroshima, young Yusuke went to visit his grandfather fairly often. He was introduced to ceramics in his late teens, and steadily became enamored of the art.

Even as he graduated high school and entered the working world, Wakasa kept up his ceramics habit, browsing books, magazines and the internet for tips throughout the week and heading to his grandfather’s each weekend to polish his skills. But Wakasa never mustered up the resolve to make pottery his profession, at least until later.

When Wakasa was 21, his grandfather’s health failed, and he was unable to visit Etajima each weekend as he had been. He was of course worried about his grandfather. But Wakasa also found himself missing access to the kiln, and began to ache for the feel of clay under his fingers. His passion for the art thus confirmed, Wakasa resolved once and for all to make a career in ceramics.

When he was 22, Wakasa began a two-year course in ceramics at the Nara College of Arts, which taught him the fundamentals of ceramics. After graduation, he continued to broaden his artistic profile, spending another half-year at a glassmaking school in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Wakasa knew from his previous self-study that ceramics and glass have certain commonalities. It occurred to him that one might be able to incorporate the unique feel of glass into pieces of pottery.

“I wanted to learn how to create textures that weren’t available from ceramics, and wondered if methods for processing the surface of glass might be useful,” Wakasa says.

His signature kuronibiyu and yoka-kesho, or “melted makeup” series, in fact, draw heavily on the glassmaking knowledge Wakasa acquired during this period.

After Wakasa had studied glass for a time, an acquaintance introduced him to Masayuki Imai, a ceramics master who, like Wakasa, hailed from Hiroshima, and an apprenticeship was arranged. Imai is best known as the first to succeed at what he termed men-zogan, or plane-inlay work, in which a design carved into the face of a piece is filled with clays of other colors, fitted together like pieces of a puzzle to cover a surface. This requires a great deal of skill and dexterity, not least because various clays contract to differing degrees in the kiln, creating cracks or gaps if precautions are not taken.

The six years Wakasa spent living and working with Imai kept him extremely busy. Imai typically takes in three or four apprentices at a time. But Wakasa had only one fellow apprentice during his tenure. Precisely because of this, he assisted his master with every step of the ceramics process, from mixing clay to the final firing – an exceedingly valuable learning experience.

This of course enhanced Wakasa’s fundamentals – the preparation of glaze, for example, or how to create particular expressions in clay. But Imai’s stoic approach to his work also rubbed off on his apprentice.

At the age of 32, Wakasa struck out on his own. For his workshop, he chose his grandfather’s house on Etajima – a site rich with memory.

“It might not necessarily be the best place to create ceramics. But I decided to set up my workshop here in part in a nod to my grandfather, the one who led me to ceramics in the first place. I thought to myself, though it isn’t particularly well set up to make pottery, this is where I want to stay and immerse myself in the challenges that await,” Wakasa says.

He is confronting new challenges and embarking on new journeys still.