School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk


Display artist/maker:

Masakazu Kusakabe

Born: 1946, Japan, Fukushima Prefecture, Miharu

Ceramicist. As a young man, Kusakabe read ‘Yakimono Zuihitsu’ by the ceramic artist Toukurou Katou and was deeply moved by seeing his exhibition at a department store in Nagoya. From that point, Kusakabe became interested in ceramics. Soon after he built a wood kiln and began producing Raku ware.

From the 1970s, Kusakabe experimented with various wood fire kilns until 1983 when he built an anagama kiln. Two years after this, he built his first studio in his native Miharu, naming it Yuuhoutoubou. Since the 1990s Kusakabe has built a series of ‘Dancing Fire Wood Kilns’ during international exchanges, mainly in the USA.

Kusakabe’s work is presented in hand painted wooden boxes which are an integral part of the ceramic piece. In 2009 he was a demonstrator at the International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth. He co-wrote ‘Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics’ (Krause Publications, 2005) with Mark Lancet.

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

Tea Bowl type 1 C1620 Ceramics




 
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