Artist Spotlight: Kōshin-gama
I think our strong point is that we are human, that our products are made by people with names and faces.
From our first contact I knew I had found something special.
“I can sense your passion,” the response began, “and I think the idea can work. There aren’t many online stores interested in more than just making sales, and fewer from Japan that reach overseas.”
I had sent out an overly long and complicated pitch to nearly a hundred artists, retailers, museums, universities, and online publications – anyone in Japan who knew anything about traditional ceramics.
Only four responded.
On the other end of this connection was 26-year-old Yūta Kōzuru, the youngest of a three-generation family pottery shop, Kōshin-gama, in Fukuoka Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu. His thoughts aligned with my plan for an ecommerce platform focused on the artists – he seemed to get what I was describing, and it was a much-needed validation for me that the concept had potential.
Little did I know this mild-mannered young artist was writing to me from Agano Village, home to one of the most celebrated pottery styles in Japanese history. And without yet realizing it, I had found my first supplier-partner.
“If you can tell the stories behind the products, you can really differentiate yourself and chart a new path. I’d like to help.”
A Hundred Years in Hand
Kōshin-gama was founded in 1971 when Chizan Kōzuru began construction of a woodfired kiln in the backyard of his home in Agano, a small pottery enclave hidden in the foothills of Mount Fukuchi about ten miles southwest of the city of Kitakyushu. He started commercial production the following year, slowly established a solid footing, and ultimately brought both his son, Kyōichi, and grandson, Yūta, into the business as artisans. Together, the family has built the shop into one of the leading makers of Agano-ware in western Japan.
In that time, this obscure, unassuming family business has quietly accumulated a number of impressive accolades. Chizan was bestowed with the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the emperor of Japan for his contributions to the preservation of Japanese history and tradition. Kyōichi holds numerous national and regional awards and has been selected sixteen times as an exhibitor at the Nitten Fine Arts Exhibition, the country’s oldest and most prestigious arts and crafts show held annually at the National Art Center in Tokyo.
The Kōzuru pottery roots go back over a hundred years to 1899, when Chizan’s uncle, Mankichi, and a group of fellow revivalists first restored one of Agano’s ancient kilns. Despite its meteoric rise to prominence in the early 17th century as one of Japan’s premier teaware styles, the Agano tradition had foundered in the political, economic, and social chaos of the Meiji era and eventually died out. Mankichi and his group were simply hoping to rekindle production on a local scale until the economy stabilized and national demand returned.
Today, Kōshin-gama is one of a handful of active producers in Fukuoka fighting to keep the Agano style strong in its second life, the success of which will ultimately depend on reinvigorating Japanese interest – especially that of younger generations – in their own national products. Yūta is optimistic:
“I think people are getting tired of products that can be bought anywhere in the world, and they’re not interested anymore in what everyone else already has. They want to find things that are important to them personally and that align with their values, so we have to ensure that our products are attractive to them in this way.”
It’s hard to imagine how the family can miss given the quality and variety of their ceramics. Each piece is amazingly lightweight, the colors and patterns at the same time strikingly simple and enchantingly complex. In true shokunin fashion, everything is made on-site from raw ingredients. Kyōichi and Yūta painstakingly dig, wash, and temper their own clay and mix all their glazes from plants and other natural materials found in the area.
Glazes are Kōshin-gama’s specialty. Their distinctive verdigris, a deep blue-green made from oxidized copper, has been a signature of the Agano style for over 200 years. Dozens of other colors, like the brilliant shinsha pink that mimics natural cimarron, are Kōshin-gama’s own and not found anywhere else.
Kamataki
Consistently turning out high-quality ceramics takes a meticulous production process as well as a good measure of luck. “Especially with kamataki, where we use the woodfired kiln, the finish of products of the same clay, with the same glaze, and all baked at the same time can turn out quite different,” Yūta explains.
Essentially a large walk-in oven, the traditional kamataki kiln is an intense, chaotic environment that situates pottery and burning wood in the same space. Products are exposed to temperatures over 1,200 degrees Celsius and experience uneven heat, shifting drafts, and floating ash that adheres to curing glaze. These and other factors affect each piece differently, and together they can cause spectacular variations in colors and patterns from one to the next.
Having been born into an artistic family in an artisan community, Yūta grew up with a keen appreciation of individuality. “Most of Agano's kilns are run by their families. When I was small, my personality was shaped in an environment where things were created by hand,” he reflects. “Kamataki is an unpredictable process. After firing we’re never exactly sure what we’ll find, but this is part of the excitement. What we can guarantee is that every piece will be one-of-a-kind.”
Know the Old, Seek the New
To be successful as a business, though, products have to sell, and this is especially challenging in an industry steeped in tradition that must continually evolve to appeal to modern tastes. As the successor to his grandfather’s legacy, Yūta is already concerned with how the brand can attract younger customers while retaining its essential, defining connection to the past:
“Kōshin-gama’s guiding philosophy is ‘know the old, seek the new.’ Our approach to integrating traditional and modern styles is to create three types of ceramics: products based directly on the Agano-ware tradition, those that are in demand now, and those we make purely for the sake of art.”
This last group is not intended for sale, leaving Kyōichi and Yūta freedom to explore without being bound by tradition or under pressure to make those pieces profitable.
Partitioning production in this way yields three distinct product groups that give father and son a lot of options for how to balance traditional, modern, and innovative elements. “It’s not enough to produce art, though,” Yūta cautions. “People must be able to use our ceramics, so we always design from a basis of product utility. Yes, we want beautiful products, but I’m happiest when we can make things that are equally beautiful and practical. This was the hope of our ancestors when they created the Agano style.”
A Matter of Respect
Agano-ware was designed to be lightweight and delicate from its conception, as these qualities perfectly complemented the artistry, grace, and formality of the tea ceremony. This complex and fascinating ritual has served many purposes throughout Japanese history, one of which was to help bring adversaries together to resolve conflicts by providing a diplomatic environment of mutual trust and respect.
The zenith of prominence of the tea ceremony arguably came at the turn of the 17th century, the end of one of Japan’s most violent and chaotic periods that had seen nearly 150 years of continuous civil war. This was also the age of Sen-no-Rikyū and Kobori Enshū, two of the nation’s greatest tea masters who were influential in the diplomacy that helped end the fighting and reunify the country. Not coincidentally, it was in this transitional period – a time when tea could facilitate harmony between bitter enemies – that the Agano ceramics tradition was born.
Japanese still believe that routine use of tableware that demands careful handling reinforces good manners and engenders respect toward the people with whom it is shared. Having watched cheap stoneware produced en masse by machines in China inundate his own country’s ceramics market, however, Yūta is concerned that the converse of this vital connection between tableware and respect may also be true:
“We believe things made by people should be treated with great care. Mass-produced ceramics that are hard to break may get your business more sales, especially from restaurants and hotels. But on an individual level, if the pottery does not break, it will naturally not be handled gently, and the culture of politeness and respect for other people will change.”
Tomorrow’s Winds
Running a successful business can be an overwhelming challenge for anyone. As caretakers of an ancient, living art, Kyōichi, Yūta, and their fellow Agano artisans must also carry the fate of four hundred years of Agano ceramics tradition on their shoulders into an uncertain future.
But there is a Japanese idiom that reassures “tomorrow’s winds will blow tomorrow,” a beautiful phrase that encourages us to be hopeful about what lies ahead and to resist being consumed by the doubts and fears of today.
“It’s up to us to keep sending the message that traditional craft items can enrich our lives and help us to appreciate each other,” Yūta realizes, “and the best way to do this is by continually improving the beauty and utility of our ceramics. I want to contribute that value to our community and our world.”