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YOSHIKAWA MASAMICHI AT THE MASTER CLASS. PHOTO: BRAD BONAR – TAASA Review June 2014

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This article was originally found in the June 2014 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 23, Issue 2, Page 24).

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moment, with the reverberations of an ancient voice: the voice of the one who had made that clay vessel, in either the Yayoi or Jomon eras.

Later in the master classes, Yoshikawa referred to the impressions of lines and points made with sharp instruments into the ancient clay, each impression made over a thousand years ago and representing a moment in the life of its creator.

This paralleled Yoshikawa’s own creative process, alive in the impression of each of his fingerprints on the asymmetrical surface of a tea bowl. When beginning to create maketo (the Japanese term for ‘object ceramics’, or ceramics that have non-utilitarian shapes), we were told to begin by imagining a castle or ruin, either visited or seen in a dream...