Hikaru Yamada
Hikaru Yamada (Japanese: 山田光）(1923-2001) was a Japanese ceramicist, known for co-founding the Young Potter-maker's Collective in Kyoto and the avant-garde ceramic group Sōdeisha (Crawling through Mud Association). During the course of his career, Yamada's oeuvre evolved considerably, beginning with more functional ceramic vessels and moving on to experiment with non-functional or anti-functional works. By the latter half of the 20th century, however, his style had become far more abstract, with a focus on flat ceramic sculptures. Early life and education The son of a Buddhist priest, Yamada was born on December 23, 1923 in Asagaya in Tokyo. To avoid the aftermaths of the Great Kanto Earthquaqke, the family moved to Gifu City, a ceramic center in Japan. He graduated from the Department of Ceramics at Kyoto Higher Polytechnic School (now the Kyoto Institute of Technology) in 1945. Kyoto and Sōdeisha While in Kyoto, Yamada met fellow ceramicist Kazuo Yagi through Yagi's father Issō, a renowned ceramicist. In 1946, Yamada and the young Yagi founded the Young Potters' Collective (青年作陶家集団), while still making more functional vessels and continuing to actively enter his work at the national and local salons, namely Nitten and Kyoten respectively. Two years later, in July 1948, Yamada and Yagi, along with ceramicists Osamu Suzuki, Tetsu Kano, and Yoshisuke Matsui formed the avant-garde ceramic group Sōdeisha (translated as "The Crawling through Mud Association). Sōdeisha sought to move beyond the formal limitations of functional ceramic vessels, experimenting with creating a symbiotic fusion of materiality and form, as well as abstraction and creative adaptation of "traditional" ceramic forms. Yamada's work, too, changed during his affiliation with Sōdeisha. By the 1950s, he shifted away from functional vessels, and instead featured narrow, nonfunctional openings. As the years went on, these openings closed altogether, as he began to favor diverse use of shapes and glazes over functionality. His works, together with those by his peers of Sōdeisha, became known internationally and were shown in such international exhibitions as the 1962 Prague International Ceramics Exhibition and the 1972 Faenza International Ceramics Exhibition. In 1961, he received the Japan Ceramic Society Award (日本陶磁協会賞受). Many of his works produced in the latter half of the twentieth century featured flat, rectangular pieces that acted as frames of sorts, featuring round or smaller rectangular perforations that created a viewing experience he referred to as a 'borrowed landscape.' These perforations, often containing smaller moveable pieces, or, in some cases, small balls of clay, allowed viewers to see through his work and perceive the space beyond through a new lens. They create a juxtaposition between the three-dimensional landscape and this two-dimensional deconstruction of the organic and inorganic materials that comprise landscape scenes. Later years In 1979, Yamada became a professor at Osaka University of Arts. During this time, his artistic style changed as he began experimenting with different materials, including black ceramic and palladium silver. This shift in materials was in part a response to the death that year of Yagi, with whom Yamada had remained close throughout the course