Kohyama Yasuhisa

 Kohyama Yasuhisa has traveled, taught, and exhibited his work throughout the world but never wavered in his loyalty to Shigaraki, his town of birth and one of Japan’s longest-established centers of ceramic production. He fires his works for about a week at over 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit to produce the orange-brown color of Shigaraki ware, but then he goes further, firing one or two more times to produce a grayish surface similar to Sueki, an even earlier ash-glazed stoneware made from the fifth century. His sculptures evoke the effect of natural forces on the earth’s surface—in this case, the erosion of a desert rock by wind-borne sand.  The delicate balance of his work shows his mastery of materials along with a lightness that is hard to capture with such rough textures.  The combination of traditional materials and firing process along with the sculptural  forms shows Yahuhisa's dedication to contemporary ceramics.