Tsubusa Kato

Kato-san was born in 1962 into a family with a history of pottery making that stretches back to the Japanese Momoyama Period (1573-1615).

Even though he was not initially interested in ceramics, he decided to pursue pottery making after travelling extensively in his youth. Upon graduating from the Tajimi City Ceramic Design Institute in 1979, Kato entered a studio where he mixed clay and worked on mass-produced pots.

However, within five years, Kato had built his own kiln in Tomika-cho and exhibited at the Asahi Ceramic Art Exposition.

He first came to my attention when I saw his work in a small exhibition held near London Bridge that made me realise that the plagiarist, Edmund de Waal, had copied Kato's work after he returned to England, following his research while writing his book on Bernard Leach. Checking the visitors book, I noticed that Eddie had visited the exhibition on opening night, which confirmed my belief.

Kato always work in porcelain and uses an especially white bodied one that he obtains from New Zealand.

A couple of sake cups by Tsubusa Kato.

He was given his first solo exhibition in 1989 at Savoir Vivre, Tokyo and in the same year moved to Tomika-cho where he built a wood fired kiln. The sake cups above was originally bought from a subsequent solo exhibition at Savoir Vivre in 1993. Since that series of exhibitions he has exhibited elsewhere in Japan as well as Paris, Munich and New York, having solo exhibitions there in 2006 and 2008. In May 2015 a solo exhibition of his work takes place at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.

Below is an image of the foot of one of these sake cups that shows the very white New Zealand sourced porcelain.