BIOGRAPHY – SUMMARY

YOSHINORI AKAZAWA (1971- ) : KYOTO-BASED CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

Ceramic, Sculpture, Nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Photography –
Yoshinori Akazawa’s artistic activity is based in Japan but has been exhibited and collected around the world in Italy, Spain, Austria, Tunisia, France, Latvia and many others.

photo by Takashi Hatakeyama 2019 Kyoto 

CV 2023 (PDF)

YOSHINORI AKAZAWA ROSEKI V

Biography

Yoshinori Akazawa was born in 1971 as the eldest son of the 4th Roseki Akazawa. He works and lives in Kyoto, Japan. From 1991 to 1995 he studied Japanese painting at Kyoto City University of Arts, from 1996 to 1997 he studied potter’s wheel and basic ceramic at Kyoto prefectural potter technological special school, and from 1997 to 1998 he studied specialize materials and glaze at the Kyoto Municipal Industrial research institute Industrial Technology Center, Ceramic course. He opened a class for teaching Japanese painting from 2001 to 2014. At the same time, he worked in pottery and produced ceramic works at the pottery studio of his father, Roseki Akazawa IV. Meanwhile, in 2005, he became a member of the Kyoto City University of Arts K.C.U.A/Art Education Society, became an officer of the Kyoto branch. In 2012, he served as a part-time lecturer at the Department of Ceramics at Kyoto City University of Arts, giving practical guidance and slide lectures on Kochi ware techniques. In 2020, he became a Member of Kyoto traditional ceramic artist association. In 2021, he succeeded to Roseki AKAZAWA, the 5th. In 2022, he became a Member of Kyoto Kogei association.

Since visiting Shanghai, China in 1992 as a student, he has visited museums and ruins in India, Thailand, Nepal, Taiwan, London, and Paris. Afterwards, he traveled to Egypt, Switzerland, France, Italy, Monaco, Turkey, Austria, Spain, and Tunisia for research purposes and to participate in international ceramic art exhibitions. His interest in multiple languages may be due to his high IQ. In 2019, he was elected as a member of Mensa Japan. He studied English as his first foreign language until university in Japan. In addition, he took a short course at the British council’s Kyoto branch. He studied French for two years and German for one year at university. He took a short course in French at the Kyoto branch of the French government’s Maison franco-japonaise.

Since the 1990s, he has regularly exhibited at solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, and competitions both in Japan and abroad. His works are included in museums and galleries in Japan and abroad.

A ‘Thinker in Space’

The artist, AKAZAWA Yoshinori, transcends genres, being active in ceramics, nihonga-style painting and photography, both here in Japan and abroad. Born into a family of Kyōyaki potters famous for its Kōchi-ware (Cochin-ware) ceramics, he discovered an affinity existed between the nihonga-style of painting that he studied in university, the beauty of mosaic patterns and the materials used in Kōchi-ware, so he set about combining these various elements in his creative works.

It would appear that many potters specialize in subjects other than ceramics, such as nihonga-style painting or sculpture, while they are in university, but very few of them appear to continue in these fields once they return home to their family businesses. Looked at historically, Kyoto is a place where people and culture are forever coming and going, many famous artisans producing works that surpass the boundaries of their particular field, or entering their field from another type of business. This can be said to also apply to AKAZAWA Yoshinori, who is active simultaneously in more than one field, working positively to break out onto the world stage while creating revolutionary new forms of Kōchi-ware and we look forward to seeing his future development.

This exhibition will feature works that have returned to Japan from open exhibitions abroad. In other words, it will provide the opportunity to see works selected by various people possessing differing aesthetics and values, all in one place. These works, which are a result of combining traditional Kōchi-ware techniques with inspiration acquired overseas, allow us a glimpse of the artist, others, the passage of time and the relationships that exist between different countries. The artist describes this sense, which surpasses time and space, as being that of a ‘thinker in space’, and we have used this as the title for the exhibition. We hope that this exhibition will serve to bring further innovation to the field of Kyōyaki ceramics.

SHIMOMURA Kazuma     

Curator    

Kyoto Ceramic Center     

Yoshinori Akazawa is a Japanese artist.

He was born in 1971 in Japan.

In 1995, He graduated with a BFA in Japanese painting (Nihonga) from Kyoto City University of Arts (Faculty of Fine Arts).

In 1997, he graduated from Kyoto prefectural technological school in Pottery. Following which, in 1998, he graduated from the Ceramics course from Kyoto municipal industrial research institute. His artistic expression ranges from painting to ceramic sculptures.

The basis of his art is inspired and sketched from Nature- the colours, atmosphere, form, and balance.

“In all of my creative work, I emulate Nature, and creative works become and take on a “Natural form”.
 Just as space forms the earth, and it is the art that the earth creates in the form of diamonds and saphires and other jewels forms. My creations clarify both nature and human relations. I create something when I find something that is new in something old.” Yoshinori Akazawa

 Already recognized and widely exhibited in Japan, Akazawa’s works are also gathering fans internationally. His powerful work, People’s Night and Moon (1993) was chosen to grace the cover of Dr. Carone’s Plato’s Cosmology and Its Ethical Dimensions.

On the work, Dr. Carone said,

“I was very struck by the intensity and depth of the painting. It seemed to capture the cosmic dimension and its integration with the human sphere very powerfully. That is why I chose it as a cover of my book: ‘Plato’s Cosmology and Its Ethical Dimensions’. Gabriela Carone”

In addition to his success as a Nihonga painter, Akazawa’s ceramic sculptures are also appreciated with the same fanfare. His ceramic works have been exhibited in Italy, Austria, Spain and Japan and are collected by the Museum of International Ceramics of Faenza, Italy, and KUZ/Kapfenberg Museum, Austria.

Eve Loh Kazuhara