The Art of Sasayama Tadayasu —Seeking Possibilities of Ceramic Modernism

By Inui Yoshiaki​

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Sasayama Tadayasu was born in Shigaraki in 1939, a town with a long history of pottery production dating from the Kamakura period. His father was a master of joinery. Sasayama embarked on the course that led him to enter the field of ceramics when he entered Gifu Prefectural Tajimi Industrial High School in 1954. At the time, this was one of the top schools in Japan for studying ceramic design and production techniques. Sasayama was able to enter the school upon the recommendation of the Shigaraki Pottery Promotion Council, and he studied there for three years. After graduation, he went to work for a local Shigaraki pottery wholesaler, at the same time continuing to polish his skills at the Shigaraki Ceramic Research Laboratory and the Kyoto Ceramic Training Center. As he became familiar with the circle of young ceramic artists active in Kyoto at the time, Sasayama felt his interest being pulled strongly away from the traditional tea ware of Shigaraki and toward the avant garde ceramic art that was being created by artists like the founders of the Sodeisha movement: Yagi Toshizo, Suzuki Osamu, Yamada Hikaru, and others. In 1967, at the suggestion of Hirano Toshizo, the Director of the Shigaraki Ceramic Research Laboratory, Sasayama joined Sodeisha and submitted a work to the Sodeisha exhibtion for the first time.

 

Although many artists were active in Sodeisha at the time, Yagi Kazuo was the one Sasayama particularly admired. Yagi was experimenting with black ware during this period, but aside from forms and techniques, Sasayama was impressed with Yagi's approach to his work. Yagi believed in eliminating wasteful elements as much as possible in creating works of quiet tranquility. In contrast to Yagi's concentrated work, Sasayama proposed an exploration of “planes.” He emphasized “planes” in his work, and constructed combinations of planes that formed whole sculptural forms. Some of these works are masterpieces such as “Signpost of Wind” (1979), a series of slabs stacked in succession on a square pedestal; many are large slabs that stand vertically, connected like folding screens. These screens naturally posses a painting-like character, but by varying the material quality of the clay slabs, or innovating different decorative techniques such as his meticulous “drop pattern,” Sasayama places these works in a world unique to ceramic art.

 

Works from Sasayama's screen series were first exhibited at the Sodeisha exhibition after Yagi's death. Evoking the constructivist movement in modern art, these works gradually came to be appreciated by critics and ceramic artists. From the mid-1980s, Sasayama's works began to use more slabs in various combinations, developing into three-dimensional constructions incorporating interior space. It can be said that a certain kind of “architecture” is born from the intricate relationship between the ceramic slabs. In fact, it was around this period that he made a number of “houses,” enclosed by walls on three sides and From the mid- 1980s, Sasayama's works began to use more slabs in various combinations, developing into three-dimensional constructions incorporating interior space. It can be said that a certain kind of “architecture” is born from the intricate relationship between the intricate relationship between the ceramic slabs. In fact it was around this period that he made a number of “houses,” enclosed by walls on three sides and topped with triangular roofs.

 

In this way, progressing from “screen” to “house,” “plane” to “space,” the scope of Sasayama's work broadened exponentially. The expression and construction of his work have continuously been invested with the conceptual aesthetic of modernist sculpture. At the same time, however, Sasayama takes full advantage of the techniques he mastered in his youth and his deep knowledge of clay, pigments, and glazes to create work full of beauty and fascination, work that only could be accomplished in ceramic art. It is precisely for this reason that the acute sensibility of modern art and the reassuring aesthetics of tradition are able to coexist in his work.

 

In 1990, Sasayama built a wood-fired anagama near his studio, “I tried to work my whole life railing against the comfort and romance of fire and clay. But recently, I found myself wanting to lean on fire and clay,” he said of his reason for building the kiln. After spending his career concentrating on creating sculptural ceramics, in his fifties Sasayama felt the urge to reexamine tradition. The first result of this exploration came the next year, 1991, with his solo exhibition “Unintentional Form.” The works in this exhibition were all simple forms, combinations of cylinders, cubes, and rectangular forms. The surfaces wore a variety of expressions, with beautiful red flashing and natural ash glaze. Until now, Sasayama's work had broadened outward, from plane to space. Here, he directed it back inward, transforming his work into bold forms with a powerful sense of presence. His anagama-fired work did not stop at traditional Japanese expressions of clay texture and ash glaze, but went in another direction as an attempt to achieve significant changes in the way the work existed within space. So as not to “learn on” fire and clay, Sasayama himself seems to be using the anagama as little as possible, but in any case, his forms since this time have been extremely simple rectangular shapes, cones, or combinations of these. In recent years, while emphasizing the color and texture of the clay, he has elevated the forms into mid-air by giving them metal legs, or grouped them into various combinations.

 

His recent works “Four Cubes” and “Ring of Cubes” are representative of such combinations. Simple recntangular or cube forms, while exhibiting beauty and power on their own, are combined into groups to create a space in motion. The metal legs attached to each form float them into the air ot make them seem even lighter. In this way, Sasayama's recent work fuses stillness and motion, presence and space to create a large-scale “environment” that is rarely achieved in ceramic art.

 

Sasayama Tadayasu's work has evolved in this way, from “plane” to “space,” from “space” to “environment.” In spite of these changes, however, his basic stance has remained constant: to establish his work as sculptural expression in the context of modern art. In this endeavor, Sasayama's work has enjoyed a rich success that is rarely achieved in ceramic art. But many possibilities remain. With this large scale retrospective exhibition as a springing board, I expect much more great work from him in the future.