Kawai Kanjirō (河井 寛次郎, 24 August 1890 - 18 November 1966) was a Japanese potter and a key figure in mingei (Japanese folk art) and studio pottery movements, which included his friends Bernard Leach, Shōji Hamada and Kenkichi Tomimoto.
Becoming interested in pottery as a child by watching a nearby farmer who made pottery in his spare time, Kawai-san knew by the age of 16 that he wanted to become a potter. Kanjirō graduated from the Tokyo Higher Polytechnical School in 1914 and worked briefly at the Kyoto Research Institute for Ceramics. Disillusioned with what he felt was an unnecessarily excessive focus on studying theory at both schools, in 1920 he built his own kiln in Kyoto (a climbing kiln "noborigama") "the Shokeiyo, with eight chambers, began the "Kawai Factory" and began to give exhibitions.
As a potter he sought to combine modern methods of manufacture with traditional Japanese and English designs. He was also an artist, calligrapher, sculptor, writer and philosopher. As a man who respected the dignity of simplicity and collected the works of poor craftspeople from all over Asia, he admired "ordered poverty" and had a profound love for the unpretentious men of the soil and made their simplicity a part of himself. His pots come in many asymmetrical shapes and show expressionistic techniques such as tsutsugaki (slip-trailed decoration), ronuki (wax-resist) or hakeme (white slip).
Kanjirō refused all official honours, including the designation of Living National Treasure, and his pots were unsigned. His pieces are on display in the Folk Art Museum of Tokyo and each year, the Takashimaya Department Store had an exhibition of his work in their Tokyo and Osaka shops. In November 1953, Kawai-san had one of his biggest exhibitions. It was at the Korin Kaku in Tokyo and over 500 of his pieces were shown.[1]
Kawai-san taught Claude Laloux in the fifties and although he used to use the chemical glazes of Europe, he returned to nature, "to the science that precedes all science - and a return to nature was my salvation". A master of glazes, the ones that he came to mix most often himself were the hues of nature themselves; warm red copper (shinsha or yuriko - one of his trademark colors), rich brown iron (tetsu-yu), chrome and cobalt (gosu).[1]
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His house (restored in 1937) in Gojozaka, Kyoto is now a museum run by his living relatives. Besides a display of his ceramics, some of his sculpture and woodcarvings are included in the collection. His house incorporates both Japanese and Western living styles, so one can see both tansu and tatami and also some Western furnishings. His studio and noborigama kiln are to the rear of the museum. The firing lasted 48 hours and consumed over 2,000 bundles of firewood. The interior temperature reached 1350 Celsius.
Like his lifelong friend Hamada, Kawai never signed his work but said, "My work itself is my best signature." There is no mistaking his distinctive style.
Kawai-san was also a poet and like his pottery, his writing is strong and unconventional. In 1953, a book entitled "We Do Not Work Alone" was published.
"The pledge of fire: To return to all things purified."
"Everything that is, is not. Everything is, yet at the same time, nothing is. I myself am the emptiest of all."
"When you become so absorbed in your work that beauty flows naturally then your work truly becomes a work of art."
"Any work of art belongs to everyone, because it is whatever each person sees in it." "It is the same with people. We are all one. I am you. The you that only I can see."[1]