Yagi Kazuo 八木 一夫

Born in Kyoto, Japan

YAGI KAZUO was the eldest son of ceramist Yagi Issō (1894-73), who excelled at works inspired by Chinese Song Dynasty ceramics. After graduating from the sculpture department of the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts (currently Kyoto City University of Arts), Yagi Kazuo became a student at the Ceramics Research Institute in Kyoto, and in 1946 took part in establishing the Young Pottery-makers' Collective, which was disbanded in mid-1948. Later that year, he co-founded the avant-garde group Sōdeisha as a vehicle for expanding the expressive possibilities of clay.

Yagi focused on the creation of "objects" - neither pure sculpture nor simply vessels. In 1954 at the Form Gallery in Tokyo, he exhibited his now iconic work "Mr. Zamsa's Walk," which marked his radical repositioning of the potter's wheel as a mere mechanical tool instead of the determining factor in the forming process. However, like his Sōdeisha colleagues, Yagi began with utilitarian vessels inspired by modern Western art. In 1962, together with Yamada Hikaru, he established Mon Kōbō ("Corner Workshop"), in which Yamada was responsible for the functional forms and Yagi for the surface patterning.

Yagi was quite comfortable producing sculptural forms and utilitarian vessels simultaneously and respected them equally. He was also the first artist to incorporate smoke-blackened ware into the modern ceramic vocabulary, starting in 1957. This manner of treating the surface allowed the original sharpness of the sculpted clay form to remain visible; moreover, it remained unassociated with any prior Japanese ceramic tradition.

With broad interests in poetry, music, and photography and known for his sarcastic wit and intellect, Yagi inevitably became Sōdeisha's spokesman. Over time, as its central figure Yagi also assumed the mantle of standard-bearer for contemporary ceramic art in postwar Japan.

Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan
Aizawa Art Museum, Japan
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Authur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, Japan

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan

Ikenobo Society of Floral Art, Japan
Kunstmuseum The Hague, The Netherlands
Kyoto Municipal College of Fine Arts, Japan
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo, Japan
Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Japan
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Musée Tomo, Tokyo, Japan
Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy
Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Japan
Rockefeller Foundation, New York, NY
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Scripps College, Claremont, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Takamatsu City Art Museum, Japan
Tokoname City Board of Education, Japan
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

Yagi Kazuo 八木 一夫 1918-1979

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Yagi Kazuo 八木一夫 1918-1979