富本憲吉

Born in Andochō Higashiando, Ikoma-gun, Nara prefecture on June 5, 1886 (Meiji 19). Kenkichi became the family head upon his father’s death when he was 11. After graduating from Kōriyama Middle School in 1904 (Meiji 37), he entered the Design Department of Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō (Tokyo Fine Arts School, present-day Tokyo University of the Arts). After two years in that department he majored in architecture and interior design. He was taught Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) by Kawabata Gyokushō, Western-style painting by Okada Saburōsuke, and architecture by Ōsawa Sannosuke, Okada Shin’ichirō, and others. While a student he joined the Mandorin Dōkokai group at the urging of Iwamura Tōru, and there interacted with Foujita Tsuguharu, Minami Kunzō, Morita Kamenosuke, and others. In 1907 (Meiji 40) he entered a stained glass design in the drafting division of The National Industrial Exposition, where it was granted “nyūsen” (selected) status. In 1908 (Meiji 41), he submitted his graduation work “Design for a Musician’s Cottage” (1908, Tokyo University of the Arts) early, and departed for self-funded study in London. After his graduation the following year he attended night school at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London from March through June. He studied the practical techniques of stained glass making and spent his days visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum, London where he sketched collection works. While in London he became interested in William Morris and James Abbot McNeill Whistler. After returning to Japan he wrote a series of articles “Uiriam Moris no hanashi” (The Story of William Morris) (note 1) which were an extremely meaningful early introduction of Morris in Japan. As an assistant to Niinomi Takamasa on a survey of Islamic architecture, he traveled with Niinomi from London to India, and there was able to view chintz fabrics and Hindu sculpture. In 1910 (Meiji 43), he became friends with the painter Reginald Turvey on the ship returning to Japan, and through Turvey, was introduced to Bernard Leach in Japan. The following year an invitation from Morita led him to participate in a tea gathering along with Leach, and there he became interested in Raku ware. He visited the National Industrial Exposition in the Ueno district of Tokyo with Leach, and there they painted pictures on the Raku wares in Horikawa Kōzan’s shop. That same year he displayed watercolors, woodblock prints from his own carved blocks, and Raku ware works at the “Small Works by Promising Artists Exhibition Organized by Bijutsu Shinpō”, held from April 16–30 at the Yeghi photo studio and Gorakuden in Kyōbashi, Tokyo. In May 1911 (Meiji 44), he left Tokyo, set up a studio in his home in Ando, and there produced woodblock prints, textiles, embroideries, and leather smallgoods. While staying at the Leach home in Tokyo in October, he acted as Leach’s interpreter when Leach entered the studio of Urano Shigekichi (Kenzan VI). This experience stimulated his own interest in pottery and in February 1913 (Taishō 2), he built and operated his own Raku ware kiln behind his house. He entered an embroidered “han’eri” and other works in the “Gendai Taika Shōgeijutsuhin Tenrankai” (Lesser Arts by Great Contemporary Artists Exhibition) (Nihombashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo) held that same month, along with “Bowl, Raku ware, pattern of plum blossoms with two nightingales” (1912, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). In 1914 (Taishō 3) he married Otake Kazue (Kōkichi), a member of the Seitō (Bluestockings) group. He also experimented with glost firing (“honyaki”) and in 1915 built a kiln for firing such works (“hongama”), as well as a residence and studio near his Ando home. In 1919 (Taishō 8), Hamada Shōji introduced Kondō Yūzō to Tomimoto and he became Tomimoto’s assistant. In order to raise funds he held distribution parties, presented works in a duo exhibition with his wife at Ryūitsusō (aka Ruisseau) in Kanda, Tokyo, and held solo exhibitions at the Nojima Yasuzō residence. Yanagi Sōetsu, Asakawa Noritaka, and others visited him in Ando, and their growing close friendship led to their cooperation with an exhibition of Joseon dynasty ceramics at the Korean Folk Crafts Museum in Seoul (then Keijo) from October 5th through 7th. Later his name was linked with Yanagi, Kawai Kanjirō, and Hamada in the 1926 drafting of the “Prospectus for the Establishment of Japan Folk Crafts Museum.” In 1926 (Taishō 15), the family moved to Tokyo for their daughter’s education, and in 1927 they moved into a new house in Chitose-mura, (present-day Kami-soshigaya, Setagaya-ku). Tomimoto built a kiln next door. That same year he displayed more than 200 works in a retrospective exhibition in the Western Painting Division of the Sixth Kokuga Sōsaku Kyōkai (National Painting Creation Association) Exhibition (April 23 -May 15, Tokyo Prefectural Art Museum). He became a member of the Kokuga Sōsaku Kyōkai. The following year he helped establish its Crafts Division, served as a judge of the works submitted by the public, and displayed his own works. In 1935 (Shōwa 10) he was elected a new member of the Teikoku Bijutsuin (Imperial Fine Arts Academy), but then resigned the following year. Around this time he was staying at the kiln of Kitade Tōjirō, where he diligently studied overglaze enamel porcelain production. In 1937 (Shōwa 12), the Teikoku Geijutsuin (Imperial Art Academy) management system was established and he was appointed a member. That year, he served as a judge for the Fourth Division (Crafts) of the First Shin-bunten Exhibition (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition) and later entered a succession of works in those annual exhibitions. In 1944 (Shōwa 19), he was appointed a professor at the Tokyo Fine Arts School and held the same position at Kōgei Gijutsu Kōshūjo (Craft Techniques Training School). In 1945 he was evacuated to Hida Takayama along with the students. He survived the war and continued his artistic production. In 1946 (Shōwa 21) he resigned from his professorship at Tokyo Fine Arts School as well as his Teikoku Geijutsuin membership. He closed his Tokyo kiln and returned to Ando. He resigned from the Kokugakai, and the following year he joined the Shinshō Bijutsu Kōgeikai, a group formed by fellow Kokugakai members who resigned with him. Around this time he borrowed space in the home of Shōfū Eiichi in the Kiyomizu district of Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, and there he made works in Shōfū’s kilns and those of Kondō Yūzō, Yamada Tetsu, Suzuki Kiyoshi, Tenbō Takehiko, and others. He used the kiln of Morino Kakō for his production of “aka-e” overglaze polychrome enamel wares. In 1949 (Shōwa 24) he was appointed a visiting professor at the Kyoto City Technical School of Art (present-day Kyoto City University of Arts) and moved to Kyoto. In 1950 he was appointed a professor at that school’s successor, the Kyoto City University of Arts, where he fostered later generations of artists. In 1955 (Shōwa 30) he was named the first Holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property for Overglaze Porcelains and became a member of the Japan Kōgei Association which was founded that year. Starting in 1951 he displayed a succession of works in the Nihon Dentō Kōgeiten exhibitions (Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition). In 1961 (Shōwa 36) he was awarded the Order of Culture. In 1962 he received a Silver Prize for his “Ornamental Octagonal Porcelain Box with Four-petal Flower Design in Overglaze Enamels, Gold and Silver” (whereabouts unknown) when it was displayed in the Third International Ceramic Exhibition in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In May 1963 (Shōwa 38) he was chosen as the president of Kyoto City University of Arts, but then he died of lung cancer on June 8, 1963. While Tomimoto himself spoke of his career as having three periods — Yamato period (1913–1926), Tokyo period (1926–1946), and Kyoto period (1946–1963) — it should be noted that these divisions start after he began ceramic work and are nothing more than divisions based on his change of production locale. At first Tomimoto studied design and he became popular after his return from London for his magazine illustrations and book design. Tomimoto’s approach to drafting and designs changed around 1913, when he embraced the question, “I want to hear that the designs are not traced from something, but rather, were created with some actual feeling.” And “My designs today and what are normally called designs may look extremely similar on the surface, but they might be far apart in their internal thought.” Thus he spouted his “unease regarding designs.” (note 2) While he stayed with Leach that summer he did not use the standard practice of the day, rearranging existing design motifs, but rather he is said to have observed the scenery, plants, and other things in his immediate vicinity, repeatedly sketching, and simplifying motifs as a creative means of producing new designs and motifs for his own works. Representative examples of the designs created from this sketching from nature include his pomegranate, moonlit night in a bamboo grove, and winding path designs. Tomimoto’s formation of his artist image was greatly influenced by his own symbolic statements of his artistic stance, such as, “I will not create patterns from patterns” (note 3), as well as the fact that he was considered an important presence in discussions of originality in ceramics as an art form, such as Inui Yoshiaki’s comment, “In the field of crafts, until Tomimoto Kenkichi appeared, there were almost no artists who were conscious of or pursued this central issue in modern art.” (note 4) On the other hand, it has been indicated that because the designs derived from his sketching from nature were in the end repeated drawing on flat surfaces, there was little link with the strongly three-dimensional form of a ceramic vessel. Further as Tomimoto produced white porcelain works he reconsidered the shape of his ceramic vessels as three-dimensional forms, and he began to use compositional motifs, such as four-petal flower motifs and fern designs, that followed the vessel form (note 5). Starting around the 1930s Tomimoto’s works began to incorporate classic ceramic vessel motif compositions such as twisted designs and framed pictures. Later Tomimoto commented on his own designs based on sketching, “Knowing ceramic vessel techniques as I do now, I would not have had to continue my suffering, wandering around the hills and fields drawing such things.” He went on to note, “fundamentally designs have a different starting point from painting’s pursuit of nature and planar expression somehow distanced from the three-dimensional. Also because of the limitations of the materials, and as a result of my spending long years in extreme simplification, division, repetition, additions, and fusions, I think it is important to consider that I have an extremely large number of compositional factors.” (note 6) Tomimoto continued to be interested in the mass production of vessels for everyday use, and during his Tokyo period he visited kiln sites in Shigaraki, Hasami, Mashiko, Seto, and Kyoto where he painted images on ready-made raw surfaces to make mass-produced works. During his Kyoto period Tomimoto delegated everything from sample making to raw ground production, painting, and firing to workers, and thus mass-produced works as commercial products, including products signed “Heiangama” at the Heian Tōen, and products signed “Tomisen” at Yasaka Kōgei. (Miyagawa Tomomi / Translated by Martha J. McClintock) (Published online: 2024-03-25) Notes 1. Parts 1 and 2, “Bijutsu Shinpō” Vol. 11, Nos. 4 and 5, September and October 1912. 2. Letter 54, dated November 6, 1923, in ‘Tomimoto Kenkichi’s Letters to Minami Kunzō,’ “Yamato Bijutsu Shiryō” Vol. 3, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 74–76. 3. Tomimoto Kenkichi, ‘Seitō Yogen,’ “Seitō Yoroku,” Reprint edition in new binding, Bunka Publishing Bureau, 1975, first edition, 1940, p. 114. 4. Inui Yoshiaki, ‘Tomimoto Kenkichi no Tanjō,’ Inui Yoshiaki, ed., “Tomimoto Kenkichi, Yakimono no Bi, Gendai Nihon Tōgei Zenshū,” Vol. 3, 1980, p. 88. 5. Daichō Tomohiro, ‘Yamato Jidai Kōki ni Okeru Tomimoto Kenkichi no Geijutsu — “Tomimoto Kenkichi Moyōshū” (1924, 26, 27) wo Chūshin ni’ (The Art of Tomimoto Kenkichi in the late Yamato period: The Primacy of the Tomimoto Kenkichi Pattern Collection), “Dezain Riron” No. 44, May 2004, pp. 47–62. 6. Tomimoto Kenkichi, “Tomimoto Kenkichi Waga Tōkizukuri,” Ribun Shuppan, 2019, pp. 247, 252.