Masakazu Kusakabe
This is how Masakazu Kusakabe describes his work:
I always consider Japanese traditional culture when I do my work. The history of ceramics, the flow of change, and local specialities are
also very important.
I use five principles when I work:
1. Having a “Friendly and Lovely” shape, welcoming shape and texture, when we look and touch. Accepting it like our beautiful body.
Comfortable to touch or handle and its weight.
2. The shape of “Powerful and Wild Feelings”. The Kamakura era, Momoyama era and the Samurai spirits produce designs that are
sharp, succinct and are powerful to touch, like a tool or a saber.
3. The materials of the earth, “Nature, Land, Mountains, and Rocks”, the feeling of time in nature through rocks, crystals and jewels.
4.The shape of “Historical feelings or ancestry” to sense the memories and the goodness of an old shape through the piece.
5. The feeling of a “Romantic and Fantastic” space, to feel the prose or poetry through the piece and observe the mysterious colours,
shapes and materials.
For me the kiln is a part of the universe. Inside is the big bang where bright firelight, galaxies, and stars (my pieces) are born.
Firing is like the explosion of a volcano, and my pieces are like its lava rock. Pottery is like alchemy, we can create many jewels with
clay, flames, and ash? I am the servant of a fire god.
Masakazu Kusakabe
