Takegoshi Jun

Exhibitions
- Garden of Color
  The Ceramic Art of Takegoshi Jun 31 Mar - 5 Apr 2006
  
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biography

Born in Ishikawa as the eldest son of Takegoshi Taizan III (1919-1984), a master of kutani ware, Takegoshi Jun succeeded to the traditional techniques inherited from his patrimony. After graduating from Kanazawa College of Art, he began to independently produce ceramics in 1972. He uses the tatara technique, in which thin sheets of clay are cut with metal wire, to create three-dimensional surfaces through layering of the clay sheets. He has devoted himself to producing polychrome enamel porcelain vessels that serve as vehicles for his brilliantly colored and elegantly painted depictions of the natural world.
1948 Born in Ishikawa
1972 Graduated fro Kanazawa College of Art
1974 Entered the Nitten under Kitaide Fujio, judge for the Nitten
1979 Co-founded Shin nihon kōgeika renmei (New Arts and Crafts Artists Association of Japan), won Grand Prize three times. Served as a judge in 1987, 89, 93, and 96
1984 Interviewed and featured in Creating Culture by NHK Kanazawa 1988 Featured in Terebi bijutsukan (TV Art Museum) by Fuji TV
1998 Worked with Tokuda Yasokichi III, Living National Treasure
1999 Became a Member of Conservation Association of Traditional Kutani Ware
Featured in NHK television program, Yakimono tanbō (Ceramic Hunt)
2001 Featured in NHK television program, Shumi Yūyū (Tasteful leisure);
2002 Featured in NHK television program, Nichiyō Bijutsukan (Sunday Museums)
2003 Co-authored the textbooks, Tōgei enshū I & II; Yakimono ni shitashimu (Ceramic Practice I & II: Introduction to Ceramics) to accompany the NHK television series, Shumi Yūyū
2010 Featured in NHK television program, Bi no tsubo (Vessels of Beauty)

Awards:

1986 Awarded the Hakone Open-Air Museum Prize, Asu o hiraku nihon shin kōgei-ten (the Innovative New Arts and Crafts of Japan Exhibition) (also in 1988)
1987 Awarded the Prize for Excellency, Traditional Kutani Ware Exhibition (also Grand Prize in 1991, ‘96 – ‘98)
1990 Awarded the Encouragement Prize, Nitten (also Special Prize in 1991 and ’94)
2002 Awarded the Asahi News Company Prize for Excellence, Nihon dentō kōgeiten (Traditional Japanese Crafts Association Exhibition) (Encouragement Award in 2004)
2009 Awarded the Ishikawa Television Company Prize (for distinguished services to preserve and promote the local culture)

Selected Public Collections:
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Newark Museum, NJ
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Yale University Art Gallery, CT
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanazawa
Imperial Household Collection
Tsurui Museum, Niigata
Takegoshi Jun
bio pt1

Born 1948 in Ishikawa, eldest son of Takegoshi Taizan III (1919-1984), master of kutani ware

A master of kutani glazing, TAKEGOSHI JUN inherited the traditional techniques of his family. As a brilliant painter, he has used them as a stepping-stone to formulate an unrivaled array of colorful glazes that bring his personal kachō (bird-and-flower) imagery to life on his slab-hand-built (tatara) porcelain forms.

As a tall youth, his first passion was basketball and he wanted to become a physical education teacher. However, persuaded by his high school art teacher, he instead enrolled at Kanazawa College of Art to study Japanese traditional painting, or nihonga. Following graduation in 1972, he opened his independent studio. Shortly thereafter, Takegoshi was shown a remarkable ink painting created by a physically challenged right-handed person, forced to paint with his other hand. This painting impressed him with its overpowering presence and led to his realization that every brushstroke must emanate from the heart. So inspired, he set off in search of his own true passion and found it at an exhibition of ko-kutani (traditional kutani ware) in Tokyo. Remarkably, despite his heritage, this was the first time he truly appreciated this type of polychrome glazing. This revelation set him on his course to reinvent ko-kutani for the new millennium.
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Selected Public Collections:

Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
Imperial Household Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Newark Museum, NJ
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
San Antonio Museum of Art, TX
Tsurui Museum, Niigata, Japan
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
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