Tsujimura Shirō

One of the most gifted potters active in Japan today, Tsujimura Shirô has a tremendous range of both glazes and forms. Influenced by Momoyama era aesthetics, he creates powerful functional vessels that are dramatic, sensual and highly unique. Unlike most of his contemporaries, who closely control the firing process, Tsujimura delights in the unexpected and incorporates chance into his creative process.

1947 Born in Gosei, Nara
1965 Left for Tokyo to prepare for art college entrance examinations intending to become a painter but became disillusioned with the process and abandoned the idea. Thereafter, he traveled throughout northern Japan. He was inspired to become a ceramist upon seeing a classic Ido teabowl at the Japan Folk Craft Museum.
1966- 68 Resided at Sanshôji (Zen temple), Nara
1967 Bought a plot of land in the hills above the city of Nara in Mima, Nara
Built workshop, teahouse, and seven kilns in the following seven years. Began his independent study of ceramics.


Solo exhibitions:

1977 First show at his home
1978 Mitsukoshi, Osaka (also in 1980 and 1981)
1981 Yamaha Gallery, Kichijôji, Tokyo (also in 1982)
Painting show Gallery Watchi, Ginza, Tokyo
1983 Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Tokyo (thereafter biannually)
Painting show, Matsuzakaya Department Store Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
1984 Maruei Department Store Gallery, Nagoya, Aichi (thereafter biannually)
1985 Hankyû Department Store Gallery, Osaka (also in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1996)
1986 Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Matsuyama, Ehime (also in 1988)
1987 Yamatoyashiki Gallery, Himeji, Hyôgo
1988 Itô Gallery, Nagoya (also in 1991)
1990 Tachikichi, Kyoto (also in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2001)
1992 Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Yokohama, Kanagawa
1993 Kuse Gallery, Gifu (also in 1996)
Solo show at Japan Art, Frankfurt (also in 1994)
1994 Solo show at Gallery Besson, London
1995 Solo show at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo
1996 Yû Gallery, Akasaka, Tokyo
Maruei, Nagoya (also in 2001)
Maruei, Toyohashi (also in 2001)
Umeda Hankyû in Osaka
1997 Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
Tachikichi Main Store
1999 Tsujimura Shirô; Jars and Teabowls, Chadô Shiryôkan, Kyoto
2001 Tachikichi, Kyoto
Tenmaya Okayama
Galery Maruei, Nagoya
2002 Hankyu Department Store Gallery, Osaka

2003 Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
Tachikichi Kyoto
Yanagi Oriental Fine Art (again 2006)


Group exhibitions:

1984 Presented fifty white slipware teabowls at MOA Museum, Atami
1992 Vier Elemente Drei Länder, Museum für Kunsthandwerk Frankfurt am Main, Ausstellung, Germany
1999 Ceramic Show, Frankfurt, Germany
2000 Painting exhibition, Matsuzakaya Art Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
2005 Exhibited and published, Fascination of Ceramics, Masterpieces of Modern Japanese Pottery from the Gisela Freudenberg Collection, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Germany p. 182-191
Exhibited and published, Contemporary Clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA


Selection of Public Collections:

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Museum of Arts of Kansas University
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York
Frankfurt Craft Museum, Germany
Stockholm Museum of Art, Sweden
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA



Selected references:

Hayashiya Seizô, "Chûmoku no gendai tôgeika jûnin [Ten emerging talent in contemporary ceramics} Taiyô (Heibonsha, 1990): 42-43.

Toh; Tsujimura Shirô , Vol.40, Kyoto Shoin, 1992.

"Tsujimura Shirô; A Yakishime Ascetic," Toward a 21st Century Renaissance in Ceramics, vol. 1, Dôhôsha, 1997, pp. 153- 179.

Tsujimura Shiro; Jars and Teabowls. Chadô Shiryôkan, 1999.

"Nine Ceramic Artists selected by Hayashiya Seizô," Waraku, no. 21, 2001, pp. 86- 89.

Joe Earle, Contemporary Clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 2005, pp. 10-13