楠部彌弌
Kusube Yaichi
1897–1984 · Kyoto, Kyoto
Kyoto ceramic artist (1897–1984), developer of the saien coloured-clay technique; Order of Culture recipient in 1978.
Kusube Yaichi was born in Kyoto on 10 September 1897 and trained at the school attached to the Kyoto Municipal Ceramics Testing Institute, graduating in 1915. Around 1920 he was a founding member of Sekidosha, a group of potters who promoted ceramics as individual creative art. He was first accepted into the government Teiten exhibition in 1927 and received a special prize there in 1933. Around 1937 he presented 'saien', a technique using coloured porcelain clay applied in layers to model decoration. He was named a Person of Cultural Merit in 1972 and received the Order of Culture in 1978. He died on 18 December 1984.
Style signature
Refined porcelain, often white or softly coloured, with low, sculptural relief decoration built up in coloured clay (saien); later works include underglaze red and jade-toned glazes on simple forms.
