Add Color to Summer with Porcelains

The artists in their own words

You can’t erase your individuality no matter how much you stifle or curtail it.
— Anzai Arata and Atsuko

The husband-and-wife team of Anzai Arata and Atsuko relocated to Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, in 2006. This move led to a change in the character of their work.

“There’s a fishing port nearby, so fresh fish are available at the supermarket, and the fish they cook at the fishmonger’s and the deli tastes delicious. Inevitably, then, we ended up eating predominantly Japanese-style meals. And so almost as a matter of course, we started making crockery that went with Japanese food,” explains Arata.
“Tokyo is awash in information,” Atsuko chimes in, “and many of the pieces we made there were restrained and simple. Ishikawa, though, gets a lot of cloudy days. That gives you the urge to add colors and accentuate. Among the best-known traditional ceramics of Ishikawa is Kutani ware. It’s a very colorful style of pottery, and I think I can see why it took root.”

“We’ve also become attuned to how ingredients change with the seasons. In spring you want to use a dish like this, and in summer you wish you had a dish like that. It’s thoughts like these that inspire the wares we make today.”

Because Arata apprenticed in Arita and Atsuko in Kyoto, porcelain dominates their output. Currently they produce porcelain and semiporcelain wares using kaolin from Kyoto and Ishikawa. These are somehow reminiscent of traditional, antique pieces, which reflects the couple’s shared aesthetic.

“I think what attracts us to antique pieces is that, unlike mass-produced items, they betray unmistakable traces of the human touch,” says Arata. “Food comes from nature, and I can’t help feeling that it looks more delicious served on dishware textured by human hands. But deliberately leaving traces of our own hands on our works would, I feel, be going too far. I don’t think you can erase your individuality no matter how much you stifle or curtail it. That’s why recently, we’ve consciously tried to avoid letting our individuality show through. We treasure whatever slight vestiges of it remain.”

Atsuko says that the couple’s creative aspirations have broadened with the birth of their child. “We now have a desire to make pieces that are true to ourselves but would also delight a child. And I don’t just mean something for kids.”

The couple makes pottery that mirrors the surroundings in which they work and their own shifting emotions. That, perhaps, is why it so successfully combines a naturalness that suits any dining table with the freshness that is their trademark.