Oomori Kenji
Born: Saitama, 1982
Based: Okayama, Okayama
Home Studio

Motivation to pursue pottery: 
While studying product design at Tokyo Zokei University, he discovered his passion for pottery through an extracurricular pottery circle group. Instead of drawing, he found his interests in hands on experience through pottery making. This passion led him move to Tajimi city, Gifu prefecture, to learn pottery making and eventually set up his own studio there. In the beginning of his potter life, he made a lot of large objects, pieces for display to enjoy as art. Slowly then, he moved into more usable pieces, such as tableware like small cups, mug cups, plates, trays, as well as chawan and vases. 

After living and making pottery in Tajimi city for 15 years, in 2021 the family moved back to the hometown of Oomori san’s wife - Okayama city, Okayama prefecture.

Happiness and hardships of being a potter:
Oomori san mentioned that using his hands to build something, touching and feeling the clay, experimenting the glazing and firing temperatures, finding out new things, were all his happiness along his life of being a potter. Through working with different galleries and exhibitions, he grew his skills and he really values the time spent meeting the people who purchases and uses his ware and listened to their stories, whether there are things he could improve or to reaffirm his beliefs in his works. 

When asked about the challenges he had, he mentioned the red clay (one of the two clay he uses, the other one is grey), has a much higher failure rate as it cracks easily so in order to achieve the same amount of items as the grey clay, he would have to make 1.5 times the amount. Other than that, he spoke positively about the challenges, for example, he mentioned one of the recent exhibitions he was making around 450 items, while it was extremely tough in limited time to finishing all the pieces he also enjoyed these kind of challenges.

Things to challenge in the future:
He explains he hasn't used white clay for a while and there are more requests more galleries and individuals for his work in white clay. We were lucky to be able to witness one of his old white pieces and it was absolutely stunning. We look forward to his future expansion into the white collection. 

Hobbies other than pottery:
Oomori san said he likes basketball. There is even a basket ball stand inside his house that he could play casually with his children. But he also mentioned that pottery is actually his main hobby because there are so many uncertain conditions in pottery making so he likes to spend time to further explore the possibilities. In addition to this, visiting other artists' exhibitions and galleries is also a main hobby for him. 

Signature pieces:
The unique, matte like texture of his work is a result of the Yakishime firing technique, where no glaze is used and the ware is fired at higher temperatures. He utilises multiple firings to achieve the mottled, cloudy effect on the exterior of his work, first creating the form using red or grey clay and firing at a lower temperature. After the pieces have cooled, he dips them into a white clay and water mixture which quickly dries and is ready to be fired for a second time. The outer layer dries and becomes very flakey, with some pieces falling off by themselves but the majority having to be removed by hand, once cool enough. Underneath this layer a cloudy mottled texture remains, giving beautiful character and personality to the exterior.

The interior is usually glazed with silver or pink, with Oomori san using white glaze less and less nowadays. He prefers to blemish the shiny silver glaze, using a sponge scourer on the inside of each piece. The final colour of his pink glaze depends on the firing temperature and time. If the piece is fired an extra time or fired for longer, it becomes more yellow in colour. The soft and warm but also strong designs perfectly represent Oomori san's personality.

Our happy moment shared with him:
From the moment we arrived at his garden, which has a windy pathway planted either side with momiji and strawberries, and made our way into the house, we felt warmly welcomed by Oomori san’s family. The house is beautifully designed with large exposed wooden beams. The entryway to the house acts as his work corner, before entering the living and dining space. We sat there for tea and wagashi (that they arranged just for our visit) while talking - he was always eager to explain concepts to us and show us more, even taking us into the garden to demonstrate how he adds the extra layer of clay to make the cloudy finish, and then into the back with the two kilns next to the family’s vegetable garden. We can’t thank the Oomori family enough for their warm hospitality!