Yagi Kaihou
Born: Yamashirochou (now Kizugawa city), Kyoto prefecture, 1950
Based: Ide Town, Kyoto prefecture
Kiln: Kaihou kiln

Motivation to become a potter:
At a very young age Yagi san started learning about tea from his father. Gradually, he gained a deeper interest in tea preparation, not only for daily sencha or houjicha but also for gyokuro, which requires more patience and care. He studied sadou (tea ceremony) and through that learned more about teaware, which sparked an interest in pottery and eventually he chose to follow that path. We were grateful to be able to spend a morning with him, watching how he brought a plain chawan to life with his painting that seemed effortless.

Graduating at Kyoto Ceramics Training School at the age of 16, Yagi san studied under the first generation of Katou Josui, a famous chawan painter in Kyoto. Later at the age of 18, he performed a wheel throwing demonstration to the Emperor. In 1987, at the age of 37, he received an award from the Governor in recognition of his contribution to kyoyaki. Three years later he had his first solo exhibition in Tokyo, and since then he has held many exhibitions in Japan and also two in Paris. Throughout his life he has won many awards, but despite the amazing background, he is an extremely down to earth and kind person.

Yagi san’s late father was strict, instilling proper manners in him since early childhood. It is something that at the time was not enjoyable, but he now expresses gratitude and speaks very highly of his dad, crediting him for his tough and resilient personality.

He explains his drawings come from the experiences he has with nature, his interactions with people, and he is also always open to new inspiration. He casually showed us on paper a few different drawings of flowers (which was amazing to witness!), but he explains that he doesn't draw on paper first before he paints - he paints purely from an image in his mind without a reference.

The kama (kiln) is currently looked after by a younger potter who is constantly moulding and firing plain chawan which undergo a basic firing, and then glazing, and then another firing, before the chawan are ready to go to another room across the road for painting. This is where Yagi san sits and paints from 9am to 6pm every day. Sometimes the ware needs to be fired and painted again, going through 4 or 5 firings in total.

We were also lucky to be shown some rare pieces such as a mizusashi (cold water holder used in tea ceremony, picture in gallery above), which took him over a month to finish. We said we would be back for it in the future!

Happiness and hardships of being a potter:
The long working hours is definitely tough. He told us that with a lot more machine made products and cheaper imported ware available, the demand for kyoyaki/kiyomizuyaki - which was once in very high demand - has been falling in recent years.

What is kyoyaki or kiyomizuyaki?
Kyoyaki originated in Momoyama era as the popularity of tea ceremony rose. Imagine the porcelain chawan as a white canvas, allowing beautiful, elegant designs to be painted on by different artists. The difference between kyoyaki and kiyomizuyaki lies in the past, when ware that were fired in the Kiyomizuzaka area heading towards Kiyomizu-dera temple were called kiyomizuyaki and other types of ware fired outside of this area but within Kyoto were called kyoyaki. Nowadays, the terms are used almost interchangeably.