YOKOYAMA TAKUYA

Born in Kanagawa prefecture, 1973
Studio in Tajimi city, Gifu prefecture

Yokoyama san’s first encounter with pottery was during the ceramics club that he joined while at university. At that time he didn’t have a particular reason to join the club but simply thought pottery is really interesting and fascinating.  Since then his interest in pottery grew and he knew that he wanted to do this as a career. But without knowing where to start, he tried different routes, such as becoming apprentice to famous pottery artists, self research and study. Eventually he found out that there were training centres run by local governments teaching pottery, so he applied to three of them including one in Tokoname (Aichi prefecture) , one in Kyoto and one in Tajimi (Gifu prefecture) and failed all three. Somehow there was a vacancy two weeks before the entrance ceremony and he managed to get the space. Since graduating in 2000, he has been living and working in Tajimi city. 

Yokoyama san emphasises that he wants people who uses his work to focus on the objects themselves rather than knowing what he looks like or how messy his studio is. Instead of having a story before creations, he believes the stories are born after his pieces are made and these stories are created and interpreted by the users instead of him. He wants to learn how people interpret and use his work, in a way, also help him to make future pieces better and in a more functional manner.

His white pieces, on the one hand, feels simple and modern, on the other hand, feels mysterious as if there are stories behind the pieces with cracked surfaces. In the recent years, he also started a modern oribe green glaze as well as a red clay which is usually unglazed so the user can feel the texture of the soil.