Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966) was one of the most important artists of the 20th century - a Kyoto-based potter working within the folk traditions of Japanese and Korean ceramics. Kawai was a long-time friend of Hamada Shōji, Yanagi Soetsu and Bernard Leach, with whom he co-founded the Mingei Japan Folk Art Association in 1926.
Trained technically in ceramics, Kawai considered himself a scientist as well as a potter, and his mastery of glazes grew out of a scientist’s interest in experimentation as much as a potter‟s desire for a particular color or effect. Consistent with the Mingei system of beliefs, he worked in the master/apprenticeship model in which students worked alongside the master, learning not on the techniques of their craft but also the cultural values. Kawai‟s work is included in the collection of the Folk Art Museum of Tokyo. Since his death in 1966, the house and workshop of Kanjiro Kawai in Kyoto have been preserved as a museum and contain displays of his pottery, sculpture and woodcarvings.
Kawai refused all official honors, such as the designation of “Living National Treasure,” and he did not travel to the West.
Kawai’s work is highly sought after and held in many Public and Private collections internationally.
Selected Public Collections: Adachi Museum of Art, Japan. Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan. Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC, USA. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA. Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA. Folk Crafts Museum (Mingeikan), Tokyo, Japan. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN, USA. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany. Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln, Germany. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan. National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan. Portland Museum of Art, OR, USA. San Diego Museum of Art, CA, USA. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.
Stoneware, 13cm tall.
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