KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to announce the opening of a second exhibition venue, located in the Toda Building in Kyobashi, Tokyo. Situated in an area known as both a business district and home to a large number of antique dealers for many years, Toda Building, with four galleries and museums, aspires to become a new epicenter for contemporary art.

For the inaugural exhibition, we are pleased to present “El Capitan,” a solo exhibition by Miwa Kyusetsu XIII.

Miwa Kyusetsu XIII, who assumed the family title in 2019, is highly acclaimed throughout the world for his style that incorporates dynamic and innovative sculptural forms while carrying forward the legacy of Hagi ware ceramics by using the white Hagi glaze adopted by the Miwa family. His “El Capitan” series of tea bowls highlights the contrast between the unglazed surface of the pottery cut out using a Japanese sword and the Miwa family’s traditional white Hagi glaze (Kyusetsu white). This series owes its primary inspiration to Miwa’s astonishment at seeing the enormous granite edifice of the same name at Yosemite National Park while studying in the United States. This series constitutes the merger of that inspiration with Hagi clay and ceramic traditions. The works have an enchantingly powerful originality and convey the energy of nature and the long history of kogei crafts.

Miwa Kyusetsu XIII has provided the following statement for this solo exhibition.
　
I would like to congratulate the Toda Corporation on the completion of the Toda Building.
I would also like to extend my congratulations to KOSAKU KANECHIKA on the opening of its new space in the Toda Building.
Having long grappled with the possibilities of clay while keeping in mind the gravity of what it means to fire a piece of the earth, I have become particularly conscious of the meaning and significance involved in appreciating a bowl of tea since I’ve started creating tea bowls in recent years.
　
Created by firing pieces of the earth, the “El Capitan” series of works on view in the exhibition comprises unique tea bowls, shaped by hollowing out chunks of clay. Miwa has said that the process of transforming the clay—a piece of the natural world that brims with life—and making it come together as a single vessel is not at all something that goes according to plan. Miwa’s work is a result of repeated confrontation, questioning, and exchanges of actions and reactions with nature, which is both an absolute power and a menace. In his practice, we discover the fundamental essence of what it means for humanity to create. In this exhibition, Miwa presents about ten new works, large pieces from the “El Capitan” series. We cordially invite you to attend “El Capitan” at KOSAKU KANECHIKA’s new space.

Miwa Kyusetsu XIII

Miwa Kyusetsu XIII was born in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1951 as the third son of Miwa Kyusetsu XI (Miwa Jusetsu). He began his studies abroad at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1975. Since returning to Japan, he has continuously created distinctive work that transcends traditional Hagi ware ceramics at the family pottery, Fusoan Miwagama, and assumed the family title in 2019. He has presented major solo exhibitions, including “Permanental Destruction” (Gallery Ueda, Tokyo, 1987), “Dreams in White” (Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, Tokyo, 1991), “SETSUREI – The Succession of MIWA KYUSETSU XIII” (touring exhibition in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagoya, 2019), and “Being a pioneer of expression – The ceramic works of Miwa Kyusetsu XIII (Miwa Kazuhiko)” (Hagi Uragami Museum, Yamaguchi, 2020). Notable group exhibitions include “Now, what you see on enormous ceramic artwork?” (Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 1984), “The World Ceramic Biennale 2005: Trans-Ceramic-Art” (Icheon World Ceramic Center, 2005), “Japon-Japonismes. Objets inspirés, 1867 – 2018” (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 2018), and “Kogei 2020 – The Art of Crafting Beauty from Nature” (Tokyo National Museum’s Hyokeikan Gallery, 2020). Miwa’s works are held in various public collections, including those of the National Crafts Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Hagi Uragami Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He was awarded the Japan Ceramic Society Prize in 2007 and the Japan Ceramic Society Gold Prize in 2021.