2019 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fujimoto Yoshimichi (1919-1992), one of the leading ceramic artists after World War II in Japan. After studying crafts and design at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (present-day Tokyo University of the Arts), Fujimoto chose the path of ceramic making under Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963), a master of overgraze polychrome porcelain. Although in his youth Fujimoto searched for his own artistic direction and once participated in Sōdeisha, an avant-garde ceramicists group, later he concentrated pursuing the enhancement of the techniques in polychrome porcelain as his master did and kept expressing the beauty of life on the surface of white porcelain by depicting flowers and birds with fresh colors. Fujimoto further developed the existing polychrome overgraze painting techniques, improved the pigments and tackled with a brand-new expression of fuzing pigments and grazes, and thus he was designated as a holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1986 in the field of overgraze polychrome enameled porcelain.
The founder of the museum, Kikuchi Tomo (1923-2016), loved ceramic arts and enjoyed friendship with many artists, and above all he collected the works of Fujimoto most intensively, including many valuable pieces considered as the masterpieces of the artist. In this exhibition, Fujimoto’s fulfilled days of creation can be explored with some additional examples to Kikuchi Collection, such as pieces own by the municipal museum of the city of Ōme, where the artist’s workshop was located, and drawings and sketches which are on public view for the first time ever.
*some items on exhibit are expected to be switched during the exhibition.