Relaxing in the kitchen of his water-side home in Isumi, a small quiet city in Chiba Prefecture, artist Kazunori Hamana is surrounded by jars of homemade umeboshi (pickled plums) and unusual items from around the world, including a hand-tailored Japanese-style coat, traditional masks and artworks by admired friends.
¡°Japan is so ugly, so ugly sometimes!¡± he exclaims, half laughing, but half serious, as he looks out across his balcony to the calm sea. It¡¯s a hot summer¡¯s day and the breeze is welcome; the ugliness he laments seems a world away.
Once a vintage clothing seller in Tokyo¡¯s Harajuku neighborhood, Hamana, inspired by a love for the craftsmanship and deep hues of natural indigo dye, now creates large tsubo (jars) from clay. Though he¡¯s had no formal training ¡ª he points to a 16th-century pot when asked who his teacher was ¡ª he has become a highly sought-after artist. Selected by Takashi Murakami for a New York exhibition alongside two other Japanese ceramicists, his pieces now sell across the world, either freshly fired or aged for years before being repaired and exhibited in galleries.
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