Taizo Kuroda (1946 - 2021) is widely recognised as one of the most important artists in Japanese ceramics. In 1966 as a young man he travelled to Paris where a chance meeting with Tatsuko Shimaoka inspired him to travel to New York and eventually Quebec where he was apprenticed to ceramicist Gaetan Beaudin. He returned to Japan several times over the following years to study under Shimaoka, who became a Living National Treasure of Japan. In 1980 Kuroda retuned to Japan for good and set up his own studio to begin developing his own style.
In the early 1990s, inspired by the beauty of Chinese Song and Korean Joseon Dynasty ceramics, he developed his own distinct white porcelain style. Kuroda’s works differ from traditional porcelains in that they have no glaze. Kuroda felt by abandoning colour and glazes he was able to focus on form and technique which allowed him to investigate further in a specific direction. Many of his works are painstakingly burnished, using extremely fine grains of sandpaper to produce a soft, delicate surface that subtly reflects light. The ceramics’ asymmetric designs and minor imperfections hint at the artist’s skilled hand in their creation. Traditional Chinese and Korean influences are visible in Kuroda’s work; however, he manipulates and develops the shapes, giving them incongruous stylistic features like long slender necks, tapering bases and exaggerated curves. Pure white porcelain is notoriously difficult to produce by hand and over many years Kuroda perfected his technique developing and repeating shapes and exploring the limits of his material. Some of Kuroda’s most distinctive works feature breaks in the surface and jagged apertures that emphasise the irregular lines of his vessels. In explanation, Kuroda stated: “what I am ultimately looking for is a perfect space. I am not ready yet to make such a form however. With a wheel, it is possible to make a piece that is almost perfect, but I cannot allow myself to do that yet.”
Kuroda lived in Izu, by the sea in a simple house he built himself. In 2019 Tadao Ando built a viewing pavilion on the grounds of his home. In 2020, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka organised a large retrospective of his work.