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Imaizumi Imaemon XIII
Imaizumi Imaemon XIII creates hand-painted
pottery using a 400-year-old technique.

The beauty
of Imari

Ceramic master’s art
dates back 400 years

By Timothy Ruel
Special to the Star-Bulletin

IMAIZUMI IMAEMON XIII, the 13th in Japan's famed Imaemon family of potters, has kept the secret of his family's artistic legacy for all of his 73 years.

The art form, known as Imari, dates back 400 years, when Imaemon's ancestors produced pottery for elite members of the Tokugawa Shogunate and other feudal royalty.

Today, Imaemon's ceramic pots command prices of more than $17,000. His work has been presented as gifts of state -- to President Reagan in 1983 and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.

Named "Ningen Kokuho," a living national treasure, by the Japanese government in 1989, (one of just 43 people to hold this distinction) Imaemon is credited with having modernized Imari, in which blue or gray underglazes and thin overglazes finish pieces of delicate porcelain.

An exhibit of his work will be on view at Gallery Tokusa at Halekulani through March 12, and he will give a free talk, through an interpreter, at 3 p.m. tomorrow at the University of Hawai'i's Krauss Hall.

Imaizumi Imaemon XIII
An incense case by Imaizumi Imaemon XIII bears a
design of mandarin orange blossoms and leaves.

Influenced by his world travels, Imaemon found inspiration in the work of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, who died in 1920; and Georges Roualt, a French Fauvist who died in 1958.

But such relatively contemporary influences are not what make his pieces look modern. Through an interpreter, Imaemon said his strongest impressions come from the simple forms of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and 6th century Buddhist statues in Japan.

Looking for the new in the old, he said he loves the rigidness of the statuesque "walk-like-an-Egyptian" hieroglyphics.

In 1955, Imaemon helped excavate Japan's first kiln in Arita, where his family began making pottery during the 17th century. He found many ceramic artifacts, some from 1630, and remembers the pieces struck him as unrefined but beautiful.

Imaizumi Imaemon XIII
Incense holder.

But it isn't just physical art that has touched Imaemon.

"Our family physician was a great fan of Western music, and would allow me to listen to many different kinds every time I visited.

"I was also able to get tickets to a Yehudi Menuhin concert around that time (1949), which was quite a rare feat. In those days it took more than four hours by train from Arita to Fukuoka, so it was impossible to make a day trip.

"I took the morning train to Hakata, listened to the concert, got on the overnight train back and arrived at Arita at 4 a.m. I drank in the violin concerto by Menuhin, for I was starved for that kind of ambience."

The trip fired his artistic vision. "Almost all the time my mind is full of ideas for designs," he says, waving his hands while speaking, and gripping them together while thinking.

But while he is open about the source of his artistic inspiration, don't expect pottery lessons. The Imaemon family historically worked guardedly and their methods, including the elaborate Iro Nabeshima style, remain secret to this day.

THE BEAUTY OF IMARI What: Talk featuring Imari master artist Imaizumi Imaemon XIII When: 3 to 4:30 p.m. tomorrow Where: Krauss Hall, University of Hawaii Cost: Free Also: Exhibition at Gallery Tokusa, Halekulani through March 12. Call: 926-1766

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