March, 2006

Bizen is chunky, warm, earthy pottery from Okayama Prefecture (next to Hiroshima Prefecture) with a history dating back to the 12th century.

Bizen is unglazed and wood fired at high temperatures resulting in a natural and unpretentious finish, making it perhaps the most rustic yet exquisite of all the ancient pottery forms in Japan. As such, Bizen is considered to be the embodiment of the quintessentially Japanese aesthetic-wabi-sabi-the beauty of the humble, unconventional and the imperfect.

And what does all this have to do with Australia-Japan diplomacy? Well, 2006 is the Year of Australia-Japan Exchange, commemorating 30 years since the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the two countries, and as a part of this celebration, there will be a Bizen pottery demonstration and exhibition in Sydney in March, 2006.

The artist is Kazz Fujiwara, the third generation of arguably the most famous lineage of Japanese Bizen potters--both Kazz's father, Yu Fujiwara and grandfather Kei Fujiwara were Japanese Living National Treasures.
We are hoping Kazz will be named a national treasure too, as Kei and I have some of his works...

Kazz's wife, Ikuko and their two daughters lived and studied in Sydney for about 2 years between 2003 and 2005 doing what's called "oyako ryugaku" -where not just young Japanese students, but their parent/parents come to Australia as well for extended periods of time to study.

While Ikuko and her daughters were in Sydney, they made many friends, and led to Kazz deciding to exhibit his works here for the first time. (Ikuko was also a kaiseki student of Kei's). This kind of grassroots connection is the kind of bilateral exchange that the 30 year old treaty hoped to encourage. 

The Art Gallery of N.S.W. recently acquired one of Kazz's works, so all three generations of Fujiwara potters are now represented in the gallery. 

Following are some links if you are interested in Kazz Fujiwara, or Bizen in general.

See you at the exhibition.

An article about Kazz in Nipponia magazine

A good site about all Japanese pottery:

The Fujiwara family of potters' site:

by Masako Fukui, Kei's Kitchen

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