15. Yamada Hikaru  山田光

Hikaru Yamada (1924-2001) was born in Tokyo and grew up in Gifu prefecture.  He was the son of Tetsu Yamada (1898-1971), a Buddhist monk and renowned ceramicist. He studied at the Kyoto Institute of Technology) and continued to work in Kyoto after graduating in 1945.  Initially, he worked conventionally, making mainly white porcelain and traditional Chinese pottery. However, he soon broke new ground and co-founded influential avant-garde movements such as Sōdeisha (Crawling through Mud Association) in 1948. Sōdeisha, the most influential avant-garde ceramics group in Japan, sought to liberate ceramics from its traditional functionality as utensils for tea ceremony or home use. The Sōdeisha artists added a more artistic and expressive dimension to their creations, giving new meaning to ceramics as a discipline: from craft and skill to artistry and expression, and from functional utensils to independent art objects. Hikaru Yamada constantly renewed himself, experimenting with innovative techniques and forms, in an attempt to break previous boundaries and create something new and expansive within the world of Japanese ceramics. During his lifetime, he created several series of works that clearly show these innovations, such as the "Tower" in the 1960s, "Black Screens" in the 1980s and the more two-dimensional works of the 1980s. Works by Hikaru Yamada are in the collection of leading museums, including the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée National de Céramique in Sèvres, France.