3. Yanagihara Mutsuo 柳原睦夫

Yanagihara Mutsuo was born in Koichi in 1934. He studied ceramics at the Kyoto Municipal University of Fine Arts with Tomimoto Kenkichi, who is considered one of the most influential ceramists of the 20th century due to his technical innovations and overglaze decorations.

He graduated in 1960 and was invited to Washington State University in 1967 as a visiting lecturer. When he returned to Japan, he became a lecturer at the Osaka University of Arts, teaching Tashima Etsuko, among others (see under 2). In the United States he came into contact with modern art movements such as pop art, which led to the use of vibrant colors and silver and gold foil (kinsai and ginsai technique) in his decorations, and in-depth research into the sustainability of the then ceramic art culture and the correlation between form and space.

The works formed in this way were created to evoke emotions other than the traditional sense of beauty "noble and elegant". Yanagihara's works are full of energy that tends to change something. Including humorous and strongly critical works, the goal itself can be "creation". The artist's search to find out what he wants is an act of creation itself, a revolutionary point of view that he passed on to many of his students. Work of Yanagihara Mutsua is held in the Museum of Modern Art, both Tokyo and Kyoto, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, the Victoria en Albert and other prominent public and private collections throughout the World

Gold and silver vase,  National Museum of Art, Osaka