79. Tomonari Kato  加藤 智也

Kato Tomonari was born in 1872 in Tajimi, Gifu prefecture. He initially studied Aeronautical Engineering at the Daiichi Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1995. At the suggestion of his father, a manufacturer of ceramic materials, he also completed training at the Tajimi City Institute of Ceramic Design in 1997, while also working in the family business. At the Tajimi City Institute of Ceramic Design, he encountered teachers who showed him how versatile the ceramic craft can be from product design to pure art.
In his work, Kato Tomonari tries to express, as he says, a copy of himself. Beforehand, he has no elaborate plan, he is not working to shape an idea but playing with the clay until they have an intriguing form. He usually starts from the basic shape of a circle and sees where it takes him. The object grows naturally under his hands, and sometimes it grows one way, sometimes another. He seems to have a preference for round, swelling shapes. According to Kato Tomonari, this has partly to do with physics, because round shapes make large objects possible. In another part, it also has to do with his fascination with the strange and wavy shapes that clouds can assume. But to make this wavy shape, you also have to take into account the laws of physics to prevent it from collapsing. If you build from a certain point upwards, the structure will be so strong that after a while you can also make horizontal branches without the sculpture falling apart. If you twist the shape while building, the result will be a wavy, organic, sinuous structure, as seen in the objects by which it has become known.
Tomonari Kato has participated in many exhibitions and has won prestigious awards, including the Excellent Prize from the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, the Grand Prize from the 56th Faenza International Ceramics Exhibition in Italy, and the Gold Prize from the11th International Ceramics Exhibition Mino in Japan.
Work by Tomonari Kato is included in the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art of Gifu Prefecture, the Faenza International Ceramics Museum and the Minoyaki Museum of the city of Tajimi.