It was strange to find out that the guy that helped build the nabori gama and anagama kilns at NAU lived just a short drive outside of Himeji.  I was also so happy to get an invitation to go out and visit when Bob Rink came out for the 30th anniversary of our Phoenix sister cities relationship.  Yamamoto has passed away but his son continues to make ceramics.  We got to take a look at his and his fathers studio as well as a large collection of work.  

It looked like Yamamoto studio was left just as it was when he died because there was a heavy layer of dust as well as lots of unfinished work laying around.  I got a little bit of a creepy feeling so I didn’t stay long and poke around a lot but it seemed like a really nice work space.  His wife said he had planed and built it himself.  The whole residence and studios gave me a nice feeling.  Everything seemed to have been well thought out as far as placement.  The fact that it was in rural japan with cherry blossoms blooming gave it an even more fantastic vibe.  This is the kind of studio and house that every ceramic artists dreams of having.

It also had all kinds of really cool and great pieces of sculpture just laying around.  Many of them could have easily been worth tens of thousands of dollars and here they were laying around in Japan.  I felt sad and lucky at the same time because I got to see this great work but that not many people do get to see these things or this place.  This visit has given me a great idea that I can’t wait to try out when I return home and set up a studio.  That idea is to collaborate as much as possible and allow visiting artists to do aesthetic upgrades and installations.   I hope that like this place a nice residue of objects and great artistic funk will build up that will enhance my creativity.