Keiichi Tanaka’s Minimalist Ceramics

Ceramicist Keiichi Tanaka, a graduate of Musashino Art University in Tokyo, takes inspiration from multiple sources for the pottery pieces he creates in his Kawagoe workshop. ‘My vases were created with an image of folk instruments hung on the walls of old houses or farm houses. To some extent, the shapes of my works also have been inspired by those tools and agricultural instruments’, the artist explains on his website.

A metal-infused varnish

Keiichi Tanaka, a winner of the Takaoka Crafts Competition, one of the most followed crafts events in Japan, likes to borrow the ancient tonalities of ceramics from Turkey and Egypt. To create unique colours, he uses a metal-infused varnish that can be heated to 1200°C before the pigments are applied at a lower temperature.

The ceramicist elevates the notion of tableware. He conceives each piece with its future use in mind and imagines it integrated into its prospective owners’ everyday life. His products can be found on Brutal Ceramics, an online shop that sells ceramic tableware and decorative objects.

Keiichi Tanaka’s works can be seen on his website.