OOMORI KENJI

Born: Saitama Prefecture, 1982
Studied: Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture
Based: Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture
Studio: Home Studio

Motivation to pursue pottery: 
While studying product design at Tokyo Zokei University, he discovered his passion for pottery through an extracurricular pottery circle group. Instead of drawing, he found his interests in hands on experience through pottery making. This passion led him move to Tajimi city, Gifu prefecture, to learn pottery making and eventually set up his own studio there. In the beginning of his potter life, he made a lot of large objects, pieces for display to enjoy as art. Slowly then, he moved into more usable pieces, such as tableware like small cups, mug cups, plates, trays, as well as chawan and vases. 

After living and making pottery in Tajimi city for 15 years, together with his family they moved back to his wife's hometown, in Okayama prefecture. It has been three years since they have moved here. 

Happiness and hardships of being a potter:
Oomori san mentioned that using his hands to build something, touching and feeling the clay, experimenting the glazing and firing temperatures, finding out new things, were all his happiness along his life of being a potter. Through working with different galleries and exhibitions, he grew his skills and he really values the time spent meeting the people who purchases and uses his ware and listened to their stories, whether there are things he could improve or to reaffirm his beliefs in his works. 

When asked about the challenges he had, he mentioned the red clay (one of the two clay he uses, the other one is grey), has a much higher failure rate as it cracks easily so in order to achieve the same amount of items as the grey clay, he would have to make 1.5 times the amount. Other than that, he spoke positively about the challenges, for example, he mentioned one of the recent exhibitions he was making around 450 items, while it was extremely tough in limited time to finishing all the pieces he also enjoyed these kind of challenges.

Things to challenge in the future:
He explains he hasn't used white clay for a while and there are more requests more galleries and individuals for his work in white clay. We were lucky to be able to witness one of his old white pieces and it was absolutely stunning. We look forward to his future expansion into the white collection. 

Hobbies other than pottery:
Oomori san said he likes basketball. There is even a basket ball stand inside his house that he could play casually with his children. But he also mentioned that pottery is actually his main hobby because there are so many uncertain conditions in pottery making so he likes to spend time to further explore the possibilities. In addition to this, visiting other artists' exhibitions and galleries is also a main hobby for him. 

Signature pieces:
He first fires the ware in low temperature after shaping, drying, and carving. Then he applies a matt texture - soft, warm, yet strong, represents perfectly Oomori san's personality. 

Our happy moment shared with him:
From the moment we arrived at his garden planted with momiji and strawberries, into the house, we felt warmly welcomed by him, his wife and his daughter. The house is very nicely designed with exposed wood, his work corner, before entering into the living and dining space. We sat there for tea and wagashi while talking. And he was always eager to tell us and show us more. Both of his kilns are behind the house and further in the back, they also grow vegetables.