Takegoshi Jun

Born 1948 in Ishikawa, eldest son of Takegoshi Taizan III (1919-1984), master of kutani ware

A master of kutani glazing, TAKEGOSHI JUN inherited the traditional techniques of his family. As a brilliant painter, he has used them as a stepping-stone to formulate an unrivaled array of colorful glazes that bring his personal kachō (bird-and-flower) imagery to life on his slab-hand-built (tatara) porcelain forms.

As a tall youth, his first passion was basketball and he wanted to become a physical education teacher. However, persuaded by his high school art teacher, he instead enrolled at Kanazawa College of Art to study Japanese traditional painting, or nihonga. Following graduation in 1972, he opened his independent studio. Shortly thereafter, Takegoshi was shown a remarkable ink painting created by a physically challenged right-handed person, forced to paint with his other hand. This painting impressed him with its overpowering presence and led to his realization that every brushstroke must emanate from the heart. So inspired, he set off in search of his own true passion and found it at an exhibition of ko-kutani (traditional kutani ware) in Tokyo. Remarkably, despite his heritage, this was the first time he truly appreciated this type of polychrome glazing. This revelation set him on his course to reinvent ko-kutani for the new millennium.