Collection: Artist Category > The "KA" column (Rosanjin Kitaoji, etc.) > Handeishi Kawakita

Born in Osaka in 1878, Kawakita Handeishi was a successful businessman in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture. He was known as both a financial leader and a versatile artist. While serving as president of the Hyakugo Bank and managing numerous companies, he also demonstrated his exceptional sensibility by venturing into a wide range of artistic mediums, including ceramics, Japanese painting, calligraphy, printmaking, oil painting, photography, and haiku.

He began to seriously pursue pottery making after he was over 50 years old. He built his own kiln in Chitoseyama and, while interacting with Arakawa Toyozo, Kaneshige Toyo, and Miwa Kyuwa, he created his own unique tea ceremony ceramics. His free-spirited style, unconstrained by titles or formalities, went beyond the realm of hobby and brought about a major revolution in the ceramics world of the time, becoming one of the cornerstones of modern ceramics.

Handeishi's tea bowls and vases, sometimes bold and sometimes witty, exude a unique presence that combines the aesthetic sense of the tea ceremony with his outlook on life. His forms are bold yet warm, even exuding a sense of humor. As he has said, "A single tea bowl contains a universe," his works convey profound thought and a rich humanity.

Handeishi maintained a strong creative drive until he passed away in 1963 at the age of 84. His name is engraved in the history of ceramics and continues to shine today as "the master who changed tea ceremony ceramics in the Showa era."