Born in 1961, Tokuda Yasokichi IV succeeded her father, Tokuda Yasokichi III, a revered Kutani potter and a “Living National Treasure” artist. Tokuda inherited the techniques of their family style of Kutani porcelain production, that features saiyu glazing. Tokuda’s personal sensibility as a female artist lends her a unique perspective on the tradition that is reflected in her choices of color and interpretations of form. Tokuda is one of few female heads of a traditional potting lineage in Japan, due to those succeeding the family are most often male. However, her father decided to pass on the family’s name and practice to her. It was a challenge to make a place for herself as head artist of the family tradition in a still male-dominated social structure, but Tokuda successed in defining her own signature style and creative voice all her own.
Selected Exhibitions
2013–2018 Asia Week, New York, US
2017 The 64th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, Japan
2016 The 72nd Contemporary Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, Japan The Power of Colors , Musée Tomo, Tokyo, Japan
2015 SOFA Chicago, Illinois, USTradition Reborn:Contemporary Japanese Ceramics , Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, US 360th Anniversary Kutaniyaki Exhibition , Kutaniyaki Art Museum, Ishikawa, Japan
2014 Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, Embassy of Japan, Washington D.C., US
2013 Heritage: Japanese Works of Art by Contemporary Artists