TOSHIKO TAKAEZU (1911-2011) was a Japanese-American ceramicist whose tall, narrow cylinders and “closed forms” were influential in raising the perception of ceramics from functional vessels to a form of fine art. Takaezu was born in Hawaii to Japanese immigrants. She studied at the Honolulu Museum of Art and University of Hawaii, as well as at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI.

After training in the United States, Takaezu studied the techniques of traditional Japanese pottery in Japan, resulting in her blend of Eastern and Western artistic styles. Upon her return to the United States, she taught ceramics at the Cleveland Institute of Art, as well as Princeton University, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate. She
focused on making the more traditional wheel-thrown vessels early in her ceramic career.

Later, she began to consider ceramics as objects of beauty rather than merely utilitarian vessels. Takaezu’s porcelain and stoneware pieces suggest organic forms that range from small to monumental. Her later works include abstract sculptures with freely applied glazes. The vessels became the “canvas” for her painterly glaze techniques, which had the expressiveness of abstract painters. Most of her ceramic forms consist of closed cylinders and huge spheres she referred to as “moons.” Through her mastery of ancient firing techniques, Takaezu created ceramics that reached the height of large sculptures.

When Takaezu closed her vessels, she left only a very small opening in the top. Before closing the forms, she dropped in a bead of clay so the objects rattle when moved. According to Takaezu, the most important element of her art is the hollow space within, to which she referred at her visit to the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum as “the mystery within,” signifying that what is in a person’s heart is most important.

After retiring in 1992, Takaezu worked as a studio artist in Quakertown, New Jersey, while many of her larger sculptures were made at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She later moved to Hawaii where she lived until her death in Honolulu. Takaezu has been described as approaching life with wholesomeness, working toward self-discovery and a sense of being one with nature.

Toshiko Takaezu during a workshop held at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in 2003.

Photo courtesy of Susie Ranger