Toru Ichikawa | Inner Visions | Style Guide by The Stratford Gallery

Toru Ichikawa Inner Visions Style Guide

Inner Visions

Toru Ichikawa was born in Tokyo in 1973. He grew up in a Tokyo ward that was heavily populated with nearby University students which seemed to give him a general awareness that learning was a very natural preoccupation. The bustle of Tokyo and energy of his early life surroundings formed a naturally inquisitive and interested young Ichikawa. He describes how he was fascinated by everything as a child and would self study many interests to satisfy his curiosity. Combined with his family’s movements around the entirety of Japan due to his father’s career, he built up a varied and outward looking appreciation of regional differences in people, culture and arts.

Ichikawa’s education would eventually lead him to have a portfolio career from his early twenties in a 90s Japan that was suffering significant economic recession. Working as a videographer and web designer he found an outlet for creativity but the corporate parameters of his client base left a void of possibility he unconsciously felt the need to fill. On a trip to his wife’s family home in Okayama Prefecture, aged 35, life would take a very different and radical turn for him.

Okayama Prefecture is home to the millennia old ceramic tradition known as Bizenyaki, centred around the pottery towns of Bizen and Inbe. It was in this region that his mother in law would suggest to Ichikawa that he might be interested in taking a pottery class as a an outlet for creative inspiration. Having never explored this discipline before, he thought “Why not?”. For Ichikawa everything changed the moment his hands touched the heavy, plastic clay of Bizen. Pushing his fingers into it he realised he was physically interacting with Japan’s ancient history, hundreds of thousands of years of buried life from his country’s islands. The accumulation of minerals. metals, silt and animal remains that were once at Japan’s surface now resided in his hands, untouched in countless centuries. A true lightening bolt moment for him, he realised that a greater force was at play within him and that his future life would involve working in clay.

Throwing himself into research on Okayama’s ceramic tradition he came across an exhibition catalogue featuring the striking angular shapes of toasted bizenyaki by Ryūichi Kakurezaki. So taken with the progressive Bizen master’s work Ichikawa knew immediately that if he was to progress to a place where he could realise his visions he would need to train under this master.

It is a great testament to his resolve, self belief and determination that he was brave enough to approach Kakurezaki directly over several visits to plead for consideration to become a disciple of his work and techniques. Already supporting two younger apprentices at the time, a deal was struck between Kakurezaki and Ichikawa that would see Ichikawa spend his first year clearing and maintaining Kakurezaki’s wildly overgrown garden! One must realise that Ichikawa was into the second half of his thirties at this point, giving up a career and salary to trust in his ability to achieve a future goal formed purely by visions of what could be. Whilst he was convinced of this future success, he tells me his wife took more convincing.

His first year was spent clearing overgrown trees and shrubs on Kakurezaki’s land; a brutal, manual task he set his alarm for every day at 6:21am. A child born on 21st June was proving in early middle age that he was humble enough to sacrifice everything for a chance to be guided by a master en route to realising his inner visions. Throughout the following years of working under Kakurezaki his alarm stayed set at 6:21am. First into the studio in the morning and last to leave. He would often work into the small hours getting home only to snatch a few hours of sleep before heading back to his duties. This drive and passion stood him in great stead and the sense of determination and humility he showed during this time saw him rapidly build on skills and aesthetic sensibilities guided by his sensei Kakurezaki.

Ichikawa describes his creativity as coming from a ‘higher master’ as if his visions are in themselves creative reincarnations from his country’s natural ancestors. He describes how shapes and decorative styles come fully formed to him in dreams and instantaneous apparitions as if a force is placing them purposefully in his mind’s eye. Colours, textures, profiles and proportions all appearing as one without the normal artistic practice of thinking, sketching, investigating and reiterating. A cynic might wonder how real these mental presentations are but it does offer us a beautiful and tempting explanation for his seemingly endless development of avant garde stylistic masterpieces. Known for not revisiting styles after successfully being realised and released creates a great burden for any artist. Who are we to say that the power to constantly invent the extraordinary and the new is not from a wider force? I prefer not to take the role of cynic when considering Ichikawa’s career and bodies of work. After all, here is a man that risked everything to manifest his inner visions and has achieved it with a staggering degree of success. May he be guided from his higher master for many decades to come.

Howard Clegg Director

The Stratford Gallery November 2024

La Vie est Belle

This style is a joyous celebration of the phrase ‘Life is Beautiful’. It represents the energy, freedom and happiness of the phrase reminding us to look for the beauty that can be found within us, nature and the arts - if we open ourselves to it. Ichikawa san’s hope is that we find it to be “a door to your own happiness, ushering in a new era of hope, an inspiration to you to inspire those around you”.

The ‘La Vie est Belle’ style is a highly complex accumulation of layered glazes and lustres. It is built from a creative mixing of Bizen clay bodies which are expertly built with dynamic paths from base to shoulder highlighting intriguing textures and multiple layers of vividly coloured glazes. Lustre features heavily with variations of matt and gleaming golds and platinums creating a rich and luxurious aura. Truly a celebratory, decorative intent to provide visual energy and joyfulness.

‘La Vie est Belle’ has several stylistic variations and is available in vase, sake vessel, ceremonial tea bowls and tea cup forms.

Furyu

The Japanese aesthetic Fūryū (風流) was derived from the Chinese word fengliu, which literally translated meant “good deportment” or “manners. This style is based on the evolved Japanese aesthetic which represents restrained and refined elegance. Whilst it is a neighbour to Wabi-Sabi it is not shy about possessing an air of polished sophistication over the very plain and simple. This is further emphasised by the application of gold accents which also adds a graceful atmosphere to the work.

The style sees beautifully crawled glazes create wonderfully tactile surfaces which offer a natural feel but are luxurious in the hand. Muted natural colour palettes are present in all the Furyu pieces with light touches of lustre to elevate their status and remind us that their intent is not to be austere.

The Furyu style can be found on platters, sake vessels and ceremonial tea bowls.

Maou

Maou

This style is inspired by the Japan’s historical 16th Century figure and ruthless warlord Oda Nobunaga, who referred to himself as “Maou” or ‘Demon King’.

The Maou style features multiple layers of overlapping coloured glaze that is intended to evoke the image of a warrior’s armour. The bold application of gold creates a lavish image, resulting in work brimming with noble, Sengoku presence.

In the ‘Inner Visions’ collection, this style is present on a range of ceremonial tea bowls and sake vessel sets.

Éclat

A unique aesthetic that emits a beautiful light worthy of the name ‘Éclat’ meaning ‘ostentatious display’ or ‘dazzling brilliance’. It is achieved through vibrant colours from mixed clay bodies, vivid glazes and lustre.

To accentuate the beautifully swirling nerikomi clay patterns, with this style, Ichikawa san creates daring forms that nod to tradition but also diverts it with asymmetrical profiles and features.

The Éclat style is present on sake vessels, ceremonial tea vessels and leaf tea vessel sets.

Celadon

Celadon glazes originated in China with evidence of their existence there from the Bronze age. The beauty of the glaze style spread throughout Asia and Japan found a particular fondness for imported celadon tea cups in the 12th Century. Since then Japanese artists have adopted it for the subtle tones it bestows on various clay bodies.

Ichikawa san’s celadon glazes contain rare, long-forgotten feldspar from Shinshu Miyada (Nagano Prefecture, Japan) which was exhausted as a usable mineral over 30 years ago. The remaining feldspar he possesses is all that’s left. Its depth of colour is so unique that it is almost impossible to replicate with alternate feldspar making these celadon works precious rarities.

In this collection Ichikawa san has provided celadon works in sake vessel, vase, tea cup and Shuhai (tumblers for distilled spirits) forms.

Hagakure

The “Hagakure” series draws inspiration from the book “Hagakure” written in the mid-Edo period (around 1716) and expresses the spirit of Bushido through ceramics. Bushido is a moral code that was used by the samurai class in pre-modern Japan surviving in some forms to this day. It is a system of beliefs that emphasizes values such as honour, loyalty, justice, courage, and benevolence.

Ichikawa suggests to us that life is a dream, an illusion and to live a meaningful life as both a warrior and a human, one must be prepared for one’s own eventual demise. This style embodies Ichikawa san’s strong stance of living well in the present, drawing out the latent vitality of the clay and elevating it into a unique worldview.

Hagakure works in this collection are represented with ceremonial tea bowls and sake wares.

Vanishing Point

In a modern era where knowledge is often distorted by manipulation and misinformation, Ichikawa urges us to sharpen our senses to discern the truth. “I aim to express a unique reality, free from the chains of limitation and conformity. I believe the Vanishing Point pieces, created by my own hands, embody a positive and uncompromising reality.”

In this style we see a masterful touch with mixed clay nerikomi vessel forms creating beautifully sectioned works allowing contrasting, crawling glazes to play with the lines of their constraint.

In this collection the Vanishing Point style is present on sake cup forms.

Houju

Houju loosely translates as a ‘sacred gem’. It is usually a ball or tear-drop shaped object that is sacred to Buddhism. It is believed to have the power to expel evil, cleanse corruption, and fulfil wishes.

These luxurious and rare works feature high-quality rubies, sapphires, and diamonds embedded in the body of a guinomi adorned with bold, gold accents. This style represents Ichikawa san’s ground breaking endeavour to pave a new future in modern ceramics by asking us to judge the balance between tradition, culture, materialism and function.

The Houju style is present on the three guinomi pictured above.

Additional Styles

Oribe

Liberalism

Kabuku

Killer Cell

Natural

TORU ICHIKAWA Inner Visions

市川透 - 内なるビジョン

Online 7pm GMT Nov 8 2024

In Gallery 2pm Nov 9 2024

Runs until November 20th