Japanese ceramic artist Raku Kichizaemon XV Jikinyū of Raku Ware believes that the world we think of today is the product of our consciousness: what we want to believe is what we believe, entailing subjective perception of a personal community. One’s consciousness tries to understand two opposing truths, and the more one dwells on such a mindset, the more they invert what is true and what is an illusion. He also states that if people assume their existence and the beliefs they anchor are meaningless, then they are left nothing but a dark void, becoming empty vessels in the fast-developing world.
To make sense of the world people live in, Raku Jikinyū proposes a suggestion: accepting the idea that the movement of space and time is constant. Along with its flow, the self grows. Such ethos appears in how he constantly modernizes the traditional Raku tea bowls of his generational family, instilling his individualistic style while remaining true to the roots that found the decades-age and passed-on traditional techniques and tea wares…
