Sueharu Fukami (深見陶治 , born 1947) is a Japanese ceramic artist and sculptor known for his work in pale-blue qinbai porcelain (also referred to as Sei Hakuji / Celadon).
[3] Later, Fukami's father and elder brothers Takehisa and Naokatsu reinvented the family business to focus on fine, hand-painted porcelain vessels for kaiseki food ceremonies.
Their handling of the family firm allowed Fukami to focus on developing a personal style out of experiments with numerous ceramic object types.
Its acceptance and inclusion in the prestigious venue allowed him to earn early notoriety as an artist and commit fully to a career as a professional ceramicist.
In 1975, Fukami married his wife Chieko Takahashi, a fellow ceramic artist, who scholars suggest aided him in finding his working technique.
Fukami became the third Japanese ceramicist ever to win this internationally acclaimed annual ceramic art competition held in Faenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
[6] This came on the heels of Fukami's major retrospective of early works at the Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art at the Clark Centre, Hanford, California in 2002.
The period of Fukami's twenties was marked by social unrest in Japan between fierce student protests, the Vietnam War, and the hippie movement.
Responding to these instabilities, some of Fukami's early works took on overt political messaging, such as his 1973 piece Jōhō ni maibotsu sareta watashi (The Artist, Buried in Information), a cylindrical vessel with a small seated figure in the center.
"[9] Five years after committing to qinbai glaze, Fukami developed his unique high-pressure slip-casting technique, which involves the pressurized injection of liquid clay into specially-made plaster molds, condensed to remove air pockets and impurities.
[1] Despite the use of molding, Fukami states that shaping the works is still a highly labor-intensive process, requiring meticulous smoothing, whittling, and glazing, often repeated several times.
Fukami's works also often feature collaborations with artists and technicians who create specifically designed wood and metal stands for the finished pieces.
[11] High-pressure slip-casting is a process typically used industrially for mass production, Fukami's adaptation of the technique for a studio pottery setting is the only example of its kind.
"[8] The technique originates in the 11th-century Song dynasty, in China's Jingdezhen city of Jianxi province, characteristically known for producing clear white porcelain bodies with pale blue glaze.
[3] The titles of Fukami's works often express poetic associations with natural phenomena, such as Landscape over the Horizon (Senjō no kei), In the Sky Far Away I (Tenkū Haruka I), and Moment of Silence (Seijaku no toki).
Fukami cites visual and sensual memories and motifs from childhood as influences in his work, including the Tōfukuji Temple roof outlines and views of mountaintops.