Takeshi Yasuda

Takeshi Yasuda, born in Japan in 1943, studied ceramics at Daisei Kiln in Mashiko in 1966 and established his first studio there the following year. From the early 1970s, he traveled extensively in Europe before settling in the United Kingdom, where he went on to teach internationally and serve as a juror for major ceramic competitions. He was appointed Professor of Ceramics at Ulster University and received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Bath in 2014. Between 2005 and 2010, Yasuda was invited to Jingdezhen to co-found the Le Tian Ceramic Society, and in 2011 he co-founded RedHouse Ceramic Studio with Felicity Aylieff and Xiong Baixu, where he continues to work.

 

At the core of Yasuda’s practice is a profound respect for ceramic material, particularly qingbai glaze, originating from Northern Song dynasty Jingdezhen. The varying thickness of this glaze produces subtle tonal shifts, evoking the gradations of ink painting through light and shadow. In Jingdezhen, Yasuda encountered what he considers the purest qingbai materials, enabling an almost skeletal delicacy in his porcelain. Over a career spanning more than five decades, his work has continuously challenged conventions, pushing against formal boundaries and engaging one of the most fundamental forces in ceramic history: gravity.