Group of Flower vases by Yanagihara Mutsuo, 2023-24
Breathing Vessels: Contemporary Ceramics by Yanagihara Mutsuo
May 15 – 30, 2025
Open House Weekend: Saturday & Sunday, May 17-18, 11am-5pm
18 East 64th Street, Ste 1F, NYC
Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. is honored to present a solo exhibition of works by the acclaimed artist Yanagihara Mutsuo, celebrating a career spanning over six decades of contemporary ceramics. To mark this special occasion, they invite you to join them for a celebratory open house weekend, May 17-18. Come experience the remarkable work of Yanagihara Mutsuo and explore the legacy of a true master of ceramic art.
From his Silver Oribe works (Gin Oribe) and his Flower-eating vessels (Kashoku) to his most recent abstraction series titled Exhalation and Inhalation (Kōki kyūki), this exhibition brings together Yanagihara’s ceramic works that explore the visual languages of botany, anthropomorphism, and abstraction with striking clarity.
Yanagihara Mutsuo (b. 1934, Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture) is a pioneering Japanese ceramic artist celebrated for his inventive forms and playful approach to clay. Raised in a family of medical doctors in Kōchi City, his early fascination with botany and the human body later influenced his sculptural ceramics. He studied at Kyoto City University of Arts under modern masters Tomimoto Kenkichi, Kondō Yūzō, and Fujimoto Yoshimichi, graduating in 1960.
Yanagihara’s career has been shaped by his exposure to international influences, particularly during his time in the United States. Teaching at Alfred University and Scripps College in the 1970s introduced him to the American studio craft movement, reinforcing his experimental and conceptual approach to ceramics. Rejecting traditional affiliations, he remained independent, allowing him to develop a unique artistic voice that blends Japanese craftsmanship with modernist and abstract principles. Now at 90, Yanagihara continues to innovate with recent series such as Exhalation and Inhalation (Koki kyūki). Throughout his career, he has embraced the tension between sculpture and function, creating works that are at once playful, imaginative, and rooted in ceramic form and tradition.
They extend their gratitude to Dr. Andreas Marks, curator of Japanese and Korean art and director of the Clark Center at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, for his retrospective article on Yanagihara Mutsuo’s career, which is featured in the accompanying exhibition catalog.
To learn more about the exhibition, click here.