Mitochū Kōeki is very pleased to be holding this solo exhibition of the work of Niisato Akio.
He has been acclaimed for his work since early in his career and has always been a leader of his time and generation.
His refined and tranquil oeuvre embodies his intelligence and sensibility. The lightness and vibrancy of his work has always belied the struggle he has gone through as an artist.
The works in this exhibition also exude a strong sense of colour and lightness. There must have been ups and downs in his journey to realising them, but none of this is apparent in the final products. Indeed, what he has written gives the impression that he positively enjoyed the experience.
This exhibition marks the culmination of the challenging but gratifying journey he has made and is an opportunity for everyone to see what he has achieved.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to the exhibition.
Mitochu Koeki Co.
Hayashi Daisuke
Starting in 2011, I spent about a year working in Boston, USA. My initial idea was to continue developing the style of work I had been making in Japan. Perhaps not unexpectedly, because the environment and materials available to me were different, this didn’t work out as planned. During the latter half of my stay, I changed my approach and started producing works I knew that I could only make in America. Abandonning my established style brought on something of an identity crisis and made me quite anxious. In the end, however, I came to enjoy the process of letting the environment and availability of materials dictate the direction of my work. Since my time in the USA, I have repeated the same process in other places such as Shigaraki and Faenza. What stimulates me is exploring how I react to the rules and know-how established over many years in different ceramic-producing regions.
The works in the ‘Itewan’ series presented in this exhibition are majolica tea bowls I made in Faenza.
Majolica is generally understood to be a form of earthenware covered with uniformly applied glaze. When making these tea bowls I kneaded terracotta clay into round balls, pinched them into shape, and then glazed them unevenly so that areas of clay were left exposed during firing. My hope was that through this I would succeed in expressing something of the charm I discovered in majolica.
Because I was not fully attuned to working in Faenza, I had quite a number of accidents. That being said, I am keen to continue visiting what is a beautiful centre of ceramic production and to find my own way of working within its traditions.
Niisato Akio
April 24 (Fri) - May 17 (Sun) 2026
11:00 - 18:00
Mitochu Koeki Gallery
Hotel New Otani, Lobby Floor, 4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 102-0094, Japan
*Niisato Akio will be at the gallery on April 24.