List of works by Tetsushi Yano

Tobe Town in Ehime Prefecture is a pottery production area with a history of nearly 250 years. This area has long been a producer of whetstones, and it is said that pottery production began with the reuse of whetstone layers.

This town is dotted with many small kilns, and Tetsushi Yano runs a gallery and atelier called Musee Satoyamabo, where he creates pottery.

Yano majored in oil painting at university and started out as a Western-style painter, then went on to become a high school art teacher and museum curator, and has been involved in a wide range of activities, including hosting tours of European art museums and participating in town development efforts.

Thirty years ago, I came across the town of Tobe and was captivated by its simple scenery, so I switched from Western-style painting to ink painting and pottery production. In ink painting, the scenery is drawn on Japanese paper with light and dark ink, and then colored with paint, creating a soft style of painting.

The painting gently expresses the elegant texture of the fruit landscapes that change with the seasons, such as cherry blossoms and Akebia jasmine in early spring, hydrangeas and Houttuynia cordata from the rainy season to early summer, balloon vine in early autumn, and camellias in winter, as well as the elegant texture of the flowers of the fields and mountains.

Yano's pottery, which retains the soft style of his Saisai paintings, is hand-painted with indigo dye on the thick material unique to Tobe. The pottery is inscribed with Yano's pen name, "Sato."

"The clay of Tobe has a gentle warmth and a gentleness that conveys the sensibility of handmade products," says Yano. The white porcelain of Tobe blends with the soft blue of the dyeing and the rustic scenery of Satoyama, creating a nostalgic warmth that reminds one of one's hometown.