Across the sea

Since its inauguration in 2006, Onishi Gallery has played a leading role in introducing international audiences to Kogei: a unique category within Japanese art defined by exceptional craftsmanship, a profound engagement with material, and the transformation of centuries-old traditions into contemporary forms of visual expression. Marking its twentieth anniversary and its ongoing commitment to advancing global appreciation of the field, Onishi Gallery is proud to present Across the sea, a major exhibition of Kogei opening October 15. Bringing together ten of Japan’s most accomplished Kogei practitioners, Across the sea offers a compelling survey of contemporary practice across generations and disciplines. Through ceramics, metalwork, lacquer, and other media, the exhibition demonstrates how these artists build upon inherited techniques while pursuing highly individual creative visions. Their works reveal a dynamic field in constant dialogue with its past, challenging conventional boundaries between craft and fine art. Despite the diversity of approaches on view, the artists share a commitment to pushing the expressive possibilities of their materials. Together, their works underscore the remarkable vitality of contemporary Kogei, demonstrating how traditional processes continue to generate fresh aesthetic languages and new forms of artistic inquiry. Among the exhibition’s standout artists is metalwork specialist Ōsumi Yukie (b. 1945), a Living National Treasure renowned for elegant vessel forms created through an exacting hammering process and enriched with delicate applications of metal leaf. Suggesting wind, clouds, and the movement of water, her luminous surfaces transform traditional metalworking into objects of striking contemporary beauty. Representing a younger generation, Rusu Aki (b. 1976) wields her blowtorch on fragments of industrial iron, creating sculptural works shaped by rust, oxidation, and elemental processes of transformation. In lacquer, Onihira Keiji (b. 1973) evokes celestial expanses through surfaces enriched with gold, silver, crushed quail eggshell, white-lipped oyster shell, South Sea abalone, and other materials of extraordinary complexity, while Noguchi Ken (b. 1982) builds rhythmic concentric patterns across sculptural forms, producing shimmering black surfaces that recall the movement and depth of the sea. Ceramics, long central to Onishi Gallery’s exhibition program, are represented by works from Ōhi Toshio Chōzaemon XI (b. 1958) and Kaneshige Kōsuke (b. 1943). Ōhi’s ship-shaped water jar, derived from a form first developed in the seventeenth century, provided an important point of departure for the exhibition and resonates with Onishi Gallery’s longstanding mission of carrying Kogei beyond Japan’s shores. Kaneshige’s From the sea series, which reimagines the ancient Bizen stoneware tradition through sculptural invention and subtle humor, provided the inspiration for the exhibition’s title. More than an anniversary event, Across the Sea offers an opportunity to encounter artists whose work is redefining perceptions of Japanese art both at home and abroad. United by technical mastery, material sensitivity, and an unwavering commitment to creative exploration, they demonstrate that tradition remains not a constraint but a dynamic source of artistic possibility. Together, their works reveal a field in continual transformation and one whose influence is increasingly resonating beyond Japan. With Across the sea, Onishi Gallery reaffirms its commitment to championing Japanese Kogei internationally, inviting collectors, curators, scholars, and the wider public to engage with a remarkable group of artists whose works embody both cultural continuity and contemporary vision.