In 1948, a tiny corps of young men formed an association in Kyoto which they named "Sodeisha,"

loosely translated as the "Crawling through Mud Association."

The group remained active for 50 years.

This band of artistic youths revolutionized ceramics in Japan.

In those days, ceramics referred to the creation of functional vessels and tableware.

Sodeisha expanded that definition to embrace eccentric objets d'art, impacting the broader world of art.

Expressionists working with clay recall Sodeisha with respect.

The group broadened the world of ceramics.

Highlighting the potential of this art form
for the world to see was a true feat.

Sodeisha was a free-spirited group,
with all sorts of people drifting in and out.

It was where
everyone could strive together.

They started by making anything
except functional vessels.

Kyoto is where people can continue
creating what they believe in.

Kyoto survived World War II,

and young ceramic artists steeped in centuries of tradition blazed a new path for themselves and others.

Core Kyoto traces the footsteps of those Sodeisha artists

who evolved in pace with the times in the ancient capital.

Sodeisha was founded in the Gojozaka neighborhood of Kyoto.

The area has been home to ceramic production in Kyoto since the 17th century.

Most Gojozaka potters followed a rational approach to creating ceramic vessels.

Artisans from around the area would transport their pieces from their workshops to the huge communal kilns.

There, they would pack them full and fire their pieces together.

This system was a Kyoto tradition.

Then in 1948, a mini revolution occurred.

Young artists dissatisfied with a tradition that insisted on the production of useful vessels

founded a new association - Sodeisha.

The name, meaning "crawling through mud," is a reference to a pattern found on old Chinese ceramics

that resembled earthworms slithering in mire.

The group originally had five founders, but two soon left.

The remaining three - Yagi Kazuo, Yamada Hikaru, and Suzuki Osamu - embarked on a nonconformist journey.

The studio where Yagi worked in his later years remains intact.

Yagi's son, Akira, continues his father's legacy.

Akira created 110 plates, with diameters spanning from 1mm to 11cm, each 1mm larger than the former.

He explores the possibilities of form in art using the potter's wheel.

Some of the ceramicists in Gojozaka
or Kyoto felt the young people -

were starting a new movement,
doing strange things.

I don't know if they even called
them artists in those days.

Even my grandfather heard others
describing this as distressing.

Before the launch of Sodeisha, most if not all Kyoto potters

engaged in the production of functional dishes and containers, as tradition dictated.

Sodeisha's three founders also conformed to the norm, while studying ancient Chinese and Korean ceramics.

I'm the son of
a ceramicist.

To me, ceramics was turning a
potter's wheel, then kneading vigorously.

I took over and carried on because
it was the family business.

But I was never passionate or excited
about the pieces I created.

Sodeisha experienced great turnover during its half-century of existence,

ultimately comprising 68 members, one of whom was Hayashi Yasuo.

He won the grand prize three times at international ceramic art exhibitions while affiliated with Sodeisha.

During World War II, Hayashi enlisted in the navy at age 15 and volunteered for the kamikaze squadron, prepared to die.

But the war ended before he could carry out his duties.

Upon returning to Kyoto, he helped with the family pottery business.

He was focused on gaining the skills to become independent when, one day, his father surprised him.

I worked with him in the confined studio, and
he told me to quit and follow my own interests.

A load was lifted from my shoulders.
I felt as light as a feather.

He said I could do whatever I liked.
I didn't have to carry on the family craft.

Wherever I looked, there were so many
amazing things out there to explore.

Western paintings, sculpture,
abstract paintings, abstract sculpture.

Discoveries just kept coming,
one after another. I was astounded.

Hayashi and some of his colleagues founded an association called Shikokai.

They avidly studied Western artistic concepts while experimenting with abstract art.

In 1948, the year Sodeisha was founded, Hayashi exhibited his abstract interpretations of the human form.

His prewar study of painting and limited experience producing ceramics emboldened him to create daring forms.

Meanwhile, Sodeisha's three founders were experiencing angst.

Deep-rooted traditional techniques hindered their work.

They felt compelled to include some kind of opening to maintain the image of a functional container.

They had injected fresh meaning into form, but they were unable to break free.

Resisting ingrained tradition was a challenge.

Then Yagi had a thought.

To move ahead, they needed to alter their frame of mind.

Yagi set aside the doctrine indicating that a potter's wheel exists to make containers.

This enabled him to use the wheel to produce parts for artistic creations.

In 1954, Yagi completed his new work, inspired by Franz Kafka's novella, Metamorphosis.

Mr. Samsa's Walk was introduced to the world as a ceramic objet d'art

created on the potter's wheel with no practical usage.

In the novella, Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a huge insect.

The ring-shaped body of Yagi's work has tubular antennae and legs, formed using the time-honored potter's wheel.

Abandoning restrictive doctrine freed Yagi to pursue art in his own way.

The same year, after considerable experimentation, Suzuki debuted his piece.

Yamada was inspired by the pair and created his own work.

The trio had broken free of the spell tying them to functional containers.

Before long, a brand-new type of pottery was born, with Sodeisha at its helm.

Soon referred to as "avant-garde," they attracted other avid artists, and Sodeisha began to grow.

Orange and pale violet glazes were applied repeatedly onto these piece before firing to create the bright red tone.

Their creator, ceramicist Yamada Akira, is the son of one of the Sodeisha founders, Yamada Hikaru.

He had closely observed his father struggle through the creation process.

Japanese, including ordinary people,
were totally familiar with versatile pots,

but they felt disdain toward objets d'art
as they seemed so strange.

He faced discord even within the family
regarding his creations.

There was conflict, often resulting
in him shouting after a few drinks.

I'd stay clear of him
when he'd been drinking.

Art alone could not feed a family, so Yamada began selling ceramics for daily use

which incorporated characteristics from Scandinavian design.

He was fulfilling his duties as head of the family while remaining active in Sodeisha.

Part of it was generational, I think.
They all started from nothing. Life wasn't easy.

They had to make up their
minds to just go for it.

He often said they took risks, throwing away
everything from the past to join Sodeisha.

In the summer of 2023, Kyoto's National Museum of Modern Art sponsored a retrospective exhibition focusing on Sodeisha.

The exhibition will visit other regions through September 2024.

The exhibition includes objets d'art created by 31 of the guild's members,

who strove together to explore the potential of ceramics.

A lone pioneer was not enough
to blaze a trail forward.

They needed the collective power
of many members as an association.

Combining their thoughts and strengths,
they lived a creative life and looked to the future.

Sodeisha held exhibitions in Kyoto and Tokyo annually, sharing new ceramic artworks with the world at large.

They expanded their sphere by participating in international shows, as well.

Japan held its first international ceramics exhibition in 1964.

The uninhibited forms made by overseas artists jolted and stimulated the Sodeisha members.

In 1979, Sodeisha traveled overseas as an avant-garde group.

Hoshino Satoru participated in Sodeisha for seven years.

He creates art by pressing his fingers into clay.

The ceramicist attributes his longevity at the forefront of art to Sodeisha.

Hoshino, who participated in the Kyoto student riots of the 1960s,

first became interested in becoming an artist when he was 26.

At the time, he had been floundering with no set purpose in life.

I was pretty down in those days.

Then I saw artwork by Yagi Kazuo and
was drawn to them. They stirred my soul.

Discovering someone making ceramic
objets had a huge impact on me.

That encounter convinced Hoshino to become a ceramicist.

He trained with a Gojozaka pottery studio, while learning to make artworks on his own.

In time, Yagi allowed him to join Sodeisha.

I never studied ceramics in college.
I began from scratch.

That was a tough thing to do
on your own.

I was eager to join Sodeisha so I could
study together with the others.

During his time at Sodeisha,

Hoshino was awarded a prize as an avant-garde artist in a prestigious ceramic exhibition.

By then, exhibitions included an avant-garde section

and objets d'art were recognized as an established genre within ceramics.

At the time, "objet d'art" was
just a trendy word.

We had no idea of how theory
applied to the concept of objet.

Some time has passed, so I would say that
objets have become an established form.

I'm not trying to make a
grand artistic statement.

I'm simply connecting
with the clay.

That process continued to develop
and has brought me to where I am today.

It was only later that they began using
the word "avant-garde" and all its complexity.

In 1971, Yagi was invited to be a professor at the Kyoto City University of Arts.

Objets d'art had become a recognized artistic form warranting academic study.

Akiyama Yo has never belonged to Sodeisha or any other group.

He chooses to work independently.

Akiyama explores never-before-seen forms based in ceramic methodology.

His 10-meter-long ceramic sculpture conveys the overwhelming sensation of Earth's energy.

In 1972, Akiyama entered the university where Yagi held a professorship.

While there, he visited a Sodeisha exhibition but he was unmoved.

Professor Yagi was one of the Sodeisha founders,
and I wondered what the group was about.

Everybody was talking about it,
including upperclassmen.

So I went, had a look, and was satisfied
that I now knew what it was all about.

But I didn't see anything
astonishingly new.

In those days, unaffiliated artists who worked alone produced ambitious works.

Sodeisha contributed by broadening the potential of ceramics to include objets d'art.

Equating pottery with the production of functional vessels had become a thing of the past.

Ceramics diversified with the years.

This form resembles an anime character who has leapt off the screen.

The works are forged using the same process of firing molded clay.

There is, however, some unique methodology involved.

The artist applies masking tape to the piece, then sprays it with a mixture of pigment and clay before firing.

The experiment affords a fresh look at the value of form and color

without the restrictive boundaries separating art and craftwork.

Creator Hinoda Takashi entered the Osaka University of Arts in 1987.

He studied under Yamada Hikaru, who still belonged to Sodeisha,

and Hayashi Yasuo, who had left the group by then to work solo.

I felt free to explore ceramics.

I felt these objets were teaching me
the true essence of ceramics.

Sodeisha was enormously well-known
and had become a part of history.

Hinoda continues his own creative work while teaching 3D modeling at an art university in Kyoto.

He encouraged his students to visit the recent Sodeisha exhibition in Kyoto.

When I set about
starting a new work -

I can see pieces by Sodeisha artists
in my mind and wonder -

if their efforts will underpin
my own artistic development.

Sodeisha was described as an avant-garde group of ceramicists.

Yet members did not fully reject tradition.

Yagi Kazuo utilized the classical technique of black pottery to create many of his own artworks,

as the low-temperature firing prevents the work from deforming,

producing a final product exactly as intended.

His son Akira's new items are in their final stages of production in the black pottery kiln his father had built.

He is firing pieces which are synonymous with his father's works.

Sam Chatto from the UK is onsite to lend a hand.

Chatto is a member of the British royal family and an aspiring ceramicist.

He traveled to Japan to study Yagi Kazuo's black pottery techniques under Akira.

The approach he takes to ceramics is a very good thing to aspire to.

He has the approach of a very great artist, so every work is imaginative, is different, is new.

So every time you look at the work, you're inspired.

I think that Kyoto has a history of being quite a cosmopolitan place with great tradition and culture,

so for Yagi Kazuo to build on that and to make work that can speak to the whole world is wonderful.

Chatto's work was fired alongside Akira's.

They were his first pieces of black pottery.

Upon his return to the UK, Chatto built this black pottery kiln in his garden.

The Kyoto ceramics industry has a history
of drawing people from everywhere -

people who want to try their
hand at something new.

Sodeisha's members were not only
from Kyoto, but from all over.

With its rich past, the area seems to attract artists,
especially those who want to experiment in clay.

Sodeisha was disbanded in 1998.

The revolution ended, but its legacy continues to shape a new world.