Future Masters: Contemporary Authority in Iga, Seto & Shigaraki brings together three ceramic artists who now stand as the principal voices within their respective kiln traditions. Takashi Tanimoto (Iga), Makoto Yamaguchi (Seto), and Katsunori Sawa (Shigaraki) belong to a generation for whom responsibility has quietly but decisively shifted. Each works within a lineage where knowledge, authority, and expectation have long been shaped through family and place, and each now carries that lineage forward with clarity, independence, and conviction.
 

In Iga, Seto, and Shigaraki—kiln cultures defined by continuity, material discipline, and deep regional identity—tradition is not abstract. It is learned through sustained physical practice, close observation, and years spent absorbing inherited understanding before one is ready to speak in one’s own voice. For these artists, that moment has arrived. They operate not in the shadow of precedent, but with the confidence of those entrusted to lead: fully aware of the weight they carry, and secure in their ability to do it justice.
 

This exhibition considers mastery as something already present rather than anticipated. Future Masters proposes that authority is revealed through judgment, restraint, and commitment over time. Tanimoto, Yamaguchi, and Sawa demonstrate how tradition can be held firmly yet flexibly—honoured through continuity, and renewed through individual insight—ensuring that Iga, Seto, and Shigaraki remain living, evolving ceramic cultures.
 

Howard Clegg
Director, The Stratford Gallery