Satoshi SATO
LIVING WITH TEA - GLASS WORKS

The soul of glass,
Scooped from a fountain of fire at 1,300°C,
Burning at the end of a metal pole.

Dripping and stretching like falling raindrops,
Glowing red, then hardening like freezing water.

The sapience of glass.

Within moments the melted glass is hardening.
And in the middle of this brief time
Sato-san has been standing for 30 years.

An alchemist taming the forceful passions of the glass’s soul
as it seeks a moment of freedom before being given form.

“I am having fun and enjoying myself in the midst of this difficult work,”
Sato-san tells us, laughing.

This year’s New Tea Exhibition welcomes the glass artist Satoshi Sato.

Sato-san specializes in mouth-blown glass. The moment the heated glass is removed from the blast furnace, it starts to cool and harden rapidly.  To shape the glass without hesitation in this brief time frame requires extremely high levels of skill and experience.

Sato-san is thoroughly committed to the reliability and usefulness of the vessels and tools he produces. His shapes and forms have natural elegance. They let us feel the fortunate combination of his skilled hands – shaped by an overwhelming amount of work and experience – and his profound sense of beauty, nurtured by a deep knowledge of classical works.

For this show Sato-san has exclusively blown a wide range of utensils for Japanese and Chinese leaf tea and powdered tea. You will find tea squeezers for the infusion of tea, water coolers, tea bowls, tea cups and tea goblets, plates and compotes for sweets and flower vases – each made of handblown glass.

Please enjoy the tea leaves and water playing in the lucid transparency of glass – which in the end is nothing but melted sand.

佐藤聡 | Satoshi SATO
Born in Nagano, Japan, in 1965, he studied architecture and design and was involved in the design of residential architecture. Later he studied glass modeling at the Toyama Institute of Glass Art. After working at a stained-glass production company and a glass studio in Germany, he established his own glass blowing workshop in Kyoto in 2000. In November 2004 he opened his own glass store, “PONTE” Kyoto. In 2020 he moved his workshop to Yase near Kyoto, where he creates glass works inspired by the beautiful green mountain scenery.