Ikkei NINJO
WOODEN ​WORKS

Four years have passed since our last exhibition with Ikkei Ninjo. During these years he started a family and built a house. “How would I like to live my life?” After a long period of continuous self-questioning, Ikkei now stands firm and his eyes are brightly looking into the future.

Ikkei-san grew up using the bowls and dishes made by his father Yoshikatsu Ninjo each day. Being the son of a famous craftsman, it is not easy to follow the footsteps of the father. His father’s works have been highly esteemed for their simple beauty and functionality. To us, it seems that Ikkei found his own footing by wholeheartedly accepting the grandeur of his father life’s work.

At first glance Ikkei’s bowls and dishes do not look so different from his father’s works. But over the past four years, he has made a couple of small changes. To improve the wood’s 10 year drying process, he decided to cut the lumber into the smaller blocks for the lathe at a much earlier point. In order to concentrate more, he decided to limit the variety of the shapes he makes mainly to soup and rice bowls and trays. And he started to apply four layers of urushi lacquer instead of three as his father did. Though the compass needle may show only a slightly change in direction, the future it leads to is unforeseeable.

“After the birth of my daughter, I started to look at my father with different eyes. I felt the need to find my own particular way of following his footsteps and his work. To become a good father, I had to clarify my relationship with my father,” Ikkei tells us laughing. It is this kind of self confidence that we can feel in Ikkei-san’s new works, like a young tree starting to grow deep roots while sprouting many new branches.

The exhibition presents a line up of Ikkei-san’s new bowls and dishes that can be used for a lifetime. A limited number of his father’s trays and large bowls will be also on display. We are looking forward to seeing you.

photo（workshop）：Yusuke NISHIBE

仁城逸景｜IKKEI NINJO
Born in Kurashiki City in 1986. After graduating from high school he began helping his father, Yoshikatsu Ninjo, in his workshop. After some years assisting his father, he decided to continue in the workshop and produce wooden vessels of his own.