KONDŌ Takahiro

Kondō Takahiro is a leading contemporary ceramic artist celebrated for expanding the sometsuke blue-and-white porcelain tradition pioneered by his family. Raised in the studio of his grandfather, Living National Treasure Kondō Yūzō, he initially pursued a different path as a champion table-tennis player before turning to ceramics in his mid-twenties. After training at the Kyoto Ceramic Institute and later completing graduate work at Edinburgh College of Art, he quickly forged an independent artistic identity.

Kondō’s early adherence to classical sometsuke gave way to bold experimentation, incorporating metal and cast glass and culminating in his renowned “silver mist” glaze. Water, its physical forms and its metaphorical power, became his central theme, especially following the 2011 disasters in Japan, which deeply shaped his practice and activism. Based in his family’s Yamashina studio, Kondō has exhibited globally and received numerous honors, including the 2020 Kyoto Art and Culture Prize.