Abe Anjin

Abe Anjin was born in Osaka in 1938. He trained as a painter under Saburo Miyamoto before turning to ceramics in 1972. In 1986 he built his own kiln at Ushimado, in Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture, where he continues to work. Abe works within the Bizen ware tradition, researching historical Kobizen (old Bizen) techniques and developing them into a more colorful, contemporary form of Bizen pottery, alongside sculpture, lacquer, oil paint and bronze. He is regarded as one of the leading contemporary Bizen potters of his generation, spoken of alongside Bizen's Living National Treasures — an honor he does not himself hold. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Palace Museum in Taipei.