Soichiro MarutaSoichiro Maruta

Professor Maruta Soichiro continues to create pottery alongside his father, Professor Maruta Munehiko, at the prestigious Uchida Sarayama Kiln, a renowned producer of Karatsu ware. He pursues expression in porcelain with a different approach than his father and grandfather, and is establishing his own unique style. Here, we will introduce the personality of Professor Maruta Soichiro, the attention to detail in his work, and the appeal of his pottery.

A genealogy spanning three generations of the prestigious Maruta family

Mr. Maruta Soichiro was born as the eldest son of Mr. Maruta Munehiko, a representative artist of Karatsu ware. He currently works at Uchida Sarayama Kiln, where he helps his father with his pottery making every day, while also working on his own creations.

His grandfather, Professor Masami Maruta, was an artist who embodied the ideas of the Mingei Movement through Kuromuta ware, and was a pursuer of the "beauty of utility." In other words, Professor Soichiro has inherited the three contexts of Mingei, Karatsu, and modern times, while approaching pottery with his own aesthetic sense.

Karatsu white porcelain, carved, crushed, and refined by the craftsman himself

Soichiro Sensei is currently mainly working on porcelain pieces. Karatsu ware is generally known for its simple and powerful earthenware, but Soichiro Sensei has ventured into porcelain, exploring new forms of expression that blend with the climate of Karatsu.

Among these, the soft white porcelain works known as "Karatsu white porcelain" are particularly noteworthy. White porcelain is usually thought of as being hard and transparent, but Soichiro's white porcelain is fired in a wood-fired kiln, which gives it a fluctuating color, allowing the bleeding of the blue and white porcelain and the brushstrokes of the painting to softly emerge.

This expression has a richness of character reminiscent of old, early Imari and Joseon porcelain, and exudes a warmth and depth that is rare in modern porcelain.

The greatest feature of Soichiro's porcelain works is that he creates the materials himself. While many porcelain artists use Amakusa porcelain stone from Kumamoto Prefecture, Soichiro himself goes into the mountains to mine the porcelain stone that is the raw material for porcelain. He crushes the stone, refines it by hand, and turns it into clay.

This is extremely rare even in the contemporary ceramics world, and demonstrates a deep commitment to the materials and an attitude of pursuing beauty from the very beginning of craftsmanship.

Careful handiwork and wood-fired kiln firing

All of Soichiro's works are hand-painted with blue and white porcelain. While most commercially available blue and white porcelain is an industrially printed product, Soichiro's works are individually painted with a paintbrush and fired in a wood-fired kiln.

Because each piece of pottery fired in a wood-fired kiln differs depending on the way the fire hits it and the temperature, firing requires a high level of skill and experience. A major feature of Soichiro's work is that he turns this uncertainty into an appealing quality.

After graduating from art university, Soichiro trained under Koichi Uchida, one of Japan's most popular ceramic artists. Influenced by Uchida's free-thinking and modern aesthetic sense, Soichiro has developed a style that blends tradition and modernity.

Now and in the future

Currently, Soichiro-sensei assists his father, Munehiko Maruta, in most of his pottery production, while also actively creating his own works. His younger brother, Yu Maruta, also creates pottery in his own unique style, and our shop also hosts exhibitions by the father and son trio.

As he becomes independent and begins to pursue his own activities in earnest, we can expect to see his style evolve even more.