Toshisada Wakao (1933–) is a ceramic artist born in Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture, who has devoted himself to the art of Mino ware, particularly the Shino and Nezumi-Shino styles. He began creating pottery as a self-taught artist from a young age and, whilst meticulously studying shards from ancient kilns and Mino ware from the Momoyama period, continued to explore clays, glazes and firing methods that resonated with his own sensibilities. Whilst making the most of the soft white glaze of Shino and the subdued tones of Nezumi-Shino, he depicts flowers, plants and birds with a free-flowing grace on the surface of his vessels, superimposing a contemporary sensibility upon the atmosphere of ancient pottery. In 2003, he was designated a holder of the ‘Shino’ Important Intangible Cultural Property of Gifu Prefecture.

When viewing Toshisada Wakao’s works, one senses an air that is somehow serene and poetic, whilst inheriting the vigour of Momoyama pottery. Patterns emerge quietly from beneath the thick Shino glaze, whilst the variations in the clay’s texture and the hues produced by the firing blend naturally into the vessel’s overall appearance. To me, his pottery appears less as an attempt to recreate ancient Shino and more as an endeavour to nurture its beauty anew through the sensibilities of his own era. I believe its greatest charm lies in the way his many years of research and his own sensibilities are quietly revealed within its understated presence.