I would like to say thank you to Geoff White owner of Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, for offering me the opportunity to show my small ceramic paintings. This is the first time that I have shown only paintings, without my ceramic objects. This show is celebrating my 80th birthday, as well as 60 years of my ceramics practice.

I was born in Osaka, Japan in 1946, a year after we lost World War II. Both my parents came from Kagawa Ken, in Shikoku. They were both from farming families – I had no connection with the art field. However, from the start of primary school I had always liked art class.

Although I liked art class, I was thinking of only doing my art practice on the weekend as a hobby. However, at the end of high school, I realised that I was not clever enough to study physics. So, as a result of many people’s recommendations, I decided to study art, but I didn’t know what kind of art I should study.

During learning classic French style charcoal drawing at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, I saw a wonderful ceramic exhibition upstairs. I was fascinated to see the quality of the works and diversity of the medium. I believed that ceramics was for just making plates, bowls, and vases. But what I saw at the exhibition challenged my preconceptions. You can draw or paint on the surfaces of the objects, and create huge sculptures, like free forms of clay with amazing colours from glazes.  

Oh! Maybe I should go this way; not only can I paint or sculpt but there are various ways of expression! Fascinating! 

When I was in Year 3 of senior high school, we were looking at the university directory trying to work out where we should apply. I was asking my friends to let me know if they could find the smallest department. One of them said, “Mitsuo, here is a place that takes only seven students a year!” That was the ceramics department at the Kyoto Municipal University of the Arts.

So, I asked him, “What shall I study?” He replied, “Making bowls, plates, and pots, I suppose?” I replied, “That does not sound very exciting!”