Biography

Exhibitions

Selected Exhibition

2010
Invited International Exhibition of KCDA, Gallery AING, Soul, South Korea
2011
I-shi Prize Winner’s Exhibition, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
2013
Collect, London, UK (’14, ’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
2015
PAD, London, UK (’16, ’17)
2016
Masterpiece, London, UK (’18)

100 years of Arts and Crafts Seikado, Taichung, Taiwan
2017
Asia Week New York, New York, USA (’18, ’19, ’20)

Tresor, Basel, Switzerland
2018
LOEWE Craft Prize 2018, The Design Museum, London, UK

Meister der Moderne, Munich, Germany

Solo Exhibition, Tenmaya Art Gallery, Okayama, Japan
2019
Development of Contemporary Japanese Arts & Crafts, Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, Ishikawa, Japan

Tradition of Excellence, Chicago, USA/ North Carolina, USA

LOEWE Craft Prize -Finalists from East-, ESH Gallery, Milan, Italy
2020
Kōgei 2020 -The Art of Crafting Beauty from Nature-, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Japanese Wonder, Erskine Hall & Coe, London, UK

Solo Exhibition, Seikado Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
2021
Japan: A History of Style, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Highlights, Munich, Germany (’22, ’23)

Solo Exhibition, Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Salon Art + Design, New York, USA

Artefact, London, UK (’22, ’23)
2022
What Colour is Metal?, Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland

Art & Antique, Salzburg, Austria (’23)

Contemporary Metalwork -The metamorphosis of metals-, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan

Contemporary Chinese and Japanese Art, Cromwell Place, London, UK
2023
KOGEI Next 2023, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan

FAB Paris, Paris, France
2024
TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’25)

BRAFA, Brussels, Belgium

Homo Faber 2024 : The Journey of Life, Venice, Italy

Kogei Crossroads, Seiko House Ginza Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Awards

2003　Tokyo Metropolitan Governor’s Award, The 50th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
2008　Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Award, Traditional Crafts Japan Metalwork Exhibition
2011　Special Memorial Award, Traditional Crafts Japan Metalwork Exhibition
2012　Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education Award, Traditional Crafts Japan Metalwork Exhibition
2016　Grand Award, The 32th Tansuio Awards of the Sato Foundation
　　　 Asahi Newspaper Award, Traditional Crafts Japan Metalwork Exhibition
2018　Finalists, LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize

Public Collections

Victoria & Albert Museum, UK
The British Museum, UK
Ashmolean Museum, UK
Metropolitan Museum, USA
National Museum of Asian Art, USA
Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan
Machiko Hasegawa Museum, Japan
Hiroshima City University, Japan
Ise Foundation, Japan

佐故龍平 Ryuhei
Sako Ryuhei
Sako

Jupiter

H18.2 x W15 x D15 cm

Ryuhei
Sako

Profile

1976 Born in Okayama, Japan
1999 BFA Design and Applied Arts, Hiroshima City University
2002 MFA Design and Applied Arts, Hiroshima City University
2004 Official Member of the Japan Kōgei Association
Lives and Works in Okayama

01 Exhibitions More
02 Awards More
03 Public Collections More

About
the ArtistAbout
the Artist

For centuries, Japan and its people have cherished the allure of metal and the techniques to transform the material into objects of great beauty. The Edo Period witnessed the florescence of such metalworking techniques, with the peace brought about by the rule of the samurai class allowing for swords to not be merely lethal weapons of war, but artworks of adoration that were decorated with various paraphernalia that heightened and accentuated the beauty of the weapons themselves. The technique of mokume-gane, or “wood-grain metal”, also saw its origins as decorative sword fittings for the samurai katana blade, and is widely considered to have been invented in Japan in the 17th century by the master craftsman Denbei Shoami (1651-1728) of Akita Prefecture. Mokume-gane is essentially a style of patterned metal that is formed by hammering a multitude of differently-coloured precious metals into a single sheet, or billet, thereby creating wavy colours upon the surface of the metal that resembles the grains of wood, hence its name. The technique, however, is notoriously difficult to master and is incredibly time-consuming, and the art began to fall out of favour by craftsmen as the rule and prominence of the samurai classes faded into obscurity during the dawn of the Meiji Period. It is in this context that the talented Ryuhei Sako (b. 1976- ) has sprung forth as emblematic of a new generation of Japanese metal artists who have reinvigorated the traditions of old with bold forms and innovations that have taken the possibilities of metal to new horizons.

Sako hails from Okayama Prefecture, a locale that known for both the medieval traditions of Bizen pottery as well as a history of sword-making. He began his studies in metal at the Hiroshima City University, with the hope of learning to weld metal to become a mechanic. Sako’s life changed, however, when he stumbled across a mokume-gane vase by Living National Treasure Nobuo Tamagawa that had been exhibited at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art. Blown away by the beauty of Tamagawa’s mokume-gane, Sako was inspired to learn the techniques from scratch, and ever since, has heightened his technique into a stage where he is widely considered to be the leading artist in mokume-gane in his 40’s in Japan, collected by such leading museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, among others. Sako is unique in intentionally creating dramatic colour contrasts within and upon his metal surfaces, which is far more difficult to achieve as it requires extensive use of carving and an acute sense of layering metal. Coupled with an elegant sense of form and balance, Sako marks his TEFAF debut at Kanata’s Maastricht stand in 2024.

Sako’s oscillating mokume-gane vase for TEFAF Maastricht 2024, entitled Jupiter, is a tour de force in both technique and elegance. Sako first takes multiple sheets of various metals, in this case silver, copper, shakudo (a Japanese alloy featuring approx. 90% copper and 10% gold), shibuichi (75% copper with 25% silver), and black copper, and taking these metal sheets and literally “sandwiching” them together under extreme pressure and heat until they fuse into a single billet. The effectively layered slab of metal is then flattened and hammered into a flat sheet, and then hammer-raised and chiseled into a three-dimensional object. It is in the layering process wherein Sako is able to manipulate the metal so that great colour differences are accentuated within his metal, and it is his chiseling and carving away of the metal that gives birth to his uniquely undulating forms that give momentum to his metalwork, thereby creating riveting silhouettes and alluring colour patterns that captivate the viewer with but one glance.

WorksWorks

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