The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 49 No 3 November 2010

Focus : Architectural Ceramics
Ken Yonetani, Dead Sea, 2010, porcelain, glass, LED wave light, metal, table h.63cm; photo: Ian Hill
East Meets West
Karen Finch profiles artist Ken Yonetani
Ceramic artists in the West have long looked to Japan for inspiration, drawn by the marriage of
philosophy and creative practice. Bernard Leach set a precedent in his travels and study of the Japanese
way with clay that has been emulated by generations of Western potters in the ensuing years. Ken
Yonetani comes to contemporary ceramics from that Japanese tradition, having trained with a Master,
Toshio Kinjo, in Okinawa, prior to relocating and developing his practice in Australia.
Yonetani, following the other Japanese tradition of career development, trained initially in economics
and worked in Tokyo for three years at the foreign exchange market. Night classes in ceramics offered
him an opportunity to begin exploring his creative side, leading to him resigning from his job. He
travelled to Australia in 1999 with his Australian wife (whom he had met in Tokyo), spending twelve
months in Canberra and worked in various jobs to support himself. He was offered the chance to audit
the degree course in ceramics at the School of Art at the Australian National University; then his wife
Julia was awarded a three-year scholarship to study history and politics in Okinawa Japan, leading to
Yonetani searching for, and finding, a Master with whom to train in the Japanese tradition.
A Japanese ceramics apprenticeship is unlike any Western apprenticeship, and would ordinarily
mean years and years of menial tasks before the apprentice began to be able to learn to work the clay.
However, Yonetani's Master is Okinawan and also had health issues, which required that Yonetani learn
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