Kahitsukan Rosanjin Kitaoji room

Among Rosanjin's capsule expressions of his view of art is the phrase "Around you are mentors and comrades."
The phrase means that everything around you - everything that exists in your living space - should be your teacher and friend.
Rosanjin stinted no effort and expenses in acquiring artistic products of the highest quality as a means of sharpening his sense of observation and appreciation. By always keeping such products closely around him and constantly using them, he succeeded in learning the secret of what made his predecessors' art tick. For Rosanjin, that apparently was the best way to train himself in the field of art.
Rosanjin's method should not be limited to the field of art alone. What you have around you in your everyday life has a great deal to do with your forming your attitude toward life. If you are surrounded by goods of superior quality, you will eventually come to learn what makes them great. In other words, things around you make what you are.

Most of those who personally knew Rosanjin in his lifetime accuse him of insufferable arrongance and insolence. The true worth of a man, however, is determined long after his death when the flesh steeped in all sorts of contradictions is no more and all the intervening impurities are washed clean.
The flesh called Rosanjin has long perished but a great number of works he left behind are an unerring witness to the fact that the artist, a rebel to the core, is an excellent example of that rare specie - "an orthodox heretic."

(Director, Kahitsukan - Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art)
(Translated by Atsuo Tsuruoka)

Camellia Bowl 1938
Bizen Flower Vase 1958	Bowl with Design of Two Fish in overglaze enamels 1935
Momoyama Type Bowls, lacquer on wood 1944
Iron Standing Lantern 1949

Biography
1883	Born on March 23 in the village of Kamigamo to the north of Kyoto. Real name Fusajiro Kitaoji.
1889	Registered as the adopted son of Takezo Fukuda, a woodblock carver. Enters Umeya Elementary School.
1893	Graduates from elementary school. Apprenticed to the Chisaka Pharmacy, which specializes in Chinese herbal medicines.
1899	Becomes a painter of the then-popular Western-style signboards; studies calligraphy.
1904	Submits a copy of the Thousand Character Classic to the calligraphy division of the prestigious Nitten Art Exhibition, and wins first Prize.
1907	Begins accepting calligraphy pupils under the name Otei Fukuda. Also supports himself by painting shop signs and doing commercial calligraphy.
1921	In April begins the Bishoku Club (Gourmet Club).
1925	Opens Hoshigaoka-saryo Restaurant.
1926	Has a kiln erected in the corner of a plot of land he is renting in Yamazaki, outside Kamakura.
1927	Establishes the Rosanjin Ceramic Art Institute.
1936	Is forced to leave Hoshigaoka-saryo and supports himself exclusively with his artwork. In September Toyozo Arakawa visits the kiln at Yamazaki.
1938	In June launches a bimonthly magazine Gabi Seikatsu(Life of Elegance and Beauty) with himself as editorial supervisor.
1942	Devotes himself exclusively to decorating and designing lacquer ware.
1945	Hoshigaoka-saryo burns to the ground in an air raid.
1946	Opens a ceramics shop called Kado Kado Bibo in Ginza, Tokyo.
1951	Exhibition of Modern Japanese Pottery at Musee Cernuschi in Paris held featuring pieces Rosanjin. American sculptor Isamu Noguchi and his wife Yoshiko Yamaguchi move in next door to Rosanjin in Yamazaki, and set up a studio there.
1954	Travels abroad, visiting the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, and Hong Kong. An exhibition is held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1955	Invited accept the designation Living National Treasure for his mastery of Oribe ware, but declines.
1959	Dies on December 24. His remains were buried at the temple Saiho-ji, Nishigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto.